# Has anyone heard of the Orton Effect?



## Big Bully (Apr 21, 2008)

I just learned a term in photography called the Orton Effect. Does anyone have any experience in it?


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## kaiy (Apr 22, 2008)

A special effect developed by Michael Orton from Vancouver Island, it involves sandwiching slides, one sharp, one soft.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0106/dw0106-1.html

These days, it probably refers to a digital technique using software (photoshop or the like), using layering techniques that have been developed to mimic the original.

http://pcin.net/update/2006/11/01/the-orton-effect-digital-photography-tip-of-the-week/


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## Big Bully (Apr 22, 2008)

So basically what the Orton Effect does is make your object pop in your photo?


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## abraxas (Apr 22, 2008)

Big Bully said:


> So basically what the Orton Effect does is make your object pop in your photo?



I've thought of it as a softening, romantic, maybe Victorian type effect. It's fairly easy to achieve.  If you have photoshop, copy the background to a new layer, use guassian blur to soften, then change the transparency of the layer.  Fun.

Used here on the body of the bird- very lightly
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111081

Another implementation
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=112448

And the most recent
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120197

AND in fact, the last link has the -real- instructions on how to accomplish the effect. Never mind my cheap-seat mods.


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## kaiy (Apr 23, 2008)

I applied the digital technique here to a photo I shot last week, using Photoshop. The effect softens detail while popping and saturating color. Here are my after and before photos.


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## Coldow91 (Apr 23, 2008)

I am shooting a roll of slide film now, and am definitely going to try this at least once


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## JamesD (Apr 24, 2008)

Hmm... wondering whether this would work with negative film.  I'm going to have to look into it.


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## Big Bully (Apr 24, 2008)

So what is it called when you melt two different pictures together to create one picture? Double exposing?


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## JamesD (Apr 24, 2008)

Sandwiching, actually.


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## saltface (Apr 24, 2008)

Another Photoshop filter you could try is underpainting and using the same techniques.


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## Big Bully (Apr 24, 2008)

Underpainting? What is that?


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## Sobek5150 (Apr 25, 2008)

Alot of those affects that people are getting by either layering in photoshop, or sandwiching slides, looks a heck of alot like they used a softening filter.

Pretty cool, mostly because you don't get as much of an effect from the filter unless you have strong light points.  Where as with this other method, The Orton Effect, it seems even a photo with the most diffused light(like on a cloudy day) can be turned into a scene incorporating this effect. 

Thumbs up, especially with the photoshop.  Having control over what area's of the "softened" layer to "soften" is a plus.


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