Another image in the Metropolis series

I added another image to my new "Metropolis" series of multiple exposure photographs of New York. This one is a combination of three super-imposed images. I titled it, "Metropolis - Up from the ashes" because both the Chrysler and Empire State buildings were built during the Depression and the MetLife building came about from the demise of PanAm.

Metropolis - Up from the ashes, 2015

The last time I presented an image from this series I was asked to explain how I did it. Although there are some variations in how I go about each one, I am including a brief description of how they are done below.

The composite is assembled in Photoshop where I can use layers for each image. The three images above were used in this composite with the left photo on the bottom, middle photo above that, and the right photo of a tilted building facade on top. I use various means to meld the images together. Sometimes it is as simple as dialing down a layer's opacity; other times I change the layer's mode. The bottom layer is always "Normal". The middle layer was changed to "Screen", and the top layer to "Overlay". 

I add layer masks to the top layers so I can selectively paint out places where I want the bottom layers to dominate. I also add several adjustment layers attached to each image so I can control their individual color, contrast, and brightness.  That is pretty much it in a nutshell, although a final composite can take be several days of fiddling before I get it the way I want it to look. 

Initially, I began this series by double and triple exposing images in camera with the Fuji X-T1, but switched to working the images in Photoshop where I have much more control. I also switched to a higher resolution camera because my plan is to make very large prints of the final composites.