Sodium Layer: a double exposure portrait AI photoshoot

A woman with long blond hair, half her face lit and clean, the shadow half filled with amber window grids and lamp discs

You get an in-camera double exposure on 35 mm color negative: a face lit against black, then a rainy city street printed into everything that stayed dark. Amber lamp discs and lit office windows fill the shoulders and the background, while one eye always stays clear.

Art direction: Alex But

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Lens: 50 mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter: 1/125 s + 1/15 s
Film: Color negative, two exposures
Light: Softbox, then night street

Best for

Album or single artwork
Profile photo
Film poster concept

Six frames from this shoot

Five frames and one detail, made by haloshot from three phone photos of one person.

Frame 1 · Sodium Layer
Frame 2 · Sodium Layer
Frame 3 · Sodium Layer
Frame 4 · Sodium Layer
Frame 5 · Sodium Layer
Detail · Sodium Layer

About the double exposure look

Layer one is a studio portrait on a 50 mm at f/2.8 and 1/125 s, lit by one gridded softbox high at 45 degrees so only the face and a hand catch light. Without advancing the film, the camera then turns to a rain-covered window at night and focuses on the drops. At 1/15 s handheld, sodium lamps and tail lights melt into soft discs and short vertical drips.

Clothes, place and when to pick it

Women and men get different outfits: a black asymmetric crepe dress over wool trousers for her, a funnel-neck jersey top under an open wool coat for him, each with Chelsea boots and a silver chain. The base is a black studio, the second layer any wet city at night. Use it for album art or a cinematic profile, your own face in the lit half.

How it works

Add three photos of yourself: face, half turn and full length. haloshot renders a free five-frame preview of Sodium Layer with your face. Pick the frames you like and keep them in 4:5 HD.

Without AI

How to shoot an in-camera double exposure on film

Two exposures share one frame of film. Bright skin from the first leaves little room for the second, so the city prints only into the black clothes and background.

Light the face with one gridded softbox high at 45 degrees, sitter 1.5 m away, in black against black.
Expose the 50 mm at f/2.8, 1/125 s, then recock with the multiple-exposure lever without advancing.
After dark, shoot a rain-covered window facing a lit street at f/2.8, 1/15 s handheld, focused on the drops.
Meter the face normally and give the street layer one stop less, so it stays in the shadows.

Sketch where the face sits in the frame before you leave the studio.

Set notes by Alex But, art director · Updated 12 October 2026