This striking effect is named after Michael Orton, the pro-photographer who created the technique of combining two images – a sharp layer overexposed by two stops and a blurred layer overexposed by one stop.

This creates a single image with an ethereal glow of an impressionist painting.

Traditionally, you would need to take two exposures on slide film to replicate this effect, but thanks to the wonders of digital and image editing software you can take any image and inject a little magic into it.

In this brief tutorial, I will be using Paint Shop Pro X.

However, the principles are straight-forward and can be easily translated to any imaging software which gives you the ability to edit in layers.

The Orton Technique using Paint Shop Pro X

 

Here is my start photo.

This furry chap is a Mongoose Lemur who I met at Bristol Zoo back in January.

Any image can work well – while many of the Orton Technique photographs I’ve seen have been landscapes, I’ve also had fantastic results from plants, animals, and portrait shots.

Experiment, see what you like best.

 

Creating the sharp layer

With the image open in PSP X, look over to the Layers toolbar on the right hand side. You should see a smaller version of the image with the word Background next to it. Right click on the image and choose Duplicate. This will create another version of the image above with the title Copy of Background. Right click on Background again and Duplicate once more.

You should now have three little identical images in your Layers toolbar.

Click the top image in the Layer toolbar with the left mouse button to select it. This is now the active layer. Let’s rename it to something more useful so we know where we are. Left click on the Copy of Background title next to it – this allows us to type in a new name. We’ll call it Sharp.

Near the top of the Layers toolbar, just above the thumbnail images, are two drop down menus and a button. The first (which currently says 100 and has a slider) is Opacity and determines how much of the selected layer you can see. The second (currently displaying Normal) is the Blending Mode and is what we need to change right now. Click the arrow next to it and change the blending mode to Screen.

The image to the right is similar to what you should see – a bright version of your photo which looks as if it’s been overexposed.

I sometimes run a High Pass Sharpen on this layer too, but it’s often not necessary. Use your judgement.

To finish the process off, right click on the Sharp layer image and select Merge>Merge Down. This will combine the top two layers into one layer. It’s taken the name of the lower layer, so click on it and rename that one Sharp just so we can keep track of where we are.

Right. So we have our sharp layer. What about our blurred layer? That comes next…

Creating the blurred layer

We need yet another layer. So right click on the Sharp layer image and select Duplicate. Let’s rename this Copy of Sharp layer, and call it Blurry.

Now we’re going to add a Gaussian Blur to this layer. Check that the Blurry layer is selected by left clicking on its thumbnail image. Then using the application’s menu bar select Adjust>Blur>Gaussian Blur…

The Radius you decide to use depends on how strong the effect you want to be and how many pixels are in your image.

I generally use somewhere between 7-10 on my creative compact which generates smaller images than my DSLR where I’ll use a radius between 10-15. See which works best for your images and camera.

On this particular image, I have chosen a Radius of 10.

You can see the resulting image here on the left. Kind of looks as if you forgot to put your glasses on this morning or have drunk rather too much beer, no?

Putting it all together

You should now have three layers to your image. The Background layer, the Sharp layer and the Blurry layer.

To put it all together, make sure the Blurry layer is active by left clicking on its thumbnail image, then simply change the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Suddenly, the focus should snap back into place and our furry friend will look that much more furry and cuddly.

You can tweak the layers at this point, should you so wish, by adjusting the Opacity slider on the Sharp and Blurry layers to taste. Once you’re happy with the look you’ve achieved, right click on one of the layer thumbnails and select Merge>Merge All (Flatten) and you’re done!

Getting more advanced

Once you’re comfortable with the basic Orton Technique, then there are a few other things you can try to add a little more oomph to your images.

How about using mask layers to keep parts of the image in sharp focus?

Or using a feathered selection to “cut out” the Orton layers around features such as eyes and lips in a portrait to make them more of a focal point?

Have a go and link to your successes and near misses in the comments.

Happy playing!