Mike DelGaudio

Picasa, the photo editing software from Google has a little-known feature that allows your to create a multiple exposure effect using 2 or more photos. If you don’t have Picasa, you should

Multiple exposure has a long creative history in film cameras. On a film camera you expose the same frame more than one time — in other words, take a picture, then take another without advancing the film.

In the digital world, most cameras don’t allow for multiple exposures inside the camera. You need to put them together outside the camera, on your computer.

Luckily, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or other software in order to explore this creative way of mixing photos. Let’s see how to create a Picasa Multi-Exposure

Here is a sample multi-exposure:

Here are the two files that were mixed together into one image:

Lets see how we can get this effect in Picasa photo-editing software.

First, select two or more photos from your Picasa Photo Library. Hold down the CRTL key to select more than one photo.

Then, click the “Create” menu, and select “Picture Collage”

The Make Collage Window will appear. From the “Type” pull down list, select “Multi Exposure”

In the area above the Type list, you’ll see a preview of the image you are creating. If you are satisfied, click “Create” and Picasa will create the image, and add it to your library.

Depending on how many images you have selected to superimpose on each other it may take a few minutes to create.

Once the image has been created you may need to adjust the Brightness and Contrast of the image. See my Tutorial for correcting images using the Histogram for more.

Here is the final image as a result of Picasa’s Multi-Exposure:

See how other people are using this effect in the Picasa Multi-Exposure Group on Flickr.

Pretty cool, huh? If you liked this tutorial or found it helpful, please share it with others by adding it to your favorite social bookmarking software, or digging it.