a picture with "the orton effect"

[abie10]

I'm a relatively new photographer...with minimal equipment. I'm learning post processing and read about the orton effect on these forums and decided to dabble with it...

[clockdoc]

Hi Abie and welcome to the group. I think you have some excellent subject matter to work with as well as the lighting. The mountain range somewhat splits the photo into two halves with the cactus in the foreground being cropped a little close. You may want to change your angle and shoot from a lower vantage point to see how that works as well. I am not that familiar with the Orton effect so I am not sure what you saw in your 'mind's eye' before you took the photo. Looks like this one has good potential on its own with a little lightening of the foreground. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[ELAY]

Greetings --

I'll defer to Lee on the composition aspects, but let me make a suggestion or two on the Orton, which is great technique, and which you have executed quite well.

1. Like Lee says, get the photo in shape before you apply the effect. Foreground lightening, deepening the blue in the sky, there are a couple of things you can do here.

2. What blending mode did you use? I find that when you can get away with it, multiply tends to give the best results, as it deepens colours and can increase contrast. Try a few, see what sticks.

3. What radius on the blur? I wonder if you might want to dial it back just a bit, either by dropping the radius, or by dropping the opacity of your blur layer. If you look at the horizon, the corrugations on the cactus, and at the other brush on the ground, the blurring is a little bit too evident, which I think tends to lessen the effect. The effect you are aiming at is a softish glow around your subjects.

Keep it up, and if you feel like fooling around more with the photo, by all means post it back here.

EL