Achieving dreams with the Orton effect

Ever wonder how those dreamy pics you see thoughout the internet got processed? One answer -- Orton imagery.

Orton imagery, also called an Orton slide sandwich, is a photography technique which blends two completely different photos of the same scene, resulting in a distinctive mix of high and low detail areas within the same photo. It was originated by photographer Michael Orton. - Wiki

Here's a quick tutorial that would enable you to achieve that effect in less than 2 minutes... well, you can do it in less than 1 minute if you're quick to the draw.

The following steps summarize the entire tutorial:
1. Open an image in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the background layer; change its blending mode to screen.
3. Duplicate the background layer again; change its blending mode to multiply; apply Gaussian blur.
4. Sharpen the image.

Yup, it's that simple, really.

By the way, I'm assuming that you already know your way around Photoshop before trying this one out. I will not show you how to duplicate layers, how to set the blending modes, how flatten the image, nor how to sharpen the image.

To get a better handle on things, let's get on with it.

Step 1: Fire up Photoshop and open an image.

Step 2: Duplicate the Background layer. Name the duplicate layer "Screen layer." Set the Screen layer's blending mode to "Screen."

Step 3: Duplicate the Background layer (again). Name this new layer "Multiply layer." Set the Multiply layer's blending mode to, yes, "Multiply." Put this layer on top of the Screen layer.

Your layers window should now look very similar to this:


Step 4: Apply Gaussian blur to the Multiply layer. The radius of your blur can range from 8 pixels to 24 pixels. Experiment with the radius setting until you get that "dreamy" look in your image. I used a radius of 8 pixels for this one.

Step 5: Flatten the image. Apply a bit of sharpening to bring out the details in the edges of the flower. I think I sharpened this one up to 30%.

Step 6: This step is optional. Since setting the blending mode of a layer to "Multiply" increases the saturation of the colors considerably, you might want to tone down the image's saturation a bit. I de-saturated this to around -20.

Orton imagery is primarily a great processing technique for landscapes and foliage in general. However, there are some images wherein using Orton would simply make the image worse. I've seen some people go Orton-crazy and post-process their images just for the sake of using this technique on photos. Not good. Orton imagery is not for every photo. Personally, I've tried this method on hundreds of my photos and only a select few get to be posted on my Flickr account.

Parting shot:

More vibrant skies with Adobe Lightroom

Lightroom Tip # 1

Read my post before this one. Replace all words that are "Photoshop" with "Lightroom."

Now that we got that out of the way, let's begin.

A few months back, I heard about Adobe Lightroom. Let's just say, I didn't care for it during the time. I have Photoshop and it's all I needed. Then I came across one of my Flickr contact's images -- a "before and after" photo which was done with just a few clicks on Lightroom. My jaw dropped as I wondered in amazement. What he was able to achieve in Lightroom for a few seconds would probably take a few minutes in Photoshop. Right there and then, I became interested and almost immediately got myself a copy of Lightroom. That's right, again, buy a legal copy of Lightroom. The tag is about US$299... but don't fret, if you want to try it before buying, a free trial is available on Adobe.

To cut the story short, I now use Lightroom with almost every other picture I post at my Flickr. Being Photoshop's baby brother (or sister), as expected, it's got power. Lots of it. Although you might find it hard to get down to the per-pixel level, global image adjustments with Lightroom are easy as operating sliders for your computer's volume control. If you want a quick and dirty way of improving the impact of your photos and does not have the time to tango with Photoshop, Lightroom is for you.

As an example, let's begin with an image I took a few years back while we were on our way to Barangay Laiya, San Juan, Batangas. It's a picture of the South Luzon Expressway with a generous heap of clouds above.

Pretty decent right? It thus makes you wonder if any adjustment to the sky is even needed at all. Well, I wanted the blue sky to appear as if a polarizer was attached to the camera. Polarizers darken light skies, thus, the contrast between the sky and the clouds is increased. Polarizers can also reduce or eliminate reflections on glass. Need more info about polarizers? Click here.

On to the exiting part which only took about a minute in Lightroom. I moved a few sliders

The sky, specifically the blue, is more saturated and contrast is increased. To see the differences better, here's a cutaway

The original image occupies the left side of the frame while the edited on is on the right.

Here's the trick in Lightroom:

In the Develop module, leave all sliders alone except for the following:

1. Recovery : 100
2. Clarity : 100
3. Highlights : + 25
4. Lights : - 25
5. Saturation (Blue) : + 15

That's all there is to it! :)

Parting shot:

Photoshop tip # 1

If you're serious about using Adobe Photoshop, buy it. Do not download illegal copies.

I tell you, Photoshop is worth every cent you're shelling out.

The same goes for any Adobe product that you can think of. :)