The Orton Effect (photoshop tutorial)

The Orton Effect is named after Michael Orton who first used the technique is a sandwich of two images, one in focus the other out of focus. Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant have both used the technique successfully in their work as well.

So today, we will try and explore this technique in digital photo. I have the below image ready in black & white.

Right-click on the background layer in the layers palette and select Duplicate layer. With the duplicate layer selected choose Image > Apply Image, select the Screen blend mode and click Ok.

Duplicate this layer and set its blend mode to Multiply. Doing so has the effect of cancelling out the lightening effect from applying the Screen mode. With this topmost layer still selected apply a blur to it using Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Adjust the blur Radius to your choice of value – I used 5 but choose the best for your image.

here’s the final image.

lets compare before and after

Check out my latest post on Orton 3 layer effect.

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