Orton Effect

The Orton effect is a technique developed by Michael Orton during the film era to produce dream-like images. To create the effect, two over-exposed transparencies of the same subject were taken, one of which was out of focus and then the two transparencies were sandwiched. The images were overexposed to compensate for the fact that sandwiching an image with itself darkens it. When recreating this effect by computer, it is unnecessary to take two photographs, nor is it necessary to overexpose, since a blurred version can be created and combined with the original and lightened digitally.

Dialog Box                                                                             Input Image

Filter Method                                                                         Blend Method

Amount

The Amount control lets you control how much of the Orton Effect transformation is applied to the input image. You can apply a percentage of the transformation to the entire image, or you can specify an amount mask to restrict the effects of the transformation to only part of the input image.

Method

This control lets you select one of two methods for simulating the Orton effect.

Filter -- this method corresponds to the true Orton effect. It combines the original image with a blurred version of itself by multiplying the two image together, which is equivalent to sandwiching two transparencies. When this option is selected, the Curve, Color Space and Exposure controls are displayed to let you brighten the output image.

Blend -- this method is a variation on the original Orton effect that combines the original image with a blurred version of itself by taking a weighted average of the two, similar to making a double exposure.

Blur Radius

This slider determines how much the input image will be blurred before combining it with the original.

The Color Space, Curve and Exposure controls below are only displayed when Method is set to Filter:

Color Space

This control is displayed if the input image is color and lets you select which color space you want to use when applying the Curve.

Curve

This curve control lets you adjust the tonality of the input image before it is blurred and filtered against itself. Normally you would apply a curve that lightens the image in order to counteract the darkening of the filter operation.

Exposure

This slider applies a gamma correction to the image after the filter operation. A value of 1.0 has no effect -- a value of 2.0 more or less restores the tonality of the input image.

Tips

When using this transformation with the Blend method, start off by reducing the Amount slider to around 50%, and then experiment from there. Increasing the amount emphasizes the blurred image while decreasing it emphasizes the original image.

When using the Filter method, you can lighten the image either by adjusting the Curve or by adjust the Exposure slider, or by a combination of both. Using the Curve gives you more control.

A further refinement of the Orton effect can be made by creating a mask to apply the transformation more to the brighter parts of the image than to the darker parts. If you use Blend, set the maximum mask amount (the white mask slider) to around 50% and the minimum amount (the black mask slider) to around 0%.