In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to make a Premiere Pro double exposure effect for your video projects. Double exposure is a really cool effect that superimposes two exposures to create a single image. A great example of multiple exposures is the opening title sequence for the True Detective series created by Antibody. So, let’s go over how to edit this for your own creative content!
Summary
How to Create a Double Exposure Video in Premiere Pro
Step 1: Shooting Your Footage
Your double exposure video begins before your edits in Premiere Pro — it starts while you’re shooting your footage. To create this effect, you are going to need two pieces of footage: a bottom clip and a top clip.
Essentially, your bottom clip will be the canvas of sorts that your top clip will be superimposed onto. When you’re shooting your bottom clip, it’s essential that you have your subject or object surrounded by white, the purest white you can possibly get. You can do this a number of ways, but some examples include having a white backdrop or by shooting your subject against an overexposed sky.
You can also search for stock video clips that fit the bill instead of shooting your own footage.
Step 2: Drop Your Clips into Premiere
Once you’ve shot your clips, it’s time to put them into Premiere Pro. The clip of your subject should be placed on the bottom of your timeline, with the clip that you want to be superimposed on top.
Once you’ve placed your clips, go to the Effects Controls panel, choose Opacity Settings and select Blending Option > Screen.
You’ll notice now that your effect is starting to take form. But it will also become evident why you need the background of your canvas clip to be as white as possible. The dark elements in the base footage of your subject will more clearly show the elements of your top clip, and anything pure while will simply stay white to ensure it’s shown through.
Step 3: Managing the Background
If you happened to have a clip with a less-than-pure-white background, you’d need to figure out a way to make the background of the clip more bright and white without ruining the look of the subject.
Take your bottom clip of your subject and go to Lumetri Color Options. Here you can play around with things like Exposure, Contrast, Curves, and Saturation to create a color scheme that works best for your double exposure.
You’ll notice that increasing the exposure gets rid of the background spill — keep playing around with different parameters until you achieve the look you want. You can do the same for the top clip to stylize it to the desired designs.
Step 4: Customize the Effect
Other adjustments you make when it comes to using double exposure are a matter of preference. We will say that this effect tends to create a dreamy and surreal feel, so if that’s not what you’re looking for, here’s a suggestion.
To stay consistent with the rest of your footage, you can do so by shooting in a higher frame rate so that you can make it slow motion later on. You could also drop different color presets to elevate the effect. Here are some of our favorite LUTs you can download for free!
And there you have it! Creating a double exposure in Premiere Pro CC is incredibly easy to achieve, it shows off your creativity, and is beautiful to watch on screen. This unique effect will help stylize and elevate your video projects to new heights. We can’t wait to see what creative edits you come up with!
