Orton tecnique?

[HoedadKid]

I started this in another thread, so I've moved it here heeding Bob's good advice.

Recently I was admiring a photo someone here did of some waves splashing on the rocks in Newport. There was a texture and a softness, that was really soothing about it. While playing around with an old photo a few days ago, I think I discovered a way to achieve that look. I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried this (maybe it's very common,) if it's frowned upon, or what folks think about it.

So I discovered that if I over-sharpen an image, and then do a desired amount of noise reduction, I get a very cool outcome. It seems to soften everything up, while leaving edges very crisp. Just sharpening, or just noise-reducing doesn't give me this look, but combining the two has been a lot of fun. I won't snap off this thread with an image of my own, but if you wanna see what I'm talking about, I did it with my new Autzen image.

Here are a few examples of a few that I've played around with using this new-found technique.

I especially like what it does to smooth out skin-tone. I think it looks great on foliage as well...

So, whatchya all thaynk? Lame? Cool? Overdone?

Orton/Ortiz technique?

 

[JaniceL]

You used very little of it on the little girl, I think it's perfect. I also like the dreamy look of the forest. The skateboarder would work better I think if you had more of a background than the very white sky. I find that it draws my eye away from the young man more than I like.

 

[HoedadKid]

Thanks, Janice. That's a great way to describe how this affect looks to me ; dreamy. Like all effects, restraint is key and something I have a very tough time with, haha.

I think I agree with you about the shot of the skateboarder... The drab sky is distracting.
Here's another shot of him I did using this effect, from another angle, though.

 

[JaniceL]

Much better. I also like the exposure on his face much more also.

 

[JaniceL]

Something you might try on the skateboarder is in photoshop make another layer and apply a heavier effect and then mask out the face a bit so it has less of the effect. I'm curious what that would look like. Ive done that on some images for an interesting combination textures and to bring out a particular area of an image.

Drop by drop, day by day by Janice L, on Flickr

 

[HoedadKid]

Super cool photo, and and an excellent idea. It makes me want to watch "Memoirs of a Geisha" again! lol. Love it...

Lemme give it a shot and see what I can do...

I'll report back!

 

[HoedadKid]

Ok, here's a shot at that. I did it quickly and kind of poorly, but I get the idea. WOW. I personally love the effect. I left his face and part of the board, sharp. I severely softened the rest. I'm diggin' it!

You rule, Janice! I'm sure this effect has been used a billion times by pro photographers, but it's sure new to me. And it's a ton of fun. Awesome.

Did I ever say I loved photography before!? lol.

 

[HoedadKid]

Oh, and to brag btw... the little girl is my oldest daughter. She stuns me with her beauty. Proud papa, I am

 

[squirl033]

i've used "Orton" processing on some of my shots to achieve the same kind of soft, dreamy feel. it doesn't look right on everything... only certain images really lend themselves to the process. actual Orton processing is a bit more complicated than just oversharpening and then cranking up the noise reduction, but it also achieves something much closer to what Michael Orton actually did with his technique.

the actual Orton method involves blending two exposures, one properly exposed and sharp, the other overexposed and purposely out of focus. when you overlay the two and merge them in Photoshop, it produces a very dreamlike image. you can vary the degree of softness by varying the amount of blur in the overexposed image. Michael Orton achieved this with slides, mounting the two slides in one frame before printing. in Photoshop, you can simulate his technique with just one image, or you can actually shoot the photos that way if you know at the time you want to "Ortonize" them.

here's one example of the result using Photoshop to simulate the Orton process... i call it "Lothlorien", for obvious reasons...

 

[JaniceL]

Ok, here's a shot at that. I did it quickly and kind of poorly, but I get the idea. WOW. I personally love the effect. I left his face and part of the board, sharp. I severely softened the rest. I'm diggin' it!

You rule, Janice! I'm sure this effect has been used a billion times by pro photographers, but it's sure new to me. And it's a ton of fun. Awesome.

Did I ever say I loved photography before!? lol.

That's cool. Thanks for giving it a try.

Cute daughter, you must be proud.

 

[HoedadKid]

Thank you, Rocky. That's great info. And indeed, I'm sure it doesn't look great with all types of images. But, it's another tool to throw in my bag of tricks...

I'm exited to try it with some of my own PNW, heavily-mossed forest-scape photographs. There's something about giving a photograph a dream-like feel in processing that seems fitting, when my intention some of the time is to try and re-create through memory (dream-esk,) that moment and place in time.

I'm definitely going to give the real Orton technique a try as well. Although Pshop can help and do a ton, there are always subtleties through actual exposures that seem to really elevate certain photographs above others. These are the things i yearn to learn.

Great shot, Rocky! Feels like home, to me. Could that be Sahalie Falls trail, btw!? lol. Just a "shot" in the dark.

Thank you, again.

 

[squirl033]

that was shot on the trail to Staircase Rapids, along the Skokomish River on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. you're right, though, mossy forest scenes do lend themselves quite well to that kind of processing.

the "real" Orton technique used slide film, which is getting hard to find in many places, but the Photoshop method yields almost the same results with a lot less work. i have CS2, but i expect the same steps will work in any version. here's how you do it...

1. Open any image you wish to try the technique on. Make a duplicate of the image (“Image” > “Duplicate”). Close the original image.

2. Lighten the image as follows: “Image” > “Apply Image” Then, in the dialog box that comes up, change the bending mode to “Screen” and the Opacity to 100%. This will give you an appropriately overexposed image.

3. Duplicate this overexposed image (“Image” > “Duplicate”).

4. Blur this second image (“Filter” > “Blur” > “Gaussian Blur”) and in the dialog box use a Radius setting of 15 to 50 pixels – the higher the pixel setting the blurrier the photo and the more ‘painterly’ the image (but you can go too far!). Experiment with different settings, for my tastes and for the size of my digital files, a radius of about 25 pixels works perfect.

5. Now select the move tool from the Photoshop tool bar (or just press “v” on your keyboard for quicker access to the move tool). Hold down the “shift” key and use your mouse to drag and drop the blurry image onto the sharp one (don’t let go of the shift key until after you release the mouse button or the images won’t be in perfect alignment).

6. Bring up the layers palette in Photoshop (“F7” is the keyboard shortcut). Under the word “Layers” in the layers palette will be a menu box of blending modes. Change the blending mode from “normal” to “multiply”.

7. Now ‘flatten’ the two layers by pressing “CTRL+E” or by clicking on the sideways triangle in the layers palette to select “flatten image”.

 

[ejones]

I think regardless of the effect applied that if people are in the shot then the eyes need to be well lit. In the first shot of the skate boarder his eyes are dark. There's some light and color in his eyes making it much better.

I think I'll have to play around with this idea some.

 

[HoedadKid]

Rocky-
I've seen so many moss-scapes and needle-laiden trails that they all start to blend together in my mind sometimes. Not that I enjoy them any less for that fact. I've never been to the Skokomish...looks gorgeous.
And, wow. Thanks for sharing that process! I sort of stuck my foot in my mouth when I said I was going to try the real Orton effect, not realizing that it involved slide film and such. lol. However, there seem to be many ways in Pshop to get similar results with sometimes minutely different outcomes... sometimes drastic ones. I really like the described process above and look forward to giving it a try. I'll be sure to post the results... If I don't screw it up too bad.
Once again, thanks a billion for posting that process, that's mighty kind!

ejones-
I agree, the lighting is fairly poor in that first shot. I'm still very much a novice when it comes to portrait photography. Sometimes I don't even think to peer through the viewfinder and check the lighting on the eyes. I will in the future, though Thanks for your input.

 

[HoedadKid]

Ok, well here are two images I did.

The first is one I did using your technique, Rocky. The rest were ones where I used my over-sharpening/softening method. Both processes worked great for me, IMO. These were all shots that had been waiting to be processed, lying around in my library... some I wasn't too happy with until after my "darkroom" work.

Diggin' your method, Squirrel!

Thank you again.

T.-

Fern Canyon- near Crescent City CA
View attachment 4602

Sahalie Falls-
View attachment 4603

Kenai River, Alaska-
View attachment 4604

Crescent City, CA-
View attachment 4605

Land of Giants Trail- Trees of Mystery, CA
View attachment 4606
Diggin' your method, Squirrel!

Thank you again.

T.-

 

[squirl033]

glad to help! i've had lots of fun playing with the Orton technique... it offers a bit more flexibility and control than the sharpening/NR method, and it seems to add saturation to the colors as well.

here's one i did a few years ago, using your "oversharpen & noise reduction" method. i actually stumbled across it by accident - the photo was shot with my old Panasonic FZ20, which has a very small sensor and is very noisy, especially compared to DSLRs. i'd sharpened the image, probably a bit much, then ran it through Neat Image to clean up the noise, and this was what I got. i remember thinking at the time that it was kinda cool - of course, that was long before i heard of the "Orton process". i haven't processed this one using the Orton process, but i might try it just for a side-by-side comparison of results...

 

[HoedadKid]

Very cool. Both of these processes lend themselves very well to photographs with lots of texture, such as this one. It almost allows blades of grass, plants, and other foliage to come alive with a sort of "3d-esk-ness." Love it. I'd love to see the comparison of this one if and when you do it. I might try doing one as well.

You are defininitely correct about the saturation, also. The method that I have been using seems to leech out some of the color. During noise reduction, I crank down "reduce color noise," but still have to edit a touch back in.

Awesome stuff all around. I am so happy to be finally seeing the results that I have always dreamed of achieving.

This forum rocks!

Thanks, Rocky.

Cheers!
T.