Ilford Delta 100 – Film Double Exposure B&W Street Photography

I have been out of ideas of what to shoot with the Contax G1 film camera and suddenly thought of doing a film double exposure on the Ilford Delta 100. I bought the film stock at a low price and kind of regret not buying more of this film stock because the high contrast results are excellent! It is my first experience shooting double exposure on film and also a film challenge I’ve set for myself. I was quite grateful that my film camera has this multi-exposure feature and shooting double exposure on an SLR film camera can be troublesome. I get inspired from a few of of my mirror reflection photos taken while testing out the motion picture film so I decided to start this double exposure project.

Check out my second multiple exposure experiment shooting with the Fomapan 400 film in Kuala Lumpur.

Based on my research there are certain film photographers out there who would do film swaps with other photographers to get the double exposure effects rather than shooting it alone on the same film roll. Well, at first I  have no confidence and thought that I won’t be able to achieve or create double exposure effects because it requires certain creativity but once you know the concept of how double exposure works, it shouldn’t be an issue anymore. It is all about the shadows and highlight areas. I did some research on YouTube the day before I went to the street to shoot this Ilford Delta 100 as my film double exposure project.

This is one of the photos that I like from this project which shows the first shot of a vintage portrait image with jeans on the wall and the second shot of a group of strangers. Once I’ve taken the first shot, I quickly find a black surface which is the man’s shirt in the photo.

Double Exposure Film Photography
Contax G1, Ilford Delta 100 - Pasar Karat KL // July 2022

Had Fun Shooting Double Exposure on Film

Double exposure, also known as multi-exposure is more than fun. I consider it as an artwork and it does test you to think more than before you press the shutter button because you will try to find a suitable scene for the double exposure to work. While I was shooting double-exposure street photography, I keep looking for interesting objects, places, backgrounds and people, that will be used in the photo. It is a very challenging shooting project and you will find it worth it if you get the best double exposure photos and results.

You can learn how to shoot double exposure on film and it works great for creative portraits and street photography. Shooting double exposure is one of the must-try fun photography projects if you are bored and have no idea what to shoot.

When shooting a film with double exposure on the street, I tried to find something that are not too busy or too many details as this will mess up the entire layering. I know it can be a hassle if you try to shoot with a fully manual film camera but you can give it a try. There are tutorials on Youtube about shooting double exposure on film cameras which required you to rewind the film back to the previous exposure.

All the photos are shot at box speed and without going through any Photoshop editing or post-processing on my end.

Love The High Contrast Ilford Delta 100 Film

Ilford Delta 100 Street Photography Malaysia
Contax G1, Ilford Delta 100 - Pasar Karat KL // July 2022

I also like the high-contrast black & white of the Ilford Delta 100 Professional film. I bought this Ilford film stock online and immediately fall in love with the tone. I wish I have another film roll to shoot only street photography photos and daily life in the city areas in Kuala Lumpur. I find that I tend to get a few blurry images compared to previous projects that use high-speed films such as the Kodak Vision3 500T projects. I get this film at a very low price from a dealer in KL but it was now out of stock.

If you are planning to do a similar double exposure street photography project on film, you can try Ilford Delta 100 or the 400 ISO for more film speed. For most of the photos, I shot at an aperture of f8-f4 at around 9 am.

As usual, I sent my film to a film lab in Kuala Lumpur, developed and scanned by Darkroom8 Malaysia. It took about 3-4 days to see the result and I am quite amazed at it. I could say it is a successful film double exposure project for me as I get the shots that I wanted although certainly, it can be improved in the next project if I have one.

Final Thoughts

There goes my street photography challenge project on film finally completed this 5 hours photo walk in the city of Kuala Lumpur. It took me quite a while to finish the entire 36 exposures because I was shooting quite slowly in order to get a good double exposure. When shooting at a slow pace with a film camera, I can think more about what I want to shoot. As for the moments in street photography, if shoot slowly I might also miss out on the important moments.

Well, just do what we can. For filmmakers, if you like my work do check out more of my photography blog and Lomography profile, also feel free to explore more of my film photography projects, sample photos and experiments.

I would suggest you do a film swap with a friend if you’re planning to shoot double exposure on film. This way you can share and enjoy the work together.

Happy shooting film.

Ilford Delta 100 Double Exposure
Contax G1, Ilford Delta 100 - Pasar Karat KL // July 2022
Double Exposure Film Project
Contax G1, Ilford Delta 100 - Kuala Lumpur // July 2022
Contax G1 Film Double Exposure
Contax G1, Ilford Delta 100 - Kwai Chai Hong KL // July 2022
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