Orton Effect

For today’s adaptation, I’m not going to single out any one particular tutorial because there are many good ones, and they’re all a bit different. If you want the Photoshop method, I advise you to do what I did, and google it.

So, here we go.

Like I said, most of the tutorials I found differed in slight ways, but rely on the same basic things: having an overexposed layer blurred and blended with the original photograph. The blending is where the differences occur, and I’ll discuss them in a minute.

1. First, make 2 copies of the background layer. You can rename them if that helps you. I left them as Background copy and Background copy #1.
2. Set Background copy #1 to Screen mode. Merge the newly overexposed layer down. This gives you your overexposed layer.
   
3. You should now just have 2 layers: Background and Background copy.
4. Click Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. You’ll want to experiment with different blur radii to find the one that suits you best. Click the RLE method radio button and OK.
5. Change Background copy to Multiply. Here’s where the different tutorials diverge. Most use multiply, but to achieve a lighter or darker effect, you could choose the Soft or Hard light modes. I’d say it’s a matter of artistic taste, and to go with whatever looks good to you. I used multiply for this tutorial.
6. The final step is to change Background copy layer opacity. Again, this is a matter of taste. I used 82% for this tutorial.
   

Here’s the before and after:

You can also experiment with the dodge and burn tools on the top layer to achieve different levels of brightness or darkness. Be creative!

Please visit my flickr page to see the larger version. Thank you for following along!