Orton 3 layer effect (photoshop tutorial)

in my previous post, we tested the Orton effect using 2 layers, today, we try out the effect using a 3 layers.

Here’s the before image.

And here’s the after image.

here’s the steps by steps.

Open an image. Create 2 copies of the image from the original.

Now, lets create Levels from  Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels

Level window will pop up, move the middle dial to the left (input levels : 2) to create the overexposed look. Next duplicate the adjustment layer and arrange it in same way as before. (look like the pic below)

Next, select the top image layer, go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur. In the Gaussian Blur window, select Radius : 20 pixels. This will give us the blur effect in Orton effect.

Next, to keep sharpness in certain places / image, we will now use layer mask to do this. Again, select the top layer image, click on the “add Vector mask” on the bottom of the layer window (left photo), icon #2 from the left.

Select a brush with a fairly large size, select opacity to 50%. Now go back to your Layer Window (bottom left), click on the white layer mask next to you image (circled in red)

Before you starts painting in the image, make sure black is selected as your foreground colour (highlighted in red). Selecting the black as foreground will remove the mask while selecting white will add on mask. Hoped this help

Once you are done, we are ready to do Combination,  goto your Layer window, select the top most layer and press CTRL+G (create clipping mask), do that for the first 3 layers (like pic below on right hand side, circled in yellow)

The end result look like this. You can alaways use flatten but with this, one can always go back and work on it.

At this point, go to Layer window, select the image layer (no#4 from the top), change the blending mode to Multiply and leave the opacity to 100%. And you are all done

As you can see, the background(tree, branches, the building at the left) has the kind of blur effect to it because when i use layer mask, i had only removed the mask within the Rock Shop to keep the sharpness in the Rock Shop.