🎬 Oscars 2022: a Notion Template

Leonardo Mascaro February 10, 2022

After the great feedback I got last year, I’m back with the 2022 version of my popular Oscars Tracker Notion Template, following the announcement of all the nominees this week:

get the oscars 2022 notion tracker

Even though I'm calling this a template, since anyone can duplicate it into your own Notion system, this works more as a guide than a template, since all the content is already there ready to be used.

I've been using Notion for a while now to track all my content consumption, like movies I've watched, tv-series I'm currently watching, books I'm reading or want to read, music I want to listen to, even video games I'm playing. Especially now having a weekly newsletter where I share music recommendations (learn more about it), it's very important for me to have all this content centered in one place.

So here are a few screenshots explaining the basics of the template.

« 1 » This is the home page, where you'll get a quick explanation of how the system works, and links to the specific pages for the different pages:

« 2 » When you click on "Nominees", you'll access the database with all the films nominated in all the categories, organized alphabetically by title. Here you're able to quickly mark a film as "watched" and give a rating from 1 to 5 stars:

« 3 » Each film is its own clickable page where you can go a little further, adding a date when you watched (optional), watch the trailer, find a link to learn more about the specific film, as well as a dedicated space for you to write down a few personal comments:

« 4 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Watchlist" will bring you to a side-by-side view for a quick glance of the films that you've already seen and what's still on your watchlist. Once you mark a film as "watched", it automatically moves to the proper column, changing its view to the film poster instead of just the title:

« 5 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Favorites" you can access a separate page with all your Favorite Films, which means the ones that you rated as 3 stars or more. That way you can look back and remember your favorite films from the award season!

« 6 » And finally, as a bonus, I created a “Ballot” page, where you can simply mark your bets for the films you think will win and you want to win on each category, so you get ready to enjoy the big night!

If you download and use this template, please share your thoughts and any feedback with me through the comments section below, on Twitter, or by sending me an email.

And if you love music, like me, consider subscribing to Shuffle Sundays, my weekly Newsletter with personal recommendations to help you find your next obsession. All directly to your inbox for you to consume at your own pace. Click here to learn more!

🎞 Oscars 2021: a Notion Template

Leonardo Mascaro March 17, 2021

After the great feedback I had on the template I created to keep track of all the Golden Globes nominees, I got excited to work on a similar page, this time focused on the Oscars 2021:

get the 0scars 2021 notion template

I've been using Notion for a while now to track all my content consumption, like movies I've watched, tv-series I'm currently watching, books I'm reading or want to read, music I want to listen to, even video games I'm playing. Especially now having a weekly newsletter where I share recommendations (learn more about it), it's very important for me to have all this content centered in one place.

So here are a few screenshots explaining the basics of the template.

« 1 » This is the home page, where you'll get a quick explanation of how the system works, and links to the specific pages for the different pages:

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 10.19.33 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 10.24.18 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 10.26.59 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 10.17.55 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 10.19.01 AM.png

« 6 » And finally, as a bonus, I created a “Ballot” page, where you can simply mark your bets for the films you think will will on each category, so you get ready to enjoy the big night!

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 10.19.41 AM.png

If you download and use this template, please share your thoughts and any feedback with me through the comments section below, on Twitter, or by sending me an email.

If you love movies, like me, consider subscribing to Shuffle Sundays, my weekly Newsletter with personal recommendations of things to watch, read, listen to, and even play. All directly to your inbox for you to consume at your own pace. Click here to learn more!

This is a labor of love (for Movies and for Notion), but you can always Buy Me A Coffee if you want to support my work 🤗

How to Build Good Habits, or Stop Bad Ones

Leonardo Mascaro February 12, 2021

Last Monday (2/8) I had the opportunity to host an event at Ness Labs, as part of the CreatorSpark accelerator, and chose “Building Good Habits” and the main theme. The idea was to share some tips and tricks on Building Better Habits, combining with some of my personal experience over the past year on doing so. I am not an expert on the subject by any means, but thought that by sharing this, I may spark an interest and maybe help you find ideas to implement in your own life.

Disclaimer: most of the ideas you’ll see here were inspired by reading the book Tiny Habits (which I did early on in the pandemic), and can probably been seen in other well-known book like Atomic Habits and The Power of Habit.

Choosing Your Habits:

When it comes to starting a new habit, there are some questions that I always like to ask myself:

WHAT is the habit you want to start?
WHY do you want to do this?
WHEN do you intend to do it?
HOW are you going to do it?
what is the FREQUENCY of this habit?
What is the AMOUNT?
Which AREA of your LIFE does it relate to?

You don’t have to necessarily answer every single of these questions, of course, but I highly recommend you to do so. And Be as specific, detailed, and intentional as possible. By doing so, you will have a resource to go back and remember why did you want to start this in the first place. And if you already have a few habits going on in your life, I also recommend you to stop and try to answer these same questions. It can be an interesting way to make sure they still make sense to you.

Here’s how one of my own habits look like, as an example:

» WHAT: Meditation

» WHY: to be more mindful and less anxious

» FREQUENCY: daily

» HOW: using the breathing app on the Apple Watch

» AMOUNT: 5 minutes

» WHEN: 1x in the morning and 1x in the evening

» AREA of LIFE: health

To give you some more ideas, here’s how I organize the information of my current habits in a Notion database:

Screen Shot 2021-02-03 at 2.29.04 PM.png

When starting a NEW habit:

Brainstorm as many different ways as you can do that specific activity;
Think about which one(s) makes more sense to your current lifestyle;
Which one is so easy that you could try and start right now?
What is the tiniest amount that you can do every day, that will still make you feel accomplished, especially in the long run?
Always be realistic and honest with yourself!

Sticking to your Habits:

In order to make new habits stick, one of the most important things is to make sure that whatever you are trying to start makes sense to you and your lifestyle. Reading about other people’s habits can be very inspiring, but waking up every morning at 5:30 and starting the day with exercising may just not be for you.

If you are not convinced that a specific new habit will be good for you, think about it as a 30-day challenge! Or whatever duration you feel comfortable with, in this case. It’s a great way to try something new and reflect on it at the end of the challenge.

But again, always start small! Or tiny, in this case. And look for as many different (and interesting) ways of doing it.

→ Real-life example #1: Exercising

Before the pandemic, I used to have a pretty active life walking (and biking) around NYC almost every day. But quarantine forced me to isolate myself and I knew I would have to find ways to keep exercising on a regular basis. Since that was never the most appealing thing for me to do, I decided to look for different ways to do so and keep things always fresh by alternating activities. I started by using different 7-minute workout videos on YouTube, then introduced long walks outdoor (when the weather was getting warmer), then got back to playing ping-pong a couple of times a week, and lately I’ve been using the RingFit Adventure game (on Switch), as a way to keep things back indoor, but still having some kind of fun with it.

The bottom line is: even though “exercising” is a daily habit, the type of activity I’m doing is constantly changing!

→ Real-life example #2: Reading

I’ve never considered myself an avid reader, but the last time I’ve read this much was probably when I was in college, preparing for my final thesis. Here are a few things that helped me being consistent with my reading habit:

Diversify the content that you are reading. Try to alternate genres, styles, subjects.
Mix and match books with articles! In my case, I try to read books at night and articles in the morning.
If you prefer to read physical books, always have a small pile of books in your nightstand (or next to your favorite reading spot), to keep you interested and make it easier for you to remember to pick up the book and read.
If you prefer reading digitally, make sure you have a reading list that is always updated and easy to access, knowing that you’ll always have a new book to start as soon as you finish the current one.
Track your reading progress, to keep you motivated to finish the books you start.
But at the same time, don’t forget that you don’t have to finish every single book that you start! If it’s not resonating with you, just forget about it and switch to something else. Unless you absolutely have to read it for school or work, of course.

Bonus tip: if you like to read e-books, the app Libby will be a game-changer (if available in your location), trust me!

Tracking your Habits:

This can be a great way to keep you motivated, especially until the new habit really becomes part of your routine. Here are 3 ways to do so:

Using an app on your Phone, Tablet, Computer, or Watch. Two apps that I recommend are Streaks, my ultimate favorite app to track my habits in a simple and intuitive way, and Habitica, if you are into RPGs and especially if you have a friend or two looking to build new habits with you!
Adding them into your existing system. Whether you use an app like Notion or Roam, a task manager like Things 3, a spreadsheet, or even a physical journal, this could be especially helpful if you don’t want to introduce yet another app in your life.
Using a wall calendar. This can be great if you are looking for visual cues in your environment, to hold yourself accountable and be reminded in the physical space too. A few interesting resources if you are going the calendar route:

I love this template by Austin Kleon!
The 2 Day Rule, as seen in this video by Matt D’Avella;
Using a physical journal, as seen in this video by Thomas Frank.

Bonus: you can always mix and match all of these, of course! In my case, I track all of my habits using Streaks, but have some of them repeated in my Notion system, as well as a calendar in my fridge to keep track of my workouts.

All of that to say that you should do as much as you can to make the new habits more obvious to you in your life and your environment, both physical and digital. Here’s a screenshot of my iPhone homepage, for example, where every single time I unlock my phone, I see a widget with the progress of my daily habits at any single time of the day:

Stopping a BAD habit:

When it comes to trying to stop bad habits, I always go back to some of the same questions I proposed at the beginning of this post:

WHAT is the habit you want to stop?
WHY do you want to stop it?
FREQUENCY: are you wanting to slow down or stopping completely?
HOW are you going to do it?

The trick is (again) to be very specific and intentional about it. Here are some ideas worth exploring, taking from the book Tiny Habits:

Write down a habit that you’d like to stop. Be specific!
Think of ways you might remove (or avoid) the prompt to do so;
Think of ways to make it hard to do it;
Think of ways to reduce your motivation to do so;
Select your best ideas from steps 2, 3, and 4.
Experiment!

Reflecting

Whether you are working on starting new habits, or stop bad ones, reflecting is the best way to check-in with yourself. So at least once a month, try to slow down and ask yourself these questions:

What’s working? What’s not working?
Are these habits still making sense in your life?
Can you make any adjustments moving forward?
Is there room to add a new habit?
Any habits to try and stop?

Don’t force a new habit just because other people do it if it doesn’t make sense to your current lifestyle!

And last, but not least: don’t forget that there’s still a pandemic happening outside, so be kind to yourself! 🤗

Golden Globes 2021: a Notion Template

Leonardo Mascaro February 10, 2021

I've been wanting to write about Notion for a long time, but I never thought that my first time mentioning the app was going to be by sharing one of my own templates! So without further ado, click on the link below to download the template for free!

Get the Golden Globes 2021 Notion Template

I've been using Notion for a while now to track all my content consumption, like movies I've watched, tv-series I'm currently watching, books I'm reading or want to read, music I'm want to listen to, even video games I'm playing. Especially now having a weekly newsletter where I share recommendations (learn more about it), it's very important for me to have all this content centered in one place.

A few days ago I had an idea to build a page (and database) containing all the films and tv series nominated for the 2021 Golden Globes, and after, in a way that it was easy for me to not only filter through the different categories, but also have an easy way to track which of those movies (or series) I had already seen and what was still on my watchlist.

As I started to put all the work in, I got so excited with what that simple idea was turning into, that I knew I had to share it with more people, after all, I couldn't be the only person excited about Notion and Movies with the same intensity, right?

So here are a few screenshots explaining the basics of the template.

« 1 » This is the home page, where you'll get a quick explanation of how the system works, and links to the specific pages for Film and TV Series:

Screen Shot 2021-02-10 at 3.23.48 PM.png

« 2 » When you click on "Film Nominees", you'll access the database with all the films nominated in all the categories, organized alphabetically by title. Here you're able to quickly mark a film as "watched" and give a rating from 1 to 5 stars:

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« 4 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Film Watchlist" will bring you to a side by side view for a quick glance of the films that you've already seen and what's still on your watchlist. Once you mark a film as "watched", it automatically moves to the proper column, changing its view to the film poster instead of just the title:

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« 5 » And finally, as a bonus, you can access a separate page will all your Favorite Films, which means the ones that you rated as 3 stars or more. That way you can look back and remember your favorite films from the award season!

Screen Shot 2021-02-10 at 3.26.15 PM.png

All of the pages under TV Series works exactly the same, but with related content to the TV categories.

If you download and use this template, please share your thoughts and any feedback with me through the comments section below, on Twitter, or by sending me an email.

This is a labor of love (for Movies and for Notion), but you can always Buy Me A Coffee if you want to support my work 🤗

A Quick Guide to Long-Exposure Photography

Leonardo Mascaro August 20, 2020

The Long Exposure is a very popular Photographic technique vastly explored especially by Landscape and Architectural Photographers, but that can be utilized in many other situations as well. By definition, “a long-exposure (or slow-shutter photography) involves using long-duration shutter speed to sharply capture the stationary elements of images while blurring, smearing, or obscuring the moving elements. Long-exposure photography captures one element that conventional photography does not: an extended period of time.”

Basic Camera Settings:

On a Long Exposure photograph, the most important camera setting is your shutter speed, and that is the first thing you should worry about. There’s not an exact number that characterizes a “long exposure”, so that number will change accordingly with the scene you’re photographing and the results you are trying to achieve. If you want to do a panning holding the camera with your hands, 1/15th may do it, but if you are photographing a landscape and want the clouds to blur out, you will want to put the camera on a tripod and expect to let it open for a few seconds, at least. So once you figure out the shutter speed, the other two elements (aperture and ISO) will adapt accordingly. You will probably want to keep your ISO as low as possible, to avoid noise, and the aperture will vary depending on the lens you are using and which part of the scene you want in focus. But remember that every time you change one element, you must adjust the other two to keep your exposure balanced. In order to have full control of all the elements individually, you will want to be shooting in manual mode.

Here’s an image that perfectly illustrates how different shutter speeds can affect the same subject or scene:

The Classic Look:

The sunset (and beyond) is probably the preferred time of the day for Photographers attempting to do long exposures, the reason I like to call this “The Classic Look”. That’s when you normally see the clouds moving, the water looking very silky, and sometimes a light trail here and there:

© Leonardo Mascaro • Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mm (13s / f 22 / ISO 100)

© Leonardo Mascaro • Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mm (60s / f 22 / ISO 100)

Here is another example captured at night, but notice how much faster the shutter speed was, compared to the other images. That’s because bridges are structures that move a lot without us realizing, so a much longer exposure would end up being shaky. In this case, there’s nothing moving on the images, but a longer exposure helped me to capture more light keeping the ISO pretty low and avoiding noise in the photograph:

© Leonardo Mascaro • Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mm (1s / f4 / ISO 200)

© Leonardo Mascaro • Canon 6D + Canon 16/35mm (3.2s / f 5.6 / ISO 100)

Zooming In and Out:

For this series, I used the technique of zooming the lens in or out, while the shutter remains open, but in this case, I was holding the camera with my hands and had a much faster shutter speed. Because I couldn’t use a much longer shutter speed, I had to use a wider aperture and much higher ISO, to keep the exposure balanced:

© Leonardo Mascaro • Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mm (1/30 / f 2.8 / ISO 800)

Here are two very different shots taken with the same camera settings from the exact same spot. I always like to show these two together as an example of how the exact same scene, with the exact same camera settings, can offer you such diverse results. It’s all a matter of being creative and trying different things:

© Leonardo Mascaro • Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 (10s / f 16 / ISO 200)

Double Exposures:

By now you probably know how much I love Double Exposures, right? So, of course, I’ll take the opportunity to use it anywhere I can. Here are two examples combining Long Exposures with Double Exposures, in the first case blurring the second shot, and in the second image zooming out during the second shot:

© Leonardo Mascaro • Canon 6D + Canon 16/35mm (30s / f 22 / ISO 100) — © Leonardo Mascaro • Canon 6D + Canon EF 70-200 2.8 (30s / f 22 / ISO 100)

© Leonardo Mascaro • Canon 6D + Canon 16-35mm (1s / f 22 / ISO 100)

Light Painting:

This is my first and only attempt of doing “light painting”, which consists of using handheld lights to paint and/or draw in a scene while the shutter of a camera is left open during a long exposure. Back then I didn’t have a remote control or an app on my phone to control the settings, so the longest I could keep my shutter open was 1 second, which was enough to capture some of the action in a decent way.

© Leonardo Mascaro • (1s / f 4.5 / ISO 100)

Infra-Red:

These next two shots were taken using an effect called Infrared, which it’s basically the ability of your camera to see light in a much longer range than our eyes can see. This can be obtained by using infrared film, infrared filters (attached to digital cameras), or by converting the sensor of a camera to be always seeing light like this. These were taken using an infrared filter in front of the lens, and because the filter cuts all the usual lighting, you are forced to do very long exposures to be able to capture enough lighting passing through the sensor. The final results are timeless black and white images, or the more dreamy ones, sometimes referred to as “false-color”:

© Leonardo Mascaro • Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mm (30s / f 11 / ISO 200) with an infrared filter.

You can see more examples of Infra-Red Photography by clicking here.

Photography Gear:

So here’s the basic gear that you’ll need to get started with Long Exposures:

A Camera that allows you to control the settings manually. This is the camera that I currently shoot with.
A Tripod, to keep your camera steady. You want every still object to remain still, and all the moving parts to be captured moving. This is the tripod that I currently use. Not the strongest or tallest one, but it gets very compact and light, perfect to carry around and bring with you when traveling. Make sure you get a tripod that will properly hold the weight of your camera + lens combo.
A Remote Control / a remote trigger / or even an app on your phone that can control your camera. Anything that you can use to avoid you having to press the shutter because even that can cause the camera to shake and ruin your picture. If you don’t have access to a remote or an app on your phone, you should at least use the timer on your camera to delay the shutter to go off a few seconds after you press the button.
A Neutral Density filter, known as “ND" - these are used to reduce the amount of light that gets to the camera, allowing you to do long exposures in bright sunny days. Think of it as putting sunglasses in front of your lens.
An Infra-Red filter, if you plan to experiment with that, this is what I use. Make sure to double-check the size of your lens before buying.
And a lot of Patience! Just imagine that you may be spending a couple of hours on the same spot, trying to nail the shot by repeating various long exposures until you get the perfect one.

Final Thoughts & Inspiration:

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced, a hobbyist or a professional, Long Exposures are still a great way to practice Photography and learn (even) more about your camera, as it constantly makes you think about all the different settings and forces you to slow down and think about all the aspects of your image. To finish things off, here are a few of the Photographers that inspire me every time I think about Long Exposures:

Bryan Minear, who has a very classic look but with GORGEOUS color processing, which I’m very attracted to.
Clive Carpenter, proving that you don’t always need a breathtaking landscape or intriguing architecture to create interesting long exposures.
Susan Magnano, who does incredible light paining on landscapes and urban environment;
Marc Koegel, with a dramatic black and white look, achieved a lot by very intense post-production;
And last but definitely not least, Reuben Wu, who does an extraordinary job mixing up Landscapes with Light Painting.

Before & After: Williamsburg Bridge

Leonardo Mascaro August 7, 2020

This is not going to be a post about why every Photographer should be always shooting in RAW mode, but to talk about a specific tool inside Lightroom instead: the Transform tool - which in my opinion, is one of the most powerful ones.

As an Architecture enthusiastic, I'm a huge fan of ultra-wide lenses, giving me the opportunity to fit much more of the subject in the frame without having to move that farther out. But one of the disadvantages of using a wide-lens is that, the closer you get to your subject, the more distorted it will look in the frame, especially on the perimeters. Unless you are using a tilt-shift lens (like a 24mm or a 17mm), of course, which wasn't my case.

When revisiting some photos I took of the Williamsburg Bridge (NYC) back in 2017, I came across this classic view under the bridge, from Manhattan looking towards Brooklyn. Before getting into any color correction and lighting adjustments, I focused on correcting the perspective of the bridge, wanting to achieve a more realistic look as opposed to all the distortion caused by the lens. On using the "Transform" panel (normally the third from the bottom), all I had to do in this case was to select the "guided" option and, using 2 lines to guide me, trace them in parallel to each side of the bridge. And just like magic, Lightroom brings back the original perspective that you'd see by standing at the location from where this picture was taken. From there, I manually adjusted the "Aspect" and "Scale" little by little until I got the results I was looking for.

Williamsburg Bridge, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro

To finish up, I went through all the usual basic adjustments I normally do for all my work, to achieve the lighting and colors of my signature style. Here's a before and after of the process:

📸 • Equipment used to take this photograph: Canon 6D + Canon 16/35mm 2.8

🎙 • Soundtrack while writing this post: Partir, by Nuven

In-Camera Multiple Exposures, part 2

Leonardo Mascaro July 27, 2020

One year ago I wrote a blog post on how to take In-Camera Multiple Exposures With the Fujifilm X-T2, which quickly became one of the most visited pages on my website. Following that, I decided to bring a second part, exploring a little further a few different styles I normally use when shooting Multiple Exposures. If you're not familiar with the technique, I highly recommend reading last year's entry first.

Keep in mind that not all of these "styles" will work with any kind of subject, so the idea is to explore and experiment as much as possible until you have a better understanding of what results each of them brings to the image. The more you try it, you'll start having a better judgment to know what works best on each scenario.

→ Upside Down

After taking the first shot, you turn the camera upside down, re-frame it, and take the second shot. There are basically 2 ways of approaching this: 1) Framing both shots keeping the horizon in the center; or 2) Framing both shots but this time keeping the bottom of the picture (normally the ground) in the center:

San Francisco | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Fujifilm X-T2 + Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

Both cases will result in a mirrored and keep your final image very symmetrical.

Kate K-S @ National Sawdust, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

→ Out of Focus

For this one, after taking the first shot exactly the way you want it, you switch the lens to manual focus, blur everything on purpose and place the same subject (blurred in this case) a little higher in the frame, knowing that the area was pretty dark in the first shot. Another option is to look for other bright colors and lighting sources to use it as the second shot:

Natalie Forteza @ The Iridium, NYC | @ Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

→ Zoom in or Out

What you do here is, using a zoom lens (of any range), after taking the first shot you simply zoom in (or out) from your subject, reframe to make sure you still have enough interesting things on the frame, and take the second shot. In both examples, both shots were sharp, but you can also experiment with zooming in (or out) while also blurring everything on the second shot.

Manhattan Bridge, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro Reuben Koops | © Leonardo Mascaro

→ Rotation

This one works better with 3 (or more) exposures. What you do is, after the first shot, slightly rotate the camera (trying not to change the composition much) on each subsequent shot. In this case, more things in the scene (and an interesting background) can really make a difference.

ABIAH @ Joe's Pub, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

→ Final Thoughts

At first, it's going to be a lot of trial and error but, at some point, you will start to have a better idea of how to frame the second shot to achieve the results you are looking for. The more you practice, the more you'll understand the possibilities and you will start visualizing the images in your mind even before you take it. But also keep in mind that not all the techniques will work well in any scenario. Sometimes nothing will work actually.

Like almost every other technique, the most important thing is to just keep shooting until you get the hang of it. There's always room for improvement. Here are a few other examples for inspiration. Have fun!

Los Angeles, CA | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

Upright Man @ Brooklyn Bowl, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

Louvre Museum, Paris | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

Addie & Jacq @ Rockwood Music Hall, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

Leah Harris @ Rockwood Music Hall, NYC | © Leonardo Mascaro • Equipment used: Canon 6D

In-Camera Multiple Exposure With the Fujifilm X-T2

Leonardo Mascaro July 22, 2019

Multiple Exposure in Photography is not a new technique by any means, but it’s definitely still very enjoyable and, surprisingly, not explored by that many Photographers.

In a film camera, a ‘multiple exposure” consisted in pressing the shutter to take a photograph, but instead of advancing the film to the next frame, you would recompose, press the shutter again, and that second image would superimpose the first one, creating the most various effects depending on the lighting conditions and subject matter. Later on, with the advent of Photoshop, people started experimenting the same effects in the digital world, by simply layering different photographs on top of one another and playing with opacity, masks, bleeding modes, etc.

But what most people don’t realize is that a lot of the current digital cameras are also capable of creating the same ‘multiple exposure’ effect natively, without the need of a post processing software. I remember when I upgraded my DSLR from an entry level to a full-frame model, the one key feature that I knew my next camera would absolutely have to have it was a multiple exposure setting. I haven’t looked back since then, and it’s something that I am constantly experimenting with, on my personal projects, and also for some of my clients that are also attracted by that look.

(© Leonardo Mascaro - 1/200 sec at f/3.2, ISO 1600 - 70mm (EF 70-200mm f/2.8)

The difference between DSLR and Mirrorless system for Multiple Exposures:

I always loved shooting multiple exposures on a DSLR camera, but there’s one thing on the mirrorless system that makes it even more enjoyable: the electronic viewfinder! When you’re shooting multiple exposures on a DSLR with an optical viewfinder, you have no idea how both images will blend, unless you are looking at the back at the camera, instead of the viewfinder, which is not always a good idea. With a mirrorless camera, like the Fujifilm X-T2, assuming that you are using the electronic viewfinder (highly recommended), once you take the first shot, you will be looking at it while framing the second one, until you fire the shutter for the second time. It’s magical to see the effect being created right in front of you even before you actually do it!

(© Leonardo Mascaro - 1/500 sec at f/16, ISO 800 - 55mm (XF16-55mm f/2.8)

The only minor issue, for me, is that the Fujifilm camera automatically converts your double exposure file into a JPEG (even if you camera is set to shoot RAW only), as with other DSLRs I tested, the camera maintains the file as RAW, allowing you have much more control in post processing later on. Hope they are able to change that in the near future.

“So where do I find the multiple exposures setting in my Fujifilm X-T2 camera?”, you may be asking… Well, they couldn’t make it easier than this:

All you need to do is turn the bottom of the left dial from S (single frame) to the icon right next to it with the two “overlapping” photos, and you are ready to start experimenting! Take your first shot, accept it or retry (if you’re not happy with your first frame), and look for the second shot to be combined.

Many people will say that it’s much easier to jump into Photoshop and combine as many layers as you want with endless possibilities, but I personally still think that it’s way more interesting and fun when you are in a location and create unique images with what you have available right there for you. Here are more images to inspire you to try and have fun next time you’re out photographing:

(© Leonardo Mascaro - 1/500 sec at f/16, ISO 800 - 16mm (XF16-55mm f/2.8)

(© Leonardo Mascaro - 1/500 sec at f/4, ISO 200 - 55mm (XF16-55mm f/2.8)

(© Leonardo Mascaro - 1/640 sec at f/8, ISO 100 - 55mm (XF16-55mm f/2.8)

Equipment used:

How To Take Double Exposure Photos Without Photoshop

Leonardo Mascaro June 23, 2017

I was recently featured on Format Magazine, where I could share a little bit of my process and approach when creating multiple exposures on camera, as you can see on my "California Exposed" series and many of my concert photos.

You can read the whole article in this link and find out how did I create some of these images below:

🎬 Oscars 2022: a Notion Template

🎞 Oscars 2021: a Notion Template

How to Build Good Habits, or Stop Bad Ones

Choosing Your Habits:

When starting a NEW habit:

Sticking to your Habits:

→ Real-life example #1: Exercising

→ Real-life example #2: Reading

Tracking your Habits:

Stopping a BAD habit:

Reflecting

Golden Globes 2021: a Notion Template

A Quick Guide to Long-Exposure Photography

Basic Camera Settings:

The Classic Look:

Zooming In and Out:

Double Exposures:

Light Painting:

Infra-Red:

Photography Gear:

Final Thoughts & Inspiration:

Before & After: Williamsburg Bridge

In-Camera Multiple Exposures, part 2

→ Upside Down

→ Out of Focus

→ Zoom in or Out

→ Rotation

→ Final Thoughts

In-Camera Multiple Exposure With the Fujifilm X-T2

The difference between DSLR and Mirrorless system for Multiple Exposures:

How To Take Double Exposure Photos Without Photoshop

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