For the past week and a half I’ve been playing around on this iPhone app called Enlight Photo Fox. It’s gotten me a lot of great feedback on my socials and I’m happy that so many of you have been asking me questions and complimenting my work. I’ve been watching tutorials and putting a lot of effort into refining the skill, so it’s much appreciated.

Enlight allows you to create double exposures in post on your smartphone. Now, this is pretty simple do to in Photoshop on a laptop or computer but doing it on your smartphone is a bit difficult when all you have is your thumb and index finger to work with. It’s pretty handy to be able to do it on a smartphone because you can upload it straight to social media, a hot commodity when you’re pressed for time or want to get something out asap. I can see this being a really cool addition to photoshoots for advertising, branding and marketing. The cool thing about Enlight is that it allows you to work in layers, which if you work with Photoshop you’ll know are really important to creating photo illustrations.

I like to use flowers, skylines, landscapes, and the ocean for the second image.

Here’s some tips to help you:

• Cut out the photo so it has a white background. You can do this in-app but I prefer to just do it on the FaceTune App using the background tool. I’m used to using that to change the backgrounds on my photos on my phone, so I habitually use that. The hardest part is getting the edges clean.
• Chose a photo where the subject’s face is well lit, preferably a three-quarter portrait or profile. It will give you the best shape.
• If your portrait is darker (like I prefer), layering a lighter image on top of it will cause the second image to fill out the shape of the first one. That’s how you get silhouettes layered with an image of stars, or flowers, or whatever you like. You’ll still have the shape but the fill in will be another image.
• You can practice with stock photography on an app called Pexel. The photos are free and available for creative use.
• When taking your own photos, harsh contrast and lighting works best. I prefer the face to be well lit and the rest to be dark.
• It helps to have the subjects hair up to create a nice silhouette, but you can make it work with any hairstyle.

Playing around and practicing will give you the best results. Don’t be around to turn things upside down and sideways either, sometimes you’ll get a really cool composition by doing that. The app does cost money, I believe it’s $6 per month. Definitely worth it! I’m not sponsored or being paid for this, I just really like this app.

Scroll down to check out my experiments. They are a combination of my own portrait work and stock photos. I’d love to see what y’all come up with.