Comments on: The Orton Effect: Mimicking darkroom processes in Photoshop

By: Ken Pugh

Ken Pugh — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:54:19 +0000

There is one detail missing from your article. Orton’s second image is out-of-focus, but in many he also zooms very slightly out. Very slightly, for if you zoom too much, it will appear as two sandwitched images, not as one as intended.

By: Ken Pugh

Ken Pugh — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:49:55 +0000

To the person who said the Orton technique is “boring’, I suggest he/she take a look at Orton’s photographs published in Once Upon an Island, Orca Book Publishers, 1992. Far from boring.

By: Kimmie

Kimmie — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:16:29 +0000

this cool and nice picture.. i learn how to do this.. wow.. thank you for explanations! XP

By: Shuryk

Shuryk — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:39:10 +0000

It’s really nice effect. Thank you.

By: Tanny

Tanny — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:08:59 +0000

Hi Helen,

Nice article. :-)

Once read an article written by a UK photographer, cited that Lomo images have attributes; out of focus, saturated colors, pinhole vignette, high dynamic range, because of the spider eyes construction of the camera. I think he refered to the firsts of Lomo camera. He, was in the article, demonstrated how to approach the real gear effect using software tweaks applied to a sharp original image. Gaussian Blur, Add Grain, etc.

I found that my gear, Nikon D300, although the High ISO NR & Long Exposure NR already turned on, noise, maybe because of the CMOS type censor, still appear in condition of slightly underexpose, high iso, and out of focus.

Apply to macro flower image, shallow DOF, high iso setting. After i had the blur, then bracketed to deeper DOF by increasing the aperture one stop and decreasing the speed one stop to retain the same exposure value until all DOFs covered.

One of them looks like this.

http://ESCapade.zenfolio.com/gallery/e15392ab4

Maybe if i add pinhole vignette and apply Gaussian blur to focus area, it will be a true Lomo effect. Only minor tweaks i added.

Another way to achieve the same effect.

By: Crystal Chick

Crystal Chick — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:34:49 +0000

I tried the Orton Effect out on a few photos a while back. I liked the result in some, but not in others.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/krstlchik/sets/72157606364892806/

By: Richard Khuptong

Richard Khuptong — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:46:16 +0000

Nice and educative
Thanks DSP

By: Jacquie

Jacquie — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:52:41 +0000

I’m brand new to Photoshop, all ideas to make my pictures look better I’ll take. Thank You

By: Norton Orton

Norton Orton — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:52:53 +0000

Nice tutorial though the effect is rather boring- i can’t remember ever seeing it used anywhere. It definitely looks ‘photoshop gimmicky’.

If i had to pick, i’d choose a tilt shift image over this… which is what the orton effect reminds me of- only run through the 80’s.

By: thekevinmonster

thekevinmonster — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:24:30 +0000

@scott: I think the add noise step is throwing off your expectations. I’ve actually found the orton effect to be great for selectively softening, kind of like those oldschool vaseline-edged filters for 70’s glamour portraits. If you use it too hard, it starts posterizing your colors.