Blend two photos into one artwork with blend modes and mask shapes.
Blend Two Photos into One Double Exposure
Double exposure is one of photography’s oldest creative tricks. In the film era, it happened when a single frame was exposed twice, so two scenes landed on top of each other: a portrait over a forest, a city skyline over a face, a dancer over a sunset. The result was dreamlike, layered, and impossible to predict exactly, which was part of its charm. This tool recreates the technique digitally. Upload two photos and it blends them into one artwork, with blend modes, opacity control, and mask shapes to shape the result.
The tool is free and runs fully in your browser. Both photos stay on your device, so portraits and personal pictures are never uploaded anywhere. The blended image downloads as a PNG.
How the Blend Modes Work
The blend mode decides how the two photos combine, and it changes the result more than any other control. Screen mode brightens: it keeps the brighter parts of each photo, so two bright scenes merge into something airy and glowing. It is the classic choice for portraits over skies, because the sky shows through the darker parts of the face while the bright features stay clear.
Lighten mode is stricter. For each pixel it simply keeps whichever photo is brighter at that spot. The result is bolder and more graphic than screen, with hard edges where one photo wins over the other. Multiply mode does the opposite: it darkens, keeping the darker parts of each photo. It suits moody, textured work, such as a portrait over tree bark or old paper, where you want depth rather than glow.
There is no single best mode. The right choice depends on the two photos, so try all three on the same pair. The difference is immediate, and one of them will usually jump out as the version that works.
Opacity and Mask Shapes
Opacity controls how strongly the second photo shows. At full opacity the blend is at its most dramatic, while at fifty or sixty percent the first photo stays dominant and the second becomes a texture or a ghost behind it. Lower opacity is often the safer starting point, because a double exposure that whispers is usually more striking than one that shouts.
The mask shape controls where the second photo appears. Full covers the whole frame, which suits landscapes and abstracts. Circle confines the second photo to a round window in the centre, which suits portraits beautifully: the face stays clean around the edges while the second scene fills the middle. Oval does the same in portrait orientation, matching the shape of a head and shoulders. Switching shapes on the same pair can produce three completely different artworks.
Choosing Photo Pairs That Work
The classic pairing is a portrait with a strong silhouette plus a textured scene: a forest, a city, clouds, the sea, or mountains. The silhouette matters. A portrait against a plain background gives the second photo a clean shape to fill, while a busy portrait fights with the second scene and turns muddy. If your portrait has a cluttered background, crop it tight or pick a different one.
Contrast is your friend. A dark portrait over a bright landscape, or a bright subject over a dark texture, separates the two layers so the eye can read both. Two mid-tone photos over each other tend to collapse into grey. When in doubt, pick one dark photo and one bright photo, and let the blend mode do the rest.
From Experiment to Finished Artwork
Double exposure rewards experimentation, so treat the first few tries as sketches. Change the mode, move the opacity, switch the mask, and watch how the picture changes. Save the versions you like as you go, because a small slider move can turn a favourite into something else entirely, and there is no undo for a lost accident you loved.
Once you have a version you like, consider the finishing touches outside the tool. A slight crop can remove a distracting edge, and a gentle contrast lift can restore punch that blending softened. The blended PNG is a full-quality starting point, not a locked final product, so feel free to polish it in any editor.
What You Can Make
Double exposures make striking social media posts, album covers, posters, and gifts. A portrait of a loved one blended with a place that matters to them is a gift no shop sells. Artists use the technique for book covers and exhibition pieces, and photographers use it to rescue two good photos that were not quite strong enough alone, combining them into something stronger than either.
There is no account to create and nothing to install. Upload two photos, pick a mode, set the opacity, choose a shape, and download your artwork. Both photos never leave your browser.
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