The Idea:

I want to use some of my skyline pictures from New York, so I found a model who has a connection and passion for the city. There's a lot of inspiration pictures out there for a city double exposure, so I'm not really sure where I'll go with mine, but I'll have to make due with the New York pictures I already have, so my options might be limited.

The plan:

model: Zoe Siegel

time: Thursday, access

white background

Inspiration pictures:

Potential city pictures:

Potential model pictures:

Edited pictures before combining:

Design process:

The top left image shows the original portrait with some basic Lightroom adjustments to the lighting and contrast. Then, I took it into Photoshop and made the background a solid color. I also took my final skyline picture with Lightroom adjustments into Photoshop and made a selection of just the buildings. I took that selection and started experimenting with how to combine it with the portrait (top middle). Then, I decided to make the portrait black and white. Something felt off about the image, and when I referenced my inspiration images, I noticed the portraits were black and white and the skyline was in color. This helped take away some distractions (bottom left). Finally, I started making some good progress with how to combine the images when I made the skyline bigger and made sure the prominent buildings were going past her hairline so I could achieve a similar affect of the one in the inspo images (the skyline going beyond the model's figure). I experimented with taking out the pieces of hair coming through in between the buildings (bottom right) but ended up not going with that version. I felt it took too much from the image, and like the feeling of the buildings being apart of her, and less "taking her over." From there, I just did some more blending between the two to make it more seamless. For example, I took out the black chunk of the building next to the Empire State Building and replaced it with her hair.

Conclusion:
I really like how this photo turned out. I struggled at first with how to put it together and make it look similar to the inspiration images. A big challenge was how to use my skyline pictures the most effectively. Many of the city pictures in the inspiration images showed much more of the ground than mine, and were vertical whereas mine was horizontal. From the last image, I liked that I went back to my original ideas as far as the editing technique goes. This image is more of a true double exposure and I liked being able to play around with the balance between the two images.