I have been playing with double exposures as part of my personal 365 journey (#shakeitout2014) using the hipstamatic app. A few weeks ago, while perusing Instagram, I spotted a most haunting double exposure. I scanned the hashtags quickly, and  clicked on the #DianaPhotoApp. I was taken to a beautiful gallery of double exposed images.  I then headed over to iTunes to download the app for myself.

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Cara and Rosie, walking on water.

Diana mixes a little bit of chance with a whole lot of control, at least when you are used to shooting a double x using Hipstamatic.  There are actually two or three ways to create your double exposure. If you are feeling adventurous, shake the iPhone while in app and it will randomly pick two of the images stored within your camera roll to layer.

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Wonderland

From there, you can adjust the filter and also the order of the images switching around which one is on top of the other. If you want a bit more control you have the ability to take a picture within the application. And for even more control, you can have the ghosting turned on while shooting and turn the forward facing camera on too, which gives the ability to line up the two images exactly as you wish—something that feels a bit like cheating, but gives some really amazing end results.

I mentioned there were filters for adjusting the resulting image.  I definitely have my favorites of the 20+ available.  Some seem overbearing and too much for a double exposed image, others give way to the subtle layering that I like.

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Point Of View – Titlow Beach

I like that you can rotate either of the chosen images around, but wish I could shift it while choosing the filter in order to line up everything just right. I also wish there was a transpose button so I could flip the image(s) mirror style to get the two photos to line up just right.

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Fifi in Spring

On the downside, if you don’t want the (very large) watermark advertising the app leaves on your end product, you will have to purchase the app. I asked fellow Muse, Jenny, to test things out for me in Android. It appears the full paid version isn’t out yet. A bit of a bummer since I always feel a little bad about discovering a new photo toy that you non- iPhonographers can’t enjoy as well.

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Jenny’s Double Exposure

All in all, Diana is a fun app. I think a few minor updates would make it even better, but as it’s a fairly new app I have my fingers crossed that these issues will be addressed in future versions.

Have you played with Diana? I would love to see your results. Share links in the comments so we can click over and see!

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Two different overlays,

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same dreamy quality

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Merci

 Keep chasing that light – Vanessa