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