Double Exposure Wedding Photography: Farmers Image Of The Week

Double exposure wedding photography wasn’t on my 2026 trend predictions list, but lately I’ve been wondering if it should have been.

Part of that comes from getting my hands on the Canon R6iii for a test drive. I haven’t shot any multi-exposure frames on it yet, but spotting the option sitting there in the menu gave me a little jolt of nostalgia. It reminded me just how much I missed this creative tool when I moved to mirrorless. Sony never offered it in-camera, and while there are plenty of ways to fake a double exposure in post, it’s never quite the same as committing to it at the point of capture.

If I end up working more with Canon, you can be fairly sure I’ll be playing with this. Double exposures have always been a technique that introduces uncertainty, and that’s exactly what makes them interesting.

Which brings us neatly to this image from Esmé Whiteside, and a beautiful way to kick off a new year of Farmers Image Of The Week.

There’s an important distinction to make here. Creating a double exposure on a digital camera gives you a lot of control. You can select frames, preview the overlay in the viewfinder, tweak exposure ratios and decide whether it’s working before you press the shutter again. That’s not what’s happening here.

This image was shot on film.

That means Esmé placed her second exposure blind. No preview. No confirmation. Just instinct, experience, and a willingness to risk losing a frame entirely. In this case, the double exposure came about through a camera failure that required the roll to be restarted – but as with many strong images, chance only played a part. The rest was gut instinct and an eye for how things might align.

Why This Image Works So Well

1. Purposeful Layering

What makes this image work so well is that the layering feels purposeful, even though it wasn’t planned. The couple’s kiss sits gently within the geometry of the venue’s glass structure. The window panes create a grid that anchors the composition, while the reflections and interior lights soften it, stopping the image from becoming too rigid or graphic.

2. Movement and Transience

The bride’s figure appears slightly ghosted, adding a sense of movement and transience. It feels less like a literal document of a moment and more like an emotional impression of it. That’s where double exposure wedding photography really earns its place – not as a gimmick, but as a way of showing connection, memory and atmosphere all at once.

3. Sense of Place

There’s also a strong sense of place here. The venue isn’t just a backdrop. It’s layered into the image, quite literally. The couple aren’t separated from it; they exist within it. Their relationship to each other and to the space are folded together in a single frame.

4. Balance

From a technical point of view, the exposure balance is key. Neither frame overwhelms the other. The kiss remains readable and intimate, while the architectural elements add structure and context without stealing focus. That balance is hard enough to achieve intentionally, let alone by accident.

What I love most, though, is that this image doesn’t feel showy. It feels thoughtful. It has softness, restraint and a quiet confidence to it. It doesn’t shout “look what I can do”. It simply invites you to linger.

If we do start seeing more double exposure wedding photography in the coming years, I hope it leans more in this direction. Less novelty. More feeling. Less perfection. More trust in instinct.

Because when it works like this, it feels timeless in the best possible way – not polished, not predictable, but human.

And that’s a very good place to start the year.