Diptychs by Stephanie Schweitzer

Hello, friends! My name is Stephanie Schweitzer. I'm a Hello Pro, Click Pro, Lensbaby Ambassador, and hobbyist mom-tographer located in East Tennessee. I entertained the idea of turning professional for 0.2 seconds once upon a time, but quickly realized I only love photography because of the memories I'm able to make for my family. So I like to say that I'm keeping this hobby selfishly to myself. My main photography subjects are my 3 young kiddos, John Paul (6), Jude (4), and Marigold (2), and occasionally my husband (37) gets in on a photo or two. Outside of photography, which is really my biggest passion these days, I also enjoy board games, nerdy shows and movies, and making yummy recipes.

I shoot with a Nikon D750 and a variety of lenses: Sigma 24mm ART 1.4, Nikkor 50mm 1.8, Nikkor 85mm 1.4, and several Lensbaby lenses: Sol 45, Edge 35, and Velvet 56.

My photography ranges from documentary to portrait, just depending on what the kids are up to on any given day, and I find I'm most drawn to color theory, artful blur, self portraiture, and diptychs.

My goal here is to help you fall in love with the art of diptychs. To make that happen, I define them, dissect them, discuss what makes them work, advise things to avoid, and inspire you with a list of ideas for creating your own. Read on if you'd like to learn more!

Defining Diptychs

Wikipedia is helping me quickly summarize a diptych as a work of art consisting of two pieces or panels, that together create a singular art piece. Diptychs have existed far longer than cameras. But obviously in our application, we're talking about two photos presented together as one.

My love of diptychs began over a year ago, when I read a magazine article about them. It was my first introduction to two photos stitched together as one, and I was intrigued. I loved the idea of taking two distinctly different images and finding the common thread that paired them ever-so-perfectly together, and the idea that two photos together could tell more story than the photos presented apart. But many months passed before I would feel confident enough to try it out on my own.

Creating Diptychs

I created my first diptych out of two images that I took separately, and with no intention of combining. Image one: a majestic sunflower, guarding our summer garden, cheerfully bloomed. The other: a self-portrait, eyes closed. While they don't quite align (I would have loved for the sunflower and my eyes to be at the same height), the message is clear: a juxtaposition of open (sunflower) and closed (me). I converted both to black and white so that the focus was on the simple message, as opposed to focus going to the distracting greens and yellows of the outdoor scape and the bright purple-pink on my lips.

For beginners, I highly recommend this as a way to dip a toe into diptychs. Think back on the many images you've already created. In fact, open up PhotoShop or LightRoom and start playing with combinations of your many existing photos. The easiest pairing will be two photos from the same session, as you know the colors, lighting, and subject will generally be the same. Sameness is easy to pair. But if you want to dive deeper, think of a common thread that could pair two uncommon images together: color, perspective, opposites, lines, shapes . . . the opportunities are endless.

Once you feel happy with your combination, I encourage you to share it, whether on social media or with a loved one. This will officially welcome you to the world of diptychs, and from here on out, they will always be a tool in your arsenal, ready to be created whenever inspiration strikes. What they say is true: the first diptych is the hardest one.

Using PhotoShop to Pair Photographs

I'm personally a PhotoShop-only kinda gal, so I'm going to walk you through making a diptych the only way I know how: in PhotoShop. If your preference is LightRoom, I'm sure a quick Google search could help! Here's how I do it:

Step 1: Open your two photos separately in PhotoShop.

Step 2: Pick one of the two photos to start. It doesn't matter which one. Make sure it's sized exactly as you'd like it for the diptych. If you want only a portion of the photo, crop it down to size.

Next, if you haven't already, click on the Crop Tool, and then change the crop size to Ratio (see below). If numbers appear in the two boxes to the right of Ratio, clear them; they should be empty so you can resize your image to any dimensions you'd like.

Step 3: Click on the photo and adjust the crop so that there's room for your second photograph, as seen below. You're going to be extending the canvas to double the size (assuming you're going for an evenly split diptych). You can extend the canvas in any direction, just depends on where you want to put the second photo. Make sure "Content-Aware" is not checked, then hit enter.

Step 4: Head over to the other photo and switch to the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Use the tool to select the part of the image you'd like to use as photo 2 for your diptych. If you'd like to use the whole photo, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the whole photo. Once you've selected what you like, copy the selection (CTRL + C).

Step 5: Return to the original photo. Paste the selection from photo 2 on top of the original photo (CTRL + V).

Step 6: Select the Move Tool and click on the image you've just pasted. Make sure that "Show Transform Controls" is checked, and then start stretching (resizing) the image to fit the empty space. If you start resizing and this warps the photo, you'll want to be sure the little lock symbol between the changing dimensions is clicked (see below). This locks the dimensions of the photo.

Step 7: Make sure all of the empty pixels (little white and gray boxes) are covered by photo 2. When you're happy with the placement of photo 2, hit enter, flatten the image, and then save as a new image. Voila! Your new diptych has been created!

The Anatomy of a Diptych

Both a freedom and frustration of diptychs is that two photos can be combined in a quite a number of ways. If they're side-by-side, which one goes on the left? Or if you're stacking them, one atop the other, which one goes on top? Perhaps you need to crop one (or both) of the photos down to work with a portrait-orientation. What exact crop do you like? Or maybe you don't like the evenly split diptych. What, then, would be the right ratio of the two differently sized photos? Or have you considered you can horizontally flip one (or both) of the photos to play with a different feel?

So much room for creativity! So much room to go mad with tiny changes!

I encourage you to play around with the arrangement of the two photos you're combining. Don't drive yourself to the point of madness, but as you start out, play around a bit to get a feel for how two photos flow and complement one another. I personally like to create a few different options and show them to someone else to chat about what works and what doesn't.

Take the following as an example. I call this An Ode to the Orange Things My Kids Eat. What I love about the two photos together is the whimsy, the color orange as a subject, the juxtaposition of flatlay (details) and portrait, and the "play with your food" vibes. I was confident they'd make a great diptych. In fact, I photographed them specifically to combine them. However, as I went to stitch them together, I wasn't quite sure the best way to do it. So I created a number of different diptychs of the two. I switched their positions, I horizontally flipped both photos and switched them around again.

My first combination had my son with clementine eyes on the left and the orange-foods flatlay on the right. While there's certainly nothing wrong with it, something wasn't flowing for me. As you may know, we tend to read photos from left to right (in cultures where we read left-to-right). And that's what was throwing me off: it felt too heavy to start with the very dark, navy-backed photo on the left.

So in my next attempt, I swapped them. Orange foods on the left, blue-backdrop portrait on the right. This definitely felt better. I liked the lightness of the orange on the left, and I appreciated that now the photos were in rainbow order (orange before blue). This is not universally necessary. Colors can feel fine just out of rainbow order. But here, they felt best in order. With the color issue solved, something about the lines of the photos still felt off. After studying them, I noticed the curves of the orange foods were pointing away from my son on the right. Objects in photos create lines and shapes. Remember that, and consider that as you play around with arrangements. You want lines and shapes to be in harmony with one another in the final diptych.

For this final attempt, I flipped the orange-foods photo horizontally and BOOM: magic, baby! The orange foods were pointing toward my son, my son's brighter arm was pointing back at the orange foods. The flow from lighter photo to darker felt most balanced. And also working in my favor? The light was coming from the same direction in both photos. Be sure to study that as well. Can you see the light coming from the left in both photos? This is certainly not a requirement, and I've definitely made diptychs with light flowing in opposite directions in the two photos. But if you're feeling like something is off and can't quite put your finger on it, study the light to see if that's the issue.

Here's the final diptych:

Why These Work (and One that Doesn't)

Now that we've intimately studied the creation of one diptych, let's take a look at a few more and discuss why they also work. I've even included one that, in my opinion, doesn't work, so y'all can learn from my mistakes.

Let's kick it off with a self portrait diptych. The photo on the left was a happy accident. I was setting up a self portrait and quickly took the out-of-focus photo to check my settings. Later, upon reviewing the photos from my session, I fell in love with the "check my settings" photo! But I felt it wasn't really strong enough to stand on its own. Enter: the diptych. I studied the self portrait and delicately set up the mug still-life to perfectly complement it.

Before you read about why I think it works, I want you to study the diptych below and pick out what you notice. This is a fun exercise as you learn the art of diptychs! What makes a diptych tick? Can you see it?

Here's what I see. I chose a mug with navy interior to match the navy walls of the self portrait. I used my pink dress from the self portrait as a table cloth in the still-life. I placed the lines of the napkin in the still-life to mimic the black lines of the mirror in the self portrait. Since the self portrait was out of focus, I was sure to have the mug in focus, and I added extra details (gold confetti circles and some greenery) to bring in some extra texture. And the highlight-lit spoon evoking my highlight-lit arm was a happy accident. While the light is coming from opposite directions, it still works; it feels as though the light is flowing out from the center of the diptych.

Did you catch all those details?

Onto the next diptych! What works well here? Challenge yourself to study it before you read my thoughts.

First, a backstory. This diptych was born out of a frustration with my portrait on the left. I set my aperture too low, and ended up failing to get the pretty stack of pancakes in focus along with my daughter. And I only noticed later, while reviewing photos, after my kids had already devoured 90% of the stack of pancakes. I quickly grabbed a small sliver of the leftovers, set up a blue backdrop, scattered some sprinkles for pops of color, and got an overhead detail shot of the pancakes. This was my way of bringing the pancakes back into focus, to complement the original portrait. Essentially, the diptych saved the day! So tuck that tip away: if you fudge the photo the first time, try to save it with a diptych. Mistake aside, this is actually one of my favorite ways to do a diptych: a "bigger picture" shot paired with a detail shot. Together, they tell more of a story than they do apart. I love that. Overall, that's why these work well together. I also appreciate the rainbow colors on both sides, which was obviously easy to repeat, as the rainbow stack of pancakes is present in both photos. But the rainbow sprinkles also emphasize the colors as a commonality.

Here's another diptych to study. What do you see?

This diptych was born out of a desire to create a monochrome (one color) image. I put my baby girl in red, handed her a strawberry, and placed her in a neutral room. I really wanted the strawberry to be obvious, but it was so small in the frame. So I knew immediately what to do! Diptych to the rescue! I grabbed a red bowl, red backdrop (it's actually a blanket!), and a bunch of strawberries, and took the still-life strawberry photo. When stitching them together, I was careful to place the bowl at the same level of the skirt of her dress, as I liked how both had a similar bell-shape, one facing up and the other facing down. Shape, color, and strawberries are the elements that make this diptych work.

Are the diptychs getting easier to decipher? Are you starting to see common threads? Notice, sometimes a diptych will have several layers of complementarity, while other times, there's just a single theme pulling the photos together.

Here's an example of a single-theme diptych. What's the commonality here?

The color yellow! I hope it was rather obvious. Although, you could also say dandelions are the common theme, and I'd accept that answer too. This diptych also showcases my love of blurred photos in diptychs. It feels like I'm getting away with something. I can have half of the diptych in sharp focus and play with fun artful blur in the other half, and together they tell a full story. While I do think fully out-of-focus images can stand on their own, they often leave the viewer wanting more; so to pair blurry with a focused photo is to give that desired more in one complete package. You should try it out some time!

One last diptych for ya. I'll give you a hint. This is the one I personally feel doesn't work. It's not an utter failure, but it's not my favorite. What do you think the issue is here?

Busyness. That's my issue with this one. There's a lot going on on both sides of the diptych. They're obviously related in that it's the story of making a trifle. However, I should have simplified the photo of the final trifle on the right. Instead, I added the books to incorporate more color, to tie into the sprinkles on the left, and I added more layers, to add more depth. But once I put them together, it was just too much. And the trifle had already been eaten once I got to editing, so I couldn't go back and shoot again. Let this be a lesson to all of us. One: If your subject is edible, be sure you love your photos before you dig in. Two: Leave space in your diptychs. You can certainly have a busy side. But busy tends to pair best with simple on the other side.

A Few Other Things To Avoid

As you start out with diptychs, there are a few more things I'd suggest avoiding as you create.

First, be mindful of the line where the two photos meet. You want to make sure there aren't any awkward or mindless crops happening in either photo at the joining line. Now, if you're going for a look where you crop half an object on one side and join it perfectly with another half-cropped object on the other, that can actually work quite well! But that's a very mindful decision and takes a lot of planning. If you aren't intentionally continuing lines or shapes from one photo into another, mind that dividing line! (This was another issue with my trifle diptych: partially cropped items on both sides of the dividing line. See what I mean?) Also, avoid busyness in both photos at the joining line. This is an eyesore, and the viewer is likely to get stuck in the chaos and not appreciate the rest of what you're trying to say.

Second, watch out for crazy angles. I find the majority of diptychs include these two points-of-view: shot straight on and/or shot from above. Basically, the camera is 90 degrees to whatever you're snapping. Consider that viewing a diptych can actually be quite a jarring experience: instead of seeing a single photo, you're viewing two at once, and trying to make sense of that. Now, if you include a photo with a distorted perspective, it's going to make it even more challenging to digest. A clean straight-on and/or directly-above perspective makes for much easier viewing.

And finally, related to the last tip, watch your lines. Same as skewed perspectives, wonky lines can also be hard to interpret. I'm mainly talking about horizontal or vertical lines within a photograph. Make sure they're straight as can be before placing the photo into a diptych. I'm not referring to diagonal or curvy or zig-zaggy lines. Those can be quite fun in a diptych! But if your line is supposed to be straight up-and-down or straight side-to-side and it's not, that's going to make it a lot harder for the viewer.

All that said, once you become more skilled with pairing photos, you are welcome to break these rules. There are certainly many wonderful diptychs with awkward crops, odd perspectives, and crooked lines. But if you're still at the beginner level, you'll find more success with your creations if you stay within these guidelines for now.

Further Inspiration

I'd like to wrap up with a few more ideas to inspire you as you continue to create diptychs.

First, you may notice that all of my diptychs are very straightforward and obvious. There's not much of a fine art to them. What can I say? My brain likes to compartmentalize things into boxes and rarely knows how to think outside the box. I like portrait-orientation diptychs, split evenly in the middle. But that's just me. I encourage you to go find other diptych artists who do think outside the box and study what they're creating. What are they pairing together and why does it work? Let that inspire you!

Next, if you are really up for a challenge, consider a collaboration! I work with an amazing group of female artists who collaborate monthly to create shared diptychs. In the diptych below, Lindsay Craig sent me the abstract photo on the left, and inspired by that, I took the similarly-colored self portrait on the right. Together, our shared work made something that apart would have never existed. It's powerful and it's quite the artistic exercise! I highly recommend it.

Finally, I leave you with a list of ideas for creating more diptychs. These are pairings I see that work time and time again. I'd love to see what you create inspired by the following.

• Change of seasons - same exact photo, different times of year

• Before and after

• Opposites

• Negative space

• Cause and effect

• Shadow play

• Part and whole - example: bowl of blueberries and a blueberry ice cream cone

• Out-of-focus and in-focus

• Abstract and concrete

• Same object, different surroundings

• Different perspectives of the same scene

• Big-picture photo paired with a zoomed-in detail photo

• Two photos in quick succession - example: blowing up bubble gum vs. popped bubble

• Unrelated lines connecting and continuing from one photo to another - example: tree branch meets outstretched arm at the dividing line

• Two portraits of the same person, different emotions

• Monochrome - pick one color to feature in both photos

• Complementary colors - pick a pair of complementary colors, feature one per photo

• Multi-color - pick multiple colors (3 or more) and work them in to both photos

• Shape - two photos of different objects with similar (or exactly the same) shape

• Two completely unrelated photos that work because they share a similar aesthetic

It's time to get out there, get combining, and enjoy the process! Wishing you creative diptych vibes, dear friends!