About This File
The Third image is an Audio Visual term that dates back to well before digital photography. Its a technique used by audio visual enthusiasts back when we used twin projectors film and an electronic dissolve/fade unit. This fade unit contained a slider and as the slider was moved from one end to the other, it would gradually dim the light in one projector while gradually brightening the light in the other.
As we reached the midway point, parts of each slide could be seen on screen and for a few moments a third image appeared. There was no physical third image, just the combination of the two projector lights and the images they were projecting. If it was an appealing third image, we could choose to pause for a second or two with both images visible before continuing the fade
In digital Audio Visual we can still do this, but we need a different approach. Our third image actually is a physical third image that sits between the two images that we use to create it. In the digital world we can control our third image far better and actually enhance it in our image editor.
We can often spot the potential when putting a slide show together, or we can actively look for images that will suite the third image technique.