double exposure

American  

noun

Photography.

1. the act of exposing the same film, frame, plate, etc., twice.

2. the picture resulting from such exposure.

---

double exposure British  

noun

1. the act or process of recording two superimposed images on a photographic medium, usually done intentionally to produce a special effect

2. the photograph resulting from such an act

---

Etymology

Origin of double exposure

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

double exposure

Since his career began, Kelly had been pushing cine-dance forward, directing his first sequence and experimenting with double exposure in the “Alter Ego” dance for the 1944 film “Cover Girl.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

One is a double exposure depicting the front and side of her face.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026

"For Europe it's double exposure: exposure to what America might do and then what China will do in response."

From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2025

In one, from 1979, titled “James Baldwin in Setting Sun Over Harlem,” Smith, using double exposure, overlays very faintly a photo she took of Baldwin onto a skyscape of light-shot dark clouds.

From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2023

In one sent me by a gentleman resident at Finsbury Park, which is a very impressive specimen of its kind, the fact of a double exposure is obvious to the least experienced in dark-room matters.

From Occultism and Common-Sense by Beckles Willson