The Orton Effect: Creating Impressionistic Images
Using the Orton Effect, you can create images that are impressionistic, ethereal, surreal, etc. The digital version of this effect was created by Michael Orton and he wrote an article about it in Popular Photography.
Before digital photography, "slide sandwiches" were used to create the same effect. I learned this technique from Andre Gallant at a photography workshop in New Brunswick, Canada. Andre calls them "Dreamscapes" and has a beautiful book by this name. He would create two overexposed slides of the same subject, one with sharp focus and the other blurred. Then we would sandwich the two slides together and print from the newly created slide.
In this lens, I will show you some of my Orton images and explain how to create this effect digitally.
My Latest Orton Photo
taken in Merano, Italy
This particular photo lends itself very well to the Orton technique. It gives the flowers an impressionistic look and it adds to the mystery of the path that the woman is going down.
Here's How I Do It
This is the Original Photo
Step 1
Open your photo in Photoshop Elements (or other editing software) and create a duplicate layer.
Step 2
On the original layer, go into levels and move the middle slider to the left from 1.0 to 2.0. This creates an overexposed copy of your original photo.
Step 3
On the duplicate layer, go into levels and move the middle slider to the left from 1.0 to 1.5. This creates a slightly overexposed version of this layer. Then, on the same layer, click on Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur, and set the radius to approximately 25 pixels. You can experiment with this number.
Step 4
Now, combine the two layers by clicking on "Multiply" in the Layers menu. With this photo, I then flattened the image and slightly lightened it using the middle slider on Levels.
Here's the After Photo
Video by Some Other Bob
on a 3-layer Orton Effect
If You Prefer to Read a Book
and see some beautiful images
Dreamscapes: Exploring Photo Montages
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $30.00 (as of 11/29/2009) 
List Price: $30.00
Photo Impressionism and the Subjective Image (Freeman Patterson Photography)
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/29/2009)
List Price: $19.95
Orton Links
- Orton Imagery - A "How to" guide for Photographers
- Nature Photography Online Magazine
- Tutorial by Chris Empey
- Open Source Photography - tutorials, tips, and how tos.
- Orton Techniques using Paint Shop Pro X
- Fotonomy Blog
- Making A Great Sandwich
- The old fashioned way, using slides - by Tony deGroot
- Orton Group on Flickr
- Any Flickr user can post their Orton photos here.
- Andre Gallant's Website
- Great montages by a master!
- Orton Effect using GIMP
- Ichimusai's Place - a blog.
Here are some of my Orton Photos
What do you think?
Will you try the Orton effect? Why or why not?
Del.icio.us bookmarks
Remembering Italy
An Orton Project I am Working On
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Visions of Italy
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After two trips to Italy in the past three years, it is officially my favorite country! This page will outline the beginnings of a project that will evolve into a book and prints available online. Inspired by a beautiful book called Italian Dreams a...
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- kab kab Sep 7, 2009 @ 4:13 pm
- It's beautiful and full of fantasy - I think I will try it.
About the Author
Lensmaster kimmanleyort has been a member since April 7 2009, has rated 1,031 lenses, favorited 574, and has created 70 lenses from scratch. Kim Ort donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund. This member's top-ranked page is "Pumpkin Parfait, Anyone?". See all my lenses
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