Sandwich Technique

Some years ago I learned a lab technique known as “sandwich” or “sandwiching”, that involves, to say it succintctly, putting a negative on top of another on the enlarger, so you combine two or more images in one photograph.

It is a very old photomontage technique, it goes back to 1857, when a famous swedish photographer and painter, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, exhibited a great work using this technique. There were some purists that didn’t like it, to whom he replied: “I use any technique as a tool that helps me create and improve my works”. (A very good answer in my opinion)

I don’t want to spend too much time with the detailes and many possibilities this technique offers, just share with you that nowadays this process can be used on the scanner, it is another way of creating double or triple exposures (I recommend using the Lomo Digitaliza scanning mask to do it). You can combine antique and new negatives; black and white and colour; a whole array of possibilities to play. I must warn you, it’s important that you keep the density of the originals in mind, because it doesn’t always come out right.

I’m showing you next some examples I have made. It’s photographs where I hadn’t liked the result, I found them bland, however, after combining them with the sandwich technique on the scanner so they wouldn’t be wasted, I liked the outcome.

written by escudero on 2011-08-18 #gear #tutorials #tipster #sandwich #technique #doubles #escudero