Father uses Photoshop to create elaborate portraits of daughters

Published on May 12, 2014

He may be an IT professional by day, but after hours, John Wilhelm taps into his creative side and creates digital portraits of his daughters, transporting them to magical destinations across real and imaginary realms.

Wilhelm has photographed and Photoshopped a variety of individuals, ranging from strangers to spouses, but one recurring theme among his images is his daughters, who are frequently digitally imposed into classic fairy tales or mythical worlds. One image, for example, shows his eldest daughter, Lou, adorned in overalls crouched next to a tree, which looks as if it has been chomped upon by a beaver. Lou has two large buck teeth, making her resemble a beaver - but with pigtails.

Another image features one of his daughters dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, carrying a picnic basket with treats and howling next to a wolf. Wilhelm explained to Mashable that while he did not pursue photography professionally, he enjoyed it as a hobby and felt as though the skills translated well to the real world. He told Bored Panda that he uses Photoshop for its various photo-enhancement features.

"Most of my images are heavily manipulated but not all of them are compositions," Wilhelm said. "If an image works straight out of the camera I just improve it (beauty retouching, cleanup, level corrections, sharpening, colors and tones, emphasize light, etc.). What I really love is to bring different images together to create something new."

Digital software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, is an ideal option for individuals looking to enhance the quality of an image or document. Although Wilhelm may not be a professional photographer, he has received a great deal of press for his photo collections - including features on The Huffington Post and The Mirror. People looking to harness their digital creation skills and learn how these applications can benefit their everyday lives should take Photoshop training offered by American Graphics Institute.

About the author

Jennifer Smith is a user experience designer, Photoshop expert, educator and author based in Boston. She is the author of more than 20 books on design tools and processes, including Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies, Adobe Creative Cloud Digital Classroom, and Photoshop Digital Classroom. She has been awarded a Microsoft MVP three times for her work with user experience design in creating apps for touch, desktop, and mobile devices. Jennifer holds the CPUX-F credential from the UXQB.

Jennifer delivers UX training and UX consulting for large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and independent software vendors. She has been hired by Adobe and Microsoft to deliver training workshops to their staff, and has traveled to Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to deliver courses and assist on UX design projects. She has extensive knowledge of modern UX Design, and worked closely with the Microsoft Windows team to create educational material and deliver UX workshops to key partners globally on behalf of Microsoft. Jennifer works with a wide range of prototyping tools including XD, Sketch, Balsamiq, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blend for Visual Studio. She also works extensively in the fields of presentation design and visual design.