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This may have been covered before, but just in case any new members have seen the word "Orton" and didn't like to ask, here it is again.........

The Orton Effect

The Orton Effect is named after Michael Orton, a Canadian photographer from BC who may have been one of the first to use the technique of making a 'sandwich' of two images, one in focus the other out of focus. Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant have both used the technique successfully in their work as well.

It's worth considering the presentation of the final image before even taking the picture. The Orton image is best seen either on-screen as a slide or as a large print - a lot of the effect is lost in small prints and I'd suggest 10"x8" as about the minimum print size. Ortons have traditionally been made by using slide film with the first, sharp, image overexposed by two stops and the second, out of focus image, over exposed by one stop. It is important to use a tripod for this type of work to ensure your photographic elements remain in register on the film. The shots were then sandwiched together in a single slide mount to produce a beautiful, impressionistic image. Proficient darkroom users could make the effect with negatives sandwiched together under the enlarger. Digital photograhers have it easy! We can now replicate the same effect in multiple ways.

There are a few digital cameras that can give you multiple images in one 'frame' with the camera deciding on the exposure value. The technique would be similar to film - one exposure blurred and one sharp. No need to worry about the exposures values but you need to open up the lens to reduce the depth of field for the blurred image, so Aperture Priority is the best choice. Of course, manual exposure would work but adds complication in that the camera needs even more touching between the two shots, risking camera movement.

For purists, you can use the same technique as with film, two images, overexposed the same way, and in your image editing program place your blurred image on top of your sharp image as a layer and choose multiply as your blending mode. Of course this means always taking at least two images of your scene and always using a tripod.

Another method, now probably the most common and certainly the simplest and quickest, is to use a single image to create a layer - you could therefore try the effect with any image you have in your collection. A poor picture will probably not be saved by this effect, but a 'not quite' picture can benefit.

Using Photoshop Elements, (any other program that uses layers is fine), open your image. Check Levels, Contrast and Hue/Saturation. Make sure it's sharp and about as good as you can get it, including any cropping/straightening etc you need to do. At this stage you may like to save the image as an improved version of the original.

In the Layers palette, duplicate the Background layer (Right click on the background layer and choose duplicate, or click and drag the layer to the 'Create a new layer' icon or just use Ctrl+J) and name that layer Blur.

Create another duplicate of the Background layer and name that Sharp. You should now have three layers - stacked top to bottom as Blur, Sharp and Background.

Change the Blending mode of the Sharp layer to Screen

Select the Blur layer. On the Filter Menu, choose Blur - Gaussian Blur.
Depending on the resolution of the image you are using, the amount of blur needed will vary. Use enough that the shapes are still visible, but detail is not. As a rough guide, 12% is good for a 6Mp image, going up to about 25% for 12Mp. (probably doesn't seem logical, but that's how it is)

Change the blending mode of the Blur layer to Multiply.

You will now have an Orton, but it will probably be a little dark. Try different settings with the Opacity slider for the Blur layer (maybe down to 60-70%), try changing the blending mode of the Sharp layer to 'Normal' and also add an adjustment layer on top for Levels and try some variations there. Or lighten the background layer by inserting a Levels or Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer on top of it.

When you're happy, Flatten Image (squash all the layers together) and Save - with another name, of course.

As long as you have your original, you can try it all again until you're either happy or thoroughly fed-up. Like many other techniques, it's not something that should be overdone.
PSE6 on WinXP, Pentax K10d...... and now a Canon G10.

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That's a wonderful explanation, Geoff. I did not know the details of the film technique. It sure makes me want to test the double exposure while shooting, and find suitable subjects. Many thanks, and I hope to see more of your tutorials!
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Great explanation and I'm off to try the tutorial! THanks. -L
Best explanation I've seen so far. Very clear. Here's a quick one I did following the tut.
OrtonEffectTroutLilies.jpg
OrtonEffectTroutLilies.jpg (74 KiB) Viewed 2796 times
Geoff, many thanks for spurring my curiosity.
I new how Orton originally came about, never had the idea of attempting to do it the hard way :D So, I decided to play this morning; walked to the gardens of the church near my home.

Image

Image

Michael Orton is a better man than I am. The highlights are so blown when I try the "classic method", there was little I could do in Elements to try and recover. The sky is especially bad. I sorta like the double exposure merged by the camera.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Very interesting comparisons. You've got the "Elements Orton" shots just right - though you could give them a little boost by reducing the blur layer opacity a little and/or running a Levels Adjustment. The 'classic' shots don't appear to be aligned. The in-camera merges are very good, but lacking that Orton 'mystery'. You can find various PSE Actions that do all of the blending/blurring etc for you. I'll keep an eye out for one.
PSE6 on WinXP, Pentax K10d...... and now a Canon G10.

Gallery
Thanks for commenting, Geoff,

Alignment - Yeah. I trashed my first image several times and started over when I realized I had nudged the camera out of position. I have a cheap tripod that's not rock solid and was being very, very careful to try to make sure nothing changed. The workflow was 1) take a shot on autofocus (image for my Elements Orton), 2) still on autofocus, use the EV button to overexpose by 2 stops - take a shot, 3) switch to manual focus, blur the image (make sure I turned the focus ring and not the zoom ring :D - I did that several times), change the EV down to +1 stop - take the second shot.

Forgetting the alignment issue - I still don't know how to handle the blown highlights produced by the "classic method". This was especially apparent in the sky on what I called "Orton-1" and in the base of the statue on "Orton-2". The underlying detail was simply flat out gone.

Rusty

PS - what I'm keen to figure out is how to replicate, in Elements, something I remember from a photography magazine article way back in the 1950s. As I recall, the term "Solarize" was used. The photog writing the article would take his negative out of the developing tank, about half-way thru, flash the light on and quickly off, return the film to the developing tank and complete normal processing. Said about 90% of his images were quickly trashed, 9% were OK, an occasional "masterpiece". I saw, of course, only the keepers - WOW, very interesting. (he was working with nudes :D )
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Rusty,
There are numerous solarization filters and plug-ins out there. I've used some of the freebies from Flaming Pear in the past.
Chas
Chas's Gallery
f/16 on a sunny day.....:)
Yes, Chas,

I have played around with solarize filters; couldn't even close to what I remember this man showing. To replicate in Elements, I can only think of some very tricky masking. What his "flash of light" did was only affect part of the negative. So, you ended up with an image, part of which is "regular B&W" and part is "solarized" -- as I recall, it was almost as if part was inverted and had an entirely different grain pattern.

The fact that his subject was the female form is probably one reason it had such an effect on this high school kid :biggrin:

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Rusty said "WOW, very interesting. (he was working with nudes)".......... Well in that case it wouldn't matter what kind of Filter was used, as long it wasn't an Infra Red one.

But there's a Solarize filter in PSE - in the 'Stylize' group. No idea how it decides onthe colours that it puts in the pictures but you can get different effects from about half of the Blend Modes.
PSE6 on WinXP, Pentax K10d...... and now a Canon G10.

Gallery
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