The Easy Guide to Creating the Orton Effect using Photoshop by Peter Hill

thanks peter will give it a go

cheers

Thank you , I’m always looking for tips and way to improve my photographs.

awesome!! just what i asked about before. i’ve been trying it out and i like the effect. thanks!

Peter I found a tutorial on that ages ago. I love this effect but havent done it in a while.

Hi Peter

will certainly try this out on my Chestnut Tree Image … Watch this space lol

sweet! gonna try this one now… !!!

Thanks, it would be easier , if I read this first,instead of figure out by myself, I will try yours way tonight. It would be interesting to work on the same image using different methods and see result.

Nice lesson, thanks.

i am just loving this…..i have uploaded ortons to the left and ortons to the right…..it is so fun to see the effect happen and your shot look cooler! thank you thank you thank you!!

Thank you so much. I did my first orton effect thanks to you!!!

Can’t wait to try this out. I’ve been looking for a easy version of this to follow. Thanks a bunch :o)

Thank you so much…I have wanted to know how to do this…love the look…

Many thanks for the time you took to write this.. and THANK YOU for sharing!!!

Thank you, I am off to try the layer thing because I keep putting it off. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! x :o)

very kind of you to share your knowledge!! thank you!!

Peter, thank you so much for your time and information that you are sharing with us. I cannot tell you have much I appreciate it. I love the injected humor………and I am sure the quiet cursing is an integral part of the process. I wish I could share one back with you, but I am very new to Photoshop and am struggling with the basics. Thanks again.

Peter, your step by step instruction really suite me coz I am a computer idiot. Thanks for the unselfish sharing. I find the effect really fun. Thanks again.

Thanks so much.. funny I was unable to print this entry an error msg kept coming up!!?

Thanks heaps Peter.

Peter…you are super! Thank you so much for the easy to follow instructions..I was able to do it and dedicated my first one to you!! Thanks again!!

I have not gotten to try it yet, Phil. I am bogged down with Veterans Day Parade Photos for my grandsons. I will try soon. But, I am so happy you shared it with us. I do not know how to do much on Photoshop.

Thanks heaps. Will play.

Thanks, Peter … this is very helpful!

We’ll see how I go first. lol

Many thanks for this!!

I tinkered with something like this about 30 years ago, using the double exposure facility on my camera, and taking 2 exposures, one with the focus changed. The result was a lovely soft-focus effect that I obviously should have written an article about, for the BJP (or at least, used more often)! Still, at least I know what it’s called … now ;-)

I’ve also been playing around with similar effects in PSP in recent times, trying to recreate that old effect, but got nothing I’m really happy with yet. Soon! Thanks for this write-up.

Thanks for the extra info Peter. I’ve made the odd slide sandwich but not in this way. Meanwhile, I’m having fun with this technique :)

Thank you so much Peter!!

Thanks Peter. I’ve been wanting to try the orton effect for awhile.

Thanks for sharing this Peter

Thanks for the input. Very helpful.

Thanks Peter!

Much appreciated, thanks Peter.

The Easy Guide to Creating the Orton Effect using Photoshop – UPDATED

very easy, thank you!

great tutorial! I have Serif photo plus 12 – I have not tried it out yet. Hopefully the steps will be similar.

Thanks Peter, I appreciate your excellant tutorial on this subject! Dee

Hi Peter thanks for sharing i’ve always wanted to try the orton affect i will give it a try

I tried this out. What a cool effect. The picture was a bit dark and moody. I will have to try it on other images as well. Thanks for an easy and effiecent tutorial.

Thank you for the tutorial! I have recently been experimenting with the Orton Effect…your instructions sound somewhat different than what I have been doing. I was wondering if there are different steps between Mac and Windows photoshops? Or else…I haven’t been doing correctly! (I have a Mac) Thanks!
Karen

Me again…Karen Helgesen! I use Mac’s Photoshop 7.

thanks so much, peter! your method is sooo much more effective than the one i found on the web! it worked beautifully on the first try – again, many thanks!!! :)

Thanks Peter! I love to read explaintions of how to change a phot. I have only tried a few things, but I will definately save this and try it sometime when I get a minute (lol) Ginny

brilliant, taking this a bit further I’ve created a script that does all of the above automatically so you can point it to you folder of images and away it goes and doe the Orton to them all….

Will this work w/ photoshop version 7???

I just found out by trying….YESSS it will….dayum this is cool!!!!

Thanks very much for these instructions, Peter! You sure put a lot of work into this! It’s sooo helpful and soooooo much fun!! :)

Thank you for posting this Peter.

Cool, doesn’t look scary at all! Thanks for sharing!

i tried to create the effect myself without a tutorial, and i thought id done ok, but this is even better!! thanks

Thank you Peter, I appreciated your excellent tutorial on this subject!

Lol, it sounds like you found the same tutorial I originally did Peter. You’ve re-written it so it’s easy to understand. thank you for that. It’s a fun effect to use.

A great tutorial. Thanks Peter.

Sorry, I didn’t make my self clear, Peter, I meant that I thought you found the same tutorial I found, I forget where, but, i probably Googled it, too. I know I have three here, and one of them sounds just like the one you’ve written, but, it isn’t quite the same. Yours is quite easy to follow.

I’m looking forward to your tuts on Photoshop basics, there is so much I need to learn!

Had to check out your tutorial, DJ had the link attached to one of her photos. This is great, can’t wait to give it a try. Take Care ~ Rick & Deb ~ :)

You have made my Day and week…. Thanks a bunch for this…. I have been wanting to do this effect for ever and you made it seem easy…..I really appreciate this more than you know…….
Tim

Well, Thankyou for putting your fingers to keyboard and writing this tutorial Peter! It is the most straight forward step-by-step guide I have come across for learning this effect. I have tried and succeeded with my first Orton effect, thanks to you! Most appreciated. Alix :)

Gosh thank you!!!

My mouse can’t right click but I managed to figure it all out anyway…VERY Cool!!!!!!!

I hope you don’t mind: I added this tutorial as a link in my entry for the All in, Editing Challenge…

Robin

Peter this is great.. I also adored your writing-teaching style on this. Very enjoyable read.. Got me all excited! lol.. Thank you~ Lj

Woo-hoo! A new toy!! I have an older version of PS but I managed to find all the things I needed. Thanks!

This is much easier than I thought!!1 I spent alot of time playing with filters and burn and dodge to get this effect! I did find that the images look even cooler if you start by sharpening the image first, either with smart sharpen or just just a little to make the small details pop a little more.

Must try that out. Thanks for sharing it Peter.

Thanks,Peter. I’m gonna give it a shot! I’m not good at following written instructions,seems I have to mostly bumble through things!! :o)) God Bless,Mae

I’ve done 2 so far and they turned out OK, so I ’d say you did your job well!! Thanks!!:o))

Wow!!! This is excellent! Thank you for this tutorial! I really like the results I got when I gave it a go!

Thank you Peter, easy to follow, works well! :-)

What a wonderful tutorial, brilliant & easy to follow, I have been having such fun & have posted my first effort to the Orton group.

Thanks! ;-)

What a great tutorial – easy to follow – and humor, to boot! Thanks for explaining the Orton Effect. I’ve given it go with this photo .

-Linda

Thank you for posting this. I love the effects I can achieve with this. Your tutorial was easy to follow, as others have noted.

Xie Xie = thank you

Thank you!

Thank you very much. Will try it with my CS3. Bill

Thank you very much, a very straight forward tutorial, and I liked the results of my first guided attempt very much.

It work out excellently. Thanks again, Bill

Thank you Peter!! Very helpful!! Carolyn

You just made my day. I just got photoshop and this is invaluable

Cheers, this is the method I use, with brilliant results !

Excellent!! Quick & to the point… Thank you!

I just did this in gimp and it worked perfect! Thanks.

This is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much!!!!

OMG, Peter! This effect is outrageous! I love it! I just tried it out & it really transformed my photo………THANK YOU! Ü

Good effect, great result thanks

Great stuff Peter, thanks for sharing :D

Thanks for sharing i may try layer ..LIZ

Thanks Peter, you are fantastic!

Thank you Peter for your instructions, I’ve print a copy and will give it a try when I get some extra time. I’ll let you know how things work out for me…Jules

Very helpful! Thanks so much!

Knowledge is power…and it is something you can pass on and never lose!
Thanks Peter
Sid

Fantastic clea and easy to follow tute…great work Peter and thanks for all your hard work

love the update!! Well done :))

Okay, you have now convinced me to save all of your instructional tips as I am absolutely certain one day your work is going to be published in a very extensive and expensive book, cheers and thanks.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS WITH US!! Now I understand what everyone is talking about. Take care.

soo good!!! thanks a lot Peter, you are a great Teacher:)

Thanks so much Peter, the first time that I have worked with layers!! I really appreciate the time that you have taken to share your knowledge – I now have a snazzy sunflower and the inspiration to trial more techniques (-:

Thank you! Excellent tutorial.

Well done and so easy to follow, Peter.!!

I’ll have to give that a burl! Thanks Peter.

Thanks Peter, Excellent tutorial!

awesome Peter AWESOME thanks very much

Great step-by-step, and it works great, but this is not the way I do it (by hand) in Photoshop. I assembled a Photoshop “action” from having done the Orton effect in an actual darkroom as a way to salvage overexposed originals a couple decades ago (when darkrooms were the only way!).

In the darkroom, two one-stop-over transparencies are sandwiched, from which to make a final print or internegative. With Photoshop or whatever, both the sharp and the fuzzy layers (as with the colorlab version) begin at 50% of their normal density by some means. When the top one is set to “multiply” density returns to normal – or thereabouts .

My Pshop action uses “curves” to brighten the image. I like your use of a “screen” layer for that purpose very much, but the effect is different, and therefore the effect at the end is also different – better in some ways, depending on the original. I think the “curves” version may be truer to the original darkroom process, but big deal. For images that begin bright, maybe my method would yield better results. Something to try! -J:

Thank you for the very easy to follow instructions for an awesome technique! Love it!!

Another great tip… thanks Peter! : )

OHHHH thank yo so much! I just tried it with a recent photo. I really don’t know anything about photoshop and your directions were superb! I love the effect and always wondered how to make it work. I really appreciate you sharing! Bless you!

Thanks Peter… just tried it out! Yeah it works! Tried out high pass sharpening too… excellent… a few new tools… unreal!! : ))

Peter ~ you’re a legend and I am so grateful that there are unselfish, helpful people like you around to help us “newbies”! I just had a go and it looks exactly like I wanted it to! YAY! Thank you!!!

Perfect for beginers!! Nice and easy to follow… Love it!! Thank you so much!! :))

This is very informative and easy to follow already tried this technique with great results thanks again for being so willing to share this knowledge Peter

Thank you so much for your Tutorial! I went through you steps and found it easy to follow. Now I can finally enhance my images to that great effect. Do you have steps for changing a back ground or can you refer to that? You should get paid for that!! Wonderful work and thank you!!!

OMG awesome instructions to follow and fabulous outcome – thank you so much :-))))))

Peter, thank you – this is what it did for me in this photo The Claw

This sounds so complicated to me (I’m a complete novice with software and have never used Photoshop).
I simply take 2 shots, one in focus, one not in focus/blurred and merge the two together using Picasa, just as you would with negs in a darkroom.

Here’s the results:

Simple :D

Oh! and Peter, sorry, meant to add that I can’t see any of the samples either???

Hi Peter, that link didn’t work??

This is excellent Peter, thanks!

Thank you Peter it is very informative!

Thank you so much Peter. It is very interesting. I must try it.

Peter thank you again for kindly sharing your wisdom!!!!! I’ve favorited this beauty and will sit down with a fresh coffee shortly and compare it with the slap-dash way I’ve been doing Ortons!!!!! As always, I know I’ll learn so much!!!!!

This is an excellent resource, thanks!

If I am ever in town the beer is on me Peter…A big pat on the back for your unselfish time and energy on behalf of the community. Thank you man!
Rick

Thanks so much, Peter. A most comprehensive work, most useful.
You have certainly deserved the beers…

Thanks, Peter. Looks as though you begun the arduous task of adding the photos back to your excellent tutorials. I’ve added this as a link with a link to your site, as well, in this Tutorials Library forum. That way tutprowls are alphabetized and link clearly back to you.

I will add the same to Photoshop Elements. If and when you have the time and wish to post links yourself, feel free to do so, also. Thank you!

I do wish I’d edited that—my iPhone clearly has a mind of its own. The interesting word “tutprowls” should read tutorials, “begun” was “you’ve begun”, etc.

sweet – thanks – I’ll have a go! cheers Paul

Thanks so much very helpful!
Great Work.

really helpful! thanks! :)

Thanks a lot, simple and very, very effective!

Thank you so much for sharing this, Peter! ~:)

you are so nice to take the time to share your knowledge with the group…
i have an old version of photo shop and i use corel…i am waiting for my brother to come see me, he bought me the whole shebang for Christmas.

Thank you for the tutorial, they look nice and clear to follow and the examples show what could be achieved…I am going to give this one a go tonight.

This is such a good tutorial, would you please consider adding it into the photoshop section of the tutorial groups forum please……this could help so many more people and I would hate to see it get lost within the pages. Thanks

Thank you so much this is a great tutorial !

Thank you so much! This is a perfect easy to follow for me[a beginner] tutorial!

Thank you for the tutorial, since I didn’t have photoshop I use GIMP, and the menu are almost the same.
I did get an orton effect, but maybe not like your example, so I’m a little unsure if the picture are good enough, but I will try.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the group…

Thank you so much for sharing your tutorial – you’ve made it sound so simple, instead of the “tax form jargon” !! I can’t wait to get started! I use Gimp but the lingo is roughly the same as photoshop. I’m having problems printing this up, so if it is at all possible could you email the tutorial for Word if I give you my email addy please? If you are agreeable (your time is greatly appreciated), my addy is sandrasuzie@hotmail.co.uk Very many thanks, and Regards, Sandra :)

Thanks Pter,

Great tutorial!

Dave

Wow this is great, thanks for the info! I will be trying this. :)

Thanks Peter.. I followed this and was easy. I have been thinking of buying a book as a tutorial and now I am sure I will go down that path. There is so much in Photo shop to do and I haven’t even touched the surface. Hope all directions are as easy as this.

Thanks so much Peter, I just done my first flower. It was great fun, want to do more now!!!

this makes me realise just how many people are like me & floundering around in the dark with these technics,thank goodness for your unselfish attitude Peter,we must commend you;;;

I came to find out how to do the ‘Orton Effect’ & what do you know …. I’ve been doing it all along and didn’t know!!! …LOL Thank you so much for sharing your tutorial:-)

Thanks for the tutorial, iv’e learnt something new!!

Your tutorial was written with us in mind! Very simple language with great examples. We are just beginning in our photography journey and this concept was straight-forward and simple to understand. Now we need to try it! Many, many thanks!

Outstanding! We have you favorited, so please put the word out when you do it – you have followers my friend! Thanks again!

You are awesome…going to try it out!! Thank you Peter..

a very (very) generous and kind inspirational instruction… you clearly love this (:)

Thank you very much ~ Elaine

Thanks, Peter. I really like the results!

Thanks really great tutorial

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, very generous of you. Peace, Judi

Peter your teaching has touch me! Thank you for your precious time in teaching us! I’ve been a photographer for many years and I never took the time to read a book on photography. Today I read two of your tutorial now I am hook. I want to read more. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!!

Thank you sooo much!! This is the first time I have ever used photoshop CS3 with success!!!

Thankyou so much, I can’t wait to try this out :o)

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Peter.

• And the plant is a Clivia, native to South Africa. We have 10 in our garden of which two plants are of yellow colour, very scarce & quite expensive.

Thank you so much! your tutorials are so easy to understand :)

I just tries this and amazed that I could actually create something!! Thanks!