fantasy

Mixing Photos and 3D Modeling with Blender as a Photographer

I started in photography as a stepping stone into digital art. As with most photographers, I started taking pictures of everyone and everything. It was not fun hiking with me; I was the guy stopping every five minutes to take pictures of trees and rocks.

How I Created a Magical Bear Photo

Two years ago in September, I was traveling in Kuusamo, Finland, and I had the opportunity to go see and photograph wild bears. We left our cars and started walking to the bear-watching hut with a small group. I felt nervous and it felt like a long walk in the woods, hearing all the little noises around us.

Fashion Meets Fantasy in the Stunning Photography of Bella Kotak

The latest installment of SmugMug Films brings up behind the scenes with fine art fashion photographer Bella Kotak, whose stunning imagery toes the line between fashion and fantasy, creating a look that's immediately recognizable and nearly always awe-inspiring.

Disney Scenes Recreated as Photos

Louisiana-based photographer Savannah Kate Bridges shoots custom portraiture for clients in a variety of genres, but in her free time she has been working on a series that faithfully recreates beloved fairy tale scenes from Disney movies as photos.

These Diablo-Themed Pre-Wedding Photos are a Cosplayer’s Dream

Betrothed couple Alexis Loo and Alvin Lau are passionate about the video game Diablo III. So passionate, in fact, that they hired photographer and digital artist Mezame Shashin-ka to shoot some Diablo-themed pre-wedding photos that would do their gaming passion justice.

This Photographer Builds Her Fantasy Worlds by Hand, No Photoshop

The world of the fantasy, fine art photographer typically involves a healthy helping of Adobe Photoshop. But if digital art and crazy composites are on one end of the spectrum, then photographer Adrien Broom is on the other—no Photoshop, just incredibly intricate hand-made props and sets.

8 Steps to Adding Fantasy Lighting with Photoshop

One of my absolute favorite things to do in Photoshop is to play with lighting effects. Whether that be to make something glow, create a spotlight sort of effect, or set my hands on fire, I'm always so impressed with the many ways Photoshop allows you to alter lighting.

Because of the skills I've gathered for bending light to my liking, I no longer look at an image I've taken and think, "Oh man, I wish I would have brought some flash equipment with me so there could be light spilling through the archway from behind her." I now just think, "Wouldn't it be simply fantastic to have some magical light coming from behind her? Yes, yes it would... I think I'll add some."

Making an Alice in Wonderland Portrait with 12 Hours of Photoshop

After my Star Wars photo-manipulation went viral, I was contacted by a fellow in Hong Kong who wanted to surprise his wife with a bit of Wonderland. He gave me some photos of him and his bride, and then graciously gave me artistic freedom to create the photo above.

Renee Robyn: The Photo Art Career That Started with a Motorcycle Crash

Canadian photographer and photo-manipulator Renee Robyn has had an unusual career journey -- one that started with a devastating motorcycle crash. After getting knocked off her bike and run over by a vehicle, she spent 5 days in the hospital and the next 6 months learning how to walk again.

Photography turned out to be the one thing she could do all the time during her physical rehab, and during that time Robyn ventured deep into the world of composite photo art.

Fantasy Photo Shoots Bring Hope to Kids with Cancer

Photographer Jonathan Diaz is using his imagination and portrait photography skills for a good cause. He's the founder of Anything Can Be, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based non-profit that's working to inspire hope in young cancer patients by bringing their dreams to life with photos.

An Epic Star Wars-Themed Pre-Wedding Photo Shoot

Singapore-based photographer Mezame Shashin-ka is a big fan of incorporating science fiction themes into his photography. Recently an engaged couple approached him with a special request: they wanted a Star Wars-themed pre-wedding photo shoot that would be "out of this world." Shashin-ka delivered.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Photoshopping Wings Into a Surreal Portrait

Ok, let's just be honest for a second here: everyone and everything in the world looks drastically cooler with wings. Period. It's just the way it is.

In middle school when I was heavily into my "drawing magical fantasy creatures" phase (it never ended by the way... just ask my sketchbook), I used to check out this "how to draw animals" book from the library all the time. Really they should have just given it to me, I had it checked out so often.

Giant Fantasy Scenes Created by Photographing Kids on the Floor with Everyday Things

German photographer Jan von Holleben is known for creating imaginative scenes by having kids lie on the ground and carefully arranging everyday objects around them. One of his first viral projects that featured this style was "Dreams of Flying".

His latest one is the most ambitious and elaborate of them all. Titled "Konrad Wimmel is in Town," the series features gigantic scenes that took a year to create.

Photographer Creates a Fantasy World for Her One-Handed Daughter to Show Her Anything is Possible

Photographer and mother Holly Spring's photography has always been about her daughter. Born with only one hand and suffering from something known as Hirschprung's disease, little Violet almost died from surgical complications before Holly ever got a chance to take a single picture of her.

Shortly after that, her husband bought her a DSLR, and she has been taking pictures of Violet ever since.

Bali Underwater Shipwreck Fantasy Shoot Part 2: How It All Came Together

Montreal-based photographer Benjamin Von Wong's underwater fantasy fashion shoot in a Bali shipwreck has quickly become the most popular project he has ever released. And even though he shared some behind the scenes details when the series first debuted, he's back today with a much more detailed look at how exactly these now-viral photos came to be.

Underwater Fantasy Shoot in Bali: 7 Divers, 2 Models and 1 Underwater Shipwreck

No photoshoot goes off without a hitch. But with the correct amount of planning in the way of a vision, schedule, proper team and backup equipment, the risk that you'll run into a big hitch is dramatically reduced.

One photographer who seems to have mastered putting all of those components together seamlessly is Benjamin Von Wong, but it took all of his skill and more to make sure that his most recent crazy adventure came together seamlessly.

Time-Lapse: Creating an Impressive 284-Layer ‘Super Composite’

Photography purists might want to look away on this one. The above video is a 9 minute time-lapse that speeds up 7+ hours worth of Photoshop CC work. That work was spent creating an intense composite that wound up consisting of 284 layers before it was all said and done.

Star Wars-themed Wedding Photo Shows Newlyweds Battling the Empire

Creative, imagination-filled wedding photographs are starting to become quite trendy -- at least online. Earlier this year, we shared viral photos of bridal parties running for their lives from a T-Rex and from Star Wars Imperial Walkers.

Chicago-based wedding photographer Steven Kowalski also joined in on the fun, creating the epic Star Wars-themed photograph above at a wedding earlier this month.

Bridal Model Receives Photos of Her Own Through a Fantasy Photo Shoot

Claudia Nallely Agres works as a bridal model for a living, but she hasn't yet had the joy of being a bride in a wedding of her own. Wedding photographer Ryan Brenizer wanted to change that, so he recently held a special photo shoot for Agres that resulted in some beautiful and unusual bridal portraits.

Photog Uses His Imagination to Bring Joy to Boy with Muscular Dystrophy

Slovenia photographer Matej Peljhan has a touching series of photographs titled The Little Prince, which stars a 12-year-old boy named Luka. The images show the boy exploring an imaginary world created by laying colored sheets and household objects on the ground. Peljhan created the images to give Luka the feeling of being able to do things he can't.

You see, Luka suffers from muscular dystrophy, a disease that causes his body to become weaker and weaker over time.

Creating a Dryad Costume for a Fantasy Photo Shoot on a Shoestring Budget

When I started planning a series titled DreamWorld, one of the first characters that came to me was a dryad: a nature spirit representing our connection with nature. I saw her as a strong, benevolent queen, keeping watch over the woodland creatures and protecting them. The first concept I came up with that made my heart pitter-patter with excitement was the idea of building a huge crown for her from sticks and branches. I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this, but I had a vision. And I have learned over the years that having a vision will pave the way to making it a reality, regardless of if I know how that will come about.

Fantastic Imaginary Buildings Created by Splicing Together Found Photos

Portland, Oregon-based photographer and visual artist Jim Kazanjian is like the M. C. Escher of architectural photography. His art pieces appear to be photos of some of the strangest looking buildings found in the weirdest locations, but the reason the images are so dreamlike is because they came from Kazanjian's mind rather than the real world.

Hyperphotos That Show Surreal Worlds in Mind-Boggling Detail

Gigapixel photographs are generally created by snapping a large number of photos of a scene using a special robotic camera rig, and then stitching those images together afterward using special software. Jean-François Rauzier creates similarly massive images, except his "hyperphotos" are all stitched together by hand.

More Magical Photographs of Henry the Flying Baby

We first shared photographer Rachel Hulin's The Flying Series back in February when it started getting quite a bit of attention online. The series consists of beautifully Photoshopped images of Hulin's baby boy Henry using his magical powers of flight. Since then, Hulin has added more surreal images to the set that capture Henry taking his skills to new locations and new heights.

Behind-the-Scenes Videos for Annie Leibovitz’s Disney Dream Portraits

Starting in 2007, Disney and portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz have collaborated on a series of advertisements called the Disney Dream Portrait Series. Each ad features a portrait of one or more celebrities dressed up as famous Disney movie characters. Along with the advertisements, Disney has also been releasing some behind-the-scenes glimpses showing how the photographs came together. The video above shows actress and model Olivia Wilde posing for Leibovitz as the Evil Queen from Snow White.

Fantasy Photos Based by the Drawings of Sick Children

Photographer Shawn Van Daele has launched a beautiful (and meaningful) photo project called "The Drawing Hope Project" in which he shoots magical photographs based on the drawings of children living with health conditions. The photo shoots take 1-2 hours, but combining the images in post-production takes up to 8.

Unbelievable Fantasy Photos of Ants

Photographer Andrey Pavlov's images of ants may look like they were computer-generated or created with dead insects, but they're actually real photographs of living ants. Pavlov spends hours setting up his fantasy scenes and then waits for his ant subjects to interact with his miniature props in just the right way.