pathway to light

[squirl033]

another "ortonized" image from my trip to the Oly Peninsula this past weekend...

 

[BobH]

Nice shot, and I like that effect.

How are you doing the "Ortonizing"? Are you actually taking two images, or do you do it all in post? What setting are you using if you take two images?

 

[JaniceL]

I really like this.

 

[Rascal]

Good photo for this effect. Many times when I use this effect my wife says "now it looks blurry", but on the right photo I like the dreamy surreal look.

 

[steveeshom]

Nice, I like the soft forest. I'll have to try that with one of my Hoh pics to see how it looks.

 

[squirl033]

Nice shot, and I like that effect.

How are you doing the "Ortonizing"? Are you actually taking two images, or do you do it all in post? What setting are you using if you take two images?

thanks, folks!

Bob, this is all done in Photoshop... there's a simple process i'll post later this evening, that only requires a single image.

 

[Rascal]

I'm curious too how you run your Orton effect, or how Bob would use two images. I use a very simple method with one image duplicated.

 

[BobH]

Well, Bob is just commenting on what he's read, and I'm certainly no expert on the technique, but apparently two images was the old school method of doing this during the film era. It appears that there's not much reason to do it that way these days, unless you simply want to try the traditional approach.

The Orton image has traditionally been done 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 single slide mount to produce a beautiful, impressionistic image. We are beyond that now and with so many things in the world of digital photography, we can now duplicate the same effect in multiple ways.

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 out of focus image on tip of your in focus 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 is to use a single image a create a layer, now opening up the effect to any image you have in your collection.

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

 

[squirl033]

Here is the step-by-step recipe for making Orton images in Photoshop:
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 dupicate image as follows: “Image” > “Apply Image” Then, in the dialog box that comes up, change the blending 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 start with a Radius setting of 7 to 25 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 7-10 pixels works well.
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”.

 

[BobH]

So, with the tradiitional film method, steps 1 through 4 are done "in camera", with two images, both under-exposed, and one suitably blurred. From that point on, the technique is the same.

Funny how you need the sharp image under the softly blurred image, that's something I wouldn't have thought of, but it probably brings out the details.

 

[Rascal]

Sorry Bob if it appeared I referred to you in the third person.

I do a slight variation to this, but all of the same elements are included. Most importantly I adjust the opacity, usually to about 32%, of the orton layer after bringing it back over the original.

 

[BobH]

Rascal, you didn't refer to me in the third person, I did, just trying to make it clearer what comment I was replying to. In any case, even if you had, it wouldn't have bothered me, I don't worry about stuff like that in online discussions. It's hard to read nuances and subtle clues into writing, since you lack the visual clues of facial expression and body language. So you can't see if somebody is snarling at you or wearing a huge grin when they make a comment. Because of that, I try and go with the flow, and not worry about conversational details. Thankfully, it seems like the rest of the folks here do as well, since we've had very few disagreements.

 

[Rascal]

Agreed, just covering any misconception. My literary efforts are poor, I often don't get convey my meaning accurately.

 

[squirl033]

Sorry Bob if it appeared I referred to you in the third person.

I do a slight variation to this, but all of the same elements are included. Most importantly I adjust the opacity, usually to about 32%, of the orton layer after bringing it back over the original.

i find that's a good way to adjust the intensity of the effect. if you overdo it a bit, you can reduce it by simply reducing the opacity of the overlay layer. sort of a "season to taste" adjustment at the final step...