Tip #3578 - Orton Effect
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Orton
Effect
Many years ago, Michael
Orton used two images together to create a brand new effect. He achieved
it by using one focused and one unfocused image. The two images were then
combined together to create the new effect that was aptly named the Orton
Effect. Now, you can create this effect by taking two images
of the object, one focused and one unfocused. Or, if you're smart (depending
on how you look at it), you can simply do it by using Adobe Photoshop.
So, today, I will teach you how to create the famous Orton Effect in Photoshop,
all by yourself. Though at the time of origination, the effect was done
using film, we will adopt it to digital photography today!
Go ahead and pick
out an image that you would like to use during the course of this tutorial.
The image I am going to use is given below.
Now, open your image
in Photoshop and start by duplicating the background layer. To avoid confusion
later on, I would suggest that you name all the layers you make in a way
that you will remember. For instance, you can name the copy of the layer
“Layer 1” or maybe even “Sharpened Layer,” etc.
I am simply going to name my duplicate layer “1,” but choose
what's best for you. Any name will work, just as long as you can later
remember what it’s for. Now, without doing anything to this layer,
duplicate it yet again. I named the second copy of the main layer “2.”
Now, with the layer “2” selected, change the blending mode
of this layer to Screen.
Next, merge the layer
“2” down with the first copy of the original layer named “1.”
To merge down, simply right click on the layer and choose Merge
Down. You will then have two layers. One with the original background
layer and the other will be the first copy of it (in which I named it
“1"). Now, right click on layer “1” and duplicate
it yet again. I chose to name this one “3.” Our main intention
is to blur this image a bit. Blurring is the essential ingredient of achieving
this effect, however, what’s to be noticed is that too much of it
will ruin the effect and too little of it will make it impossible for
the effect to shine in all its glory.
The tricky part is
that here, in this tutorial, the amount of blur we are going to use isn’t
fixed. Depending upon the resolution of the image, this will change, which
essentially means, the bigger the image, the larger the blur value. I
have one last piece of advice about using the blur effect before we go
on. The idea is to use enough of it so that the outlines and shapes are
still visible, but the details are not. If this confuses you, just play
around with the blur slider for awhile and you will see what I mean.
As you can see, for
this, we are going to use the Gaussian blur for this
effect. To use this, go to Filter, Blur,
Gaussian Blur. Now, we are almost finished. The only
thing that needs to be done is like adding salt to the almost ready dish.
Our image is 99 percent finished. What you do with it now is entirely
up to your taste and how you want the final image to look. A few things
you could do would be to change the opacity of the layer “3”
or even alter the brightness, curves, color, etc. Below, you'll see the
image I ended up with.
It looks a bit dreamy,
doesn’t it?! Now, this effect will obviously give you different
results with different kinds of images. As I say in all my Photoshop articles,
try different things. Go through WorldStart's other Photoshop
articles and combine two different techniques together. Play around
with sliders and various values. If you're creative enough, Photoshop
will unveil itself as a powerful tool. Happy creativity, everyone!
~ Yogesh Bakshi
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