This week’s creative challenge theme is BEFORE/AFTER Photoshop.
Sometimes when we look at images it might feel unattainable to achieve a higher level of the craft but I do feel that when you see the beginnings of a picture that really can help a long way in inspiring and motivating us to look at our work and ask ourselves what’s possible?
This gallery really shows what a difference color toning and compositing elements can make to an image!
We hope seeing these before/after images will inspire you to think of all the possibilities that are at your fingertips with just a bit of creativity and imagination!
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Fairytales and Fantasy & The Color Lab Collective.
My inspiration for these photoshoots were mythical creatures, an elf from the forest and a nymph. I hope you like it. ❤️

Fulfilling my life goal of becoming a bog witch and turning unsuspecting victims into animals.
Shout out to Teddy Oldenburg for providing the original photo.
Image 1: I needed a dark grey backdrop, so used my house. I made the dress out of a wedding dress and a thousand layers of Halloween creepy fabric. She played a spider savior, rescuing these creatures that are often hated and misunderstood.
Image 2: I used my kitchen counter as my location to get the angle I wanted. Natural light from my patio door. Total make it work moment. lol I revised a wedding dress and rebuilt the bodice with Christmas ornaments.
Wanting to play with textures to create a bit of a graphic more than a portrait. Fun process.
Shot the floral in Germany and Aubrey in studio.
Dress is just tulle fabric fasted w clamps and an underbust corset.
Toned with Infinite Color panel & The Color Lab ‘Mulberry’ action.

“Feral”
My model, Ashley Koser is a CF warrior who has a set of lungs in her body that once belonged to someone else. She is such an incredible and adventurous model to work with-always up for anything. When I covered her entire body in this makeup, and added this wild wig and twigs to it, she instantly embodied this feral creature and brought this character to life. There are many cool photos from this 2018 shoot that deserve to see the light of day, but there was something in this pose, this expression that I couldn’t resist editing right away. I immediately envisioned her on a rock in the water under a starry sky. I used a handful of images I collected from unsplash to create this misty world for her.
This is one of my favourite things to do.
To make de picture I made to look like the image in my head.
This is one I made this month and really like how it turned out❤️
Model: Jela Smeding
Muah: Dominique Haveman
This is the first Mermaid shoot I ever did. The model is in what is basically a fish tank for humans, up on a platform, sitting in the middle of the host’s front yard. This shoot presented many challenges that I did not expect and was not really prepared for, but in the end I think we managed to get some good work out of it. I am happy with it mostly because it forced me to learn a lot!
I‘ve been inspired by Renaissance paintings and some themes from that time, so the idea was to create a more dramatic “story”, a scene of pain and submission by an angelic creature. After many, many layers of clouds, I got this result! Hope you like it! ♥
I love yellow tones and ethereal effects on my photos.
Photo: Lüne Photographie
Model et costume: L’Antre des brumes Création de costumes
Crown: Candice Angelini
I would like to share with you before / after one of my favorite “selfie”.
Image 2: Queen of the Clouds
The topic of this set was “Lilith boudoir”. And every Lilith needs a snake. So I made one 😊
Photo/Retouch: Iseris – Photography
Model: Fumihime Kurosawa
Dress: Avalon Saez
Headdress: IVY-Design
Assistant: Janina Gold
I love to recreate universe. If you’re interested, I have made a video where I show step by step the creation of the first picture :
https://vimeo.com/275535073
My Facebook page: Kairi’s Sanctuary
As a photographer I find joy in bringing the quality of a painting in a photograph.
Helped a fashion design graduate to do this shoot last year. It was really a fun session 😁
Image 1: ‘Transe’
Model and costume designer: White Snake Créations
Make up artist: Marie Fontaine
Image 2: ‘Gaïa’
Color toning and posing is the key for me to bring an image to life. I always try to do as much as possible on set, mostly because I am not a good photoshop technician but also because it makes it more real when it existed on set.
Photography: Isabelle Hanneuse Photography
Costume designer: Arteïde Studio
Model: Audrey Foh
Make up artist: Houyam – Make up
Image 1: Edited with Evergreen and Glacial Frost actions
Image 2: Editing with Glacial Frost
Image 3: Edited with Twilight Dreams and Infinite Color Panel
The original image was in the desert here in Las Vegas. So I made her into a deadly sea siren but she is actually a warm and amazing person.
Lots more on IG @ jwcreative.art
Sharing perhaps one of my favourite before and afters ever from one of my most recent picks for Bella’s before/after challenge! If you want to know more, I’ve also broken this entire edit down on my website 😄
I met this beautiful girl on a fair and I asked her if I could photograph her, afterwards I edited the photo and added another background and props.
Image 1: Color toned with Glacial Frost from The Enchanted Collection
Image 2: A week before this shoot I took a trip to an amazing place up in the forest of dean called Puzzlewood – the most mystical forest ever, full of moss and windy trees etc – I wanted to use on of the shots i took and integrate some other overlays I had including the curled lantern. The trees looked like they could have magical homes inside them, lots of fairy doors and big gaps in the trunks etc so used one of the shots I took with the old antique keys.
Image 3: What started off as a ballet shoot, ended up going in a totally different direction towards the end! When she flicked her hair up it just looked like it belonged to be floating underwater.
www.instagram.com/makememagicaluk
So for this week challenge took my recent work and make a transition video of the process, I painted all the tears so it was a bit challenging because I try to do everything by myself.
My main inspiration comes from surrealism so I try to think outside of the box.
www.instagram.com/elosofotografo
This shot actually took place at the very end of another shoot when my co-collaborator Amber and I discovered two charred sticks from a small fire. Being the fantasy nerds we are, we decided to last minute affix them to our beautiful model Tara, thus giving rise to the reign of the Demon Queen.
My IG: instagram.com/lnshipphoto
MUA: instagram.com/burgers_works
Model: instagram.com/raven_lass
Image 1: The original picture has been taken 3 years ago in Milano and I actually only edited it few weeks ago. I’m recently having a lot of fun with Photoshop, completely reinventing worlds and realities! What a powerful tool to bring crazy ideas to life 😍
Model : Laury Genin
Dress : Stéphanie Legrelle
Image 2: The original picture had been taken 1h away from Dubai and the gorgeous model is the friend I was travelling with. It was actually very windy that day, she could barely stand on the sand
Photographer: IG @Letizia.camboni
IG: @liancary
I’m a sucker for blue tones 🦋
https://www.instagram.com/mennatullah__hossam/
I absolutely love composites and could not pick a favorite.
Image 1: Models: Michelle Borrero and M. Adler
MUA: Vanessa Angelina Adler
Photog: Captivatin’ Mickey Photography
Image 2: Model: Abe Comendador
MUA: Vanessa Angelina Adler
Photog: Captivatin’ Mickey Photography
It’s a self portrait and my boyfriend assisted me in taking the original photograph. I love creating fantasy worlds in Photoshop! ❤️
IG: @mihav_art
4 Image composite. Sky shot here in my home town. Port of Alexandria, Egypt shot several years ago, sand shot in Dubai by my husband while on a business trip. Model shot in my studio.

Shot this a while ago in the Netherlands with model Tino Tenda while she was wearing FairyTas magical clothing

Couldn’t pick one so here’s two before/afters for the #bellakotakchallenge !
The backdrops I composite out of 17th/18th/19th century paintings.
I feel like it’s been forever since I was able to do anything fantasy related, but I had the opportunity to do something fun! Changed perspective, color correcting and a ton of de-noise and clarity contrast later, I got the result I wanted!
@solitadphoto
I have taken this photo on a fantasy event at Veltheimsburg germany last weekend called MaNa Festival. I met those beautyful girls for the first time and fell in love with this picture. I thought it should be edited darker with some moonlight. All edits are done with camera raw and photoshop. I do mostly work with brushes and nik filter and finalize in camera raw. If you like to see more of my work feel free to check out my instagram.
Instagram.com/stylethempretty
This one was definitely a fun one.
This beautiful collaboration with some of the most amazing artist, Jessica Dru, Bryan Forrest, Melissa Ng, Vanessa Walton and Lilly B. Haven. This was truly a magical night!!!
I love when “before / after” is funny
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