Sometimes an “ugly” barren tree can be so much more. We were hiking with friends and I was so taken with the sculptural shape of a tree without leaves, I opted not to hike to the viewpoint and stopped short so I could spend 30 glorious minutes shooting in-camera multiple exposures. As I turned my camera upside down and at odd angles, some of the other hikers walked by me with confused and concerned looks on their faces.

This series of images was taken on an infrared camera. I converted an old Fuji and usually carry this body with me in addition to my color camera.

One technique is to change the angle of the camera with each exposure. I often start with a clockwise rotation and four exposures. Think of making a box – right side up, turn 90 degrees for portrait orientation, turn 90 degrees for upside down, turn 90 degrees for opposite orientation. Then I introduce different wacky angles.

The key is choosing the right “blend mode”. My camera has 4 in the Multiple Exposure setting. I usually try both Light and Dark. Here are the individual captures before they were combined for an in-camera multiple exposure.

Now the in-camera multiple exposure

I modified this image in Lightroom to adjust the white balance which is needed for infrared images. I reset the white point. Lastly I adjusted basic values and temperature.

My last step was to take the image into Photoshop and continue altering the color and blending with a texture.

I made over 100 images of this tree and kept 35. When I was done processing, I had less than 10.

Sometimes I don’t have my “big” camera with me, just a point and shoot. Unfortunately, it does not have the functionality for in camera multiple exposures. It is still possible to create them in post. There are more blend mode options to choose from, but I do find it harder to visualize the composite image. Here is another tree I found on a walk in Colorado. I took three images of it and combined them in post.

The final result.