Multiple Exposures After Dark: Creative Night Photography Techniques

A Multiple Exposure Photography Image of the South Bank, London after dark

Multiple Exposures After Dark

As the nights begin to draw in, many photographers instinctively tuck their cameras away, convinced that shorter days and darker evenings mean fewer opportunities. But honestly? This time of year is one of my absolute favourites for multiple exposure photography, especially after dark. The world becomes peppered with sparkly lights, colourful reflections, and illuminated details that simply don’t exist in summer’s soft daylight. So, even though the light disappears early, it doesn’t mean your creativity has to. In fact, these rich, contrasty, glowing scenes can elevate even the simplest walk with your camera.

There are so many creative night photography techniques you can try, and multiple exposure gives you a playground of possibilities. Whether you’re in a busy city centre or wandering your local high street, you’ll find neon signs, fairy lights, shop windows, traffic, and illuminated architecture ready to become abstract artworks. So go on — pick one of the ideas below, head out this evening, and see what magic you can create.

A Multiple Exposure Photography image of St Paul’s Cathedral, London at night

Crosshatching

It wouldn’t be a blog about in-camera multiple exposure without mentioning crosshatching — one of my all-time favourite techniques. This method is all about movement, shape, and rhythm, and it works brilliantly in low-light conditions when the world is dotted with bright light sources.

To create a crosshatched image, reduce your shutter speed to around 1/15 or 1/8 of a second, then make two intentional movements — one vertical and one horizontal. Traditionally, this comes from the world of ICM photography (Intentional Camera Movement). Stephanie Johnson has beautifully reframed it as Intentional Creative Movement, which I think describes it perfectly, especially when used in multiple exposure mode.

Do the movements in either order — up/down and left/right — but I find it easiest to begin with the vertical motion and then follow with the horizontal. In the dark, this becomes surprisingly intuitive because the lights themselves show you whether it’s working. Those glowing dots stretch into tiny crosses, and you can instantly see whether your vertical or horizontal movement was too short or too long. With the above image I haven’t produced perfect crosses but I like the effect that has been produced.

Top tip:
Start with one single light. Just one. Practise creating a clean cross shape first, then move on to your wider scene with confidence. It’s so much easier to judge your movement on a single bright point before adding visual complexity.

Crosshatching after dark adds energy, structure, and a beautifully graphic feel to your images. Streetlights, shop signs, garlands of fairy lights — all of them become brushstrokes in a vibrant night-time sketch.

A Multiple Exposure Photography Image of St Pauls Cathedral, London after dark

Using Bokeh in Your Multiple Exposures

Night photography and bokeh are a match made in heaven. With streetlights, Christmas decorations, and window displays everywhere, you’ve suddenly got access to bold, bright circles of light just waiting to be transformed into something magical.

In multiple exposure photography, bokeh works brilliantly as an overlay, adding softness, colour, and atmosphere. The beauty of shooting after dark is that you can get physically closer to the light sources — meaning your bokeh can become large, dramatic, and wonderfully imperfect.

Just remember one important thing: drop your f-stop number.
If you don’t, your soft circles will suddenly snap smaller when the shutter fires. This is pure physics, but it can feel like your camera is playing tricks on you! A low f-stop keeps the circles big and slightly translucent, giving you those delicious glowing orbs that sit beautifully over your subject.

I always recommend photographing the main subject first. Once the sharp image is set, you can move your camera freely to position the bokeh exactly where you want it in the second exposure. Whether you're photographing buildings, statues, people, or even abstract textures, bokeh adds an extra dimension that feels especially magical at this time of year. The Wilde Academy offers a night section to the London workshop in the winter months - go and have a look HERE

A Multiple Exposure Photography image of a shop window showing how abstract you can be.

Play

This is the part photographers sometimes forget — it’s okay to play. In fact, night-time multiple exposures reward experimentation more than almost any other style.

Yes, you can use tiny crosses from streetlights to echo the shape of a building.
Yes, you can crosshatch the headlights of oncoming buses, trams, or cars.

But you can also let go of structure completely and just explore colour, pattern, movement, and emotion.

This colourful image I’m sharing with this blog post, for instance, came from nothing more complicated than shop windows at night. The reflections, colours, text, and contrast became a glowing abstract mosaic. When you give yourself permission to play, you create images that feel alive — images that don’t need to “show” anything literal because the mood, pattern, and palette speak for themselves.

So try it. Wander past the shops tonight and allow yourself to create without overthinking. Night photography is full of happy accidents, and multiple exposure makes those moments even more exciting.

A Multiple Exposure Photography image of the Shard after dark

Add Photoshop Magic

And let’s not forget the other side of the creative process: post-production. Yes, in-camera work is beautiful, but Photoshop multiple exposure blends can add an entirely new dimension. If you want to compose your images later — or expand your night-time shots into something surreal — Photoshop is your playground.

Add drama with clouds.
Change colours or intensify tones.
Overlay textures for depth and atmosphere.
Experiment with shapes, lights, birds… okay, maybe that last one is just me!

Whatever you choose to do, night photography layers beautifully. Those deep shadows and bright highlights create natural contrast that blends like velvet in Photoshop. So take your after-dark images and try different combinations. You never know which pairing will spark something exciting. If you want to kickstart your creativity in the new year then do join an ‘Exploring Multiple Exposure’ course.

A Multiple Exposure Photography Image of the Parliament Building, Budapest after dark

Conclusion

So, as the nights draw in, don’t put your camera away — in fact, take it out even more. Low-light conditions offer some of the richest, most exciting opportunities for creative night photography, especially when using in-camera multiple exposure techniques. Whether you’re playing with crosshatching, bokeh, abstract colour, or layered Photoshop compositions, night-time is your chance to explore, experiment, and push your creativity in new directions. You can even have a go at being even more creative as I was trying out with the Parliament Building in Budapest - does it work do you think?

I’d absolutely love to see what you create after dark, so please feel free to leave a comment on the blog or share your work on social media, do come down to the Multiple Exposure Hub on facebook— and don’t forget to tag me so I can cheer you on!

And if you’re feeling inspired and want to learn more, take a look at the courses and workshops available at Wilde Photography Academy, or join my newsletter to keep up with new offerings, tutorials, and creative ideas.

Let’s keep creating, exploring, and embracing the magic of night-time photography together.