Amateur Photographer - UK (2021-03-06)

30 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

FOLLOWERS OF FILM

what you see is from ambient

light – I don’t take lights on a

shoot. I look out for coloured lights

in the street and in shops that I can

use. There’s not much planning

either. I just take a friend, a few beers

and walk around for a while. If I find

some nice light we stop to see what

we can get.’

Louis likes to create his double

exposures in-camera which requires

first shooting the portrait and then

shooting a second frame of the

environment directly on top of it.

Sometimes he can find the second

shot straight away in the same

location, but when he can’t he uses

up to six cameras to take six portrait

shots of his subject and makes notes

about what is in the frame. Then he

heads off to find environmental

shots that he can record over the

originals. It all sounds very

complicated, but he has a simple

system to make sure things work out

well. ‘I try to keep the main portrait

subject in the middle of the frame so

I always know where it will be when

I’m framing up the second

exposures. This way I can make sure

the elements in the second shot

allow the portrait to show through

clearly, or so they interact with the

portrait in an interesting way. I also

have a folder of single frames on my

computer that I sometimes use to

match up with other single frames to

create new double exposures, but

these make up a very small

percentage of my work.’

Louis has been extremely

successful with his double exposure

personal work and has a gigantic

following on social media. His style

and creativity attracts commercial

clients and gets him paid projects.

‘Whether I’m shooting personal

pictures or commercial work I

operate in the same style. With

personal work the moments come

naturally but in commercial work

obviously I have to recreate those

moments. I still want to explore my

individual style, so won’t shoot the

way everyone else is just to make

money. I need to be proud of the

photos I shoot. Commercial work is

also shot digitally as you need more

of a margin for error, but most of my

personal work is on film – though I

also shoot digitally when I’m broke.

‘Clients don’t usually want double

exposures for their advertising as

they are a bit too arty for selling a

brand, but they like the style so

come to me for that. I do manage to

PNE, Vancouver,

Spring 2018,

Nikon F2,

Portra 400

Judianne,

Vancouver,

Summer 2018,

Sony A6300