6 methods to create the Orton effect

In today’s VLOG/BLOG, I will give you a total of 6 methods on how you can quickly and easily apply the so-called Orton effect to your images using Lightroom or Photoshop. The Orton effect is a fairytale, painterly look that gives your pictures a little glow and softness. Mystical moods are enhanced, fog or haze appear a little stronger and more mysterious, structures in the water a little softer. The effect itself comes from the analog photography of Michael Orton. He needed two pictures for this. One sharp and slightly overexposed and another overexposed, blurred photo. He then superimposed these in the darkroom to create the look that is known today as the Orton effect. Thanks to digital photography, we no longer have to take these two shots, but can recreate the effect very easily and, above all, more precisely and finely in Lightroom and Photoshop.

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Sony a7IV
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Sony FE 4/24–105 mm G
Sony FE 100–400 mm GM
DJI Mini 3 Pro

When can you use the Orton effect?

It works particularly well with strong contrasts and intense light, especially in forest and waterfall photography. In my opinion, it is also very effective there and usually suits the mood in the picture. But it can also be used in large landscapes to create a more dreamy mood in the picture. It also enhances mystical moods, which is why it is particularly suitable for fog images.

However, you should be careful, as the effect can quickly become too strong in the image. For me, if you can already see that the Orton effect is superimposed on the image, then it is already too much. Everyone has to decide for themselves and for each image where the limits lie. So feel free to leave the image “lying around” overnight and look at it again the next day. If it looks too artificial, then it may be too much of a good thing.

Of course, Michael Orton was less able to influence the strength of the effect in analog photography than we can today. As a result, his photographs are usually much more strongly executed with the Orton effect than we would perhaps consider aesthetically pleasing today. In the following, I will explain 6 methods of recreating the Orton effect. In the end, I always turn the effect down quite a bit, so that it still has a slight effect at best, but is not obtrusive. Of course, you have to decide for yourself how much the effect should influence your recording.

The methods

In the following, I will give you 6 methods on how you can quickly and easily apply the Orton effect to your pictures. The list is intended more as an aid to thought — a short summary. So be sure to watch the video below if the individual steps are not quite clear to you.

Method 1: In Lightroom: Create an area mask for the bright image areas (approx. 50–100) Set the filter with the following parameters

Exposure +2 Contrast +70 Structure ‑50 Clarity ‑60 Sharpness ‑100 Noise +100
At the end, reduce the amount slightly to 8–20%, depending on personal preference
→ Save settings as a preset so that you can use them again and again

Method 2: In Photoshop with blur filter

Duplicate background with Ctrl+J or select top layer and Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge current edit into a new top layer
Apply filter/blur filter/Gaussian blur /33px (at 33 MP, more if required) to newly created layer
Set the layer transparency of the effect layer to approx. 8–12%, if necessary with a luminance mask on bright image areas (up to perhaps 15%-20%)

Method 3: In Photoshop + Camera Raw filter:

Duplicate background with Ctrl+J or select top layer and Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge current edit into a new top layer
Apply filter/blur filter/Gaussian blur/33px (at 33 MP, more if required) to newly created layer
Apply camera raw filter to layer
Settings in Camera-Raw, approx. Brightness + 0.9 Contrast + 100 Temp + 17 Tint + 17
Create luminance mask for bright areas and apply to layer

Method 4: In Photoshop + “Negative Multiply”/“Multiply” blending methods:

Open image in Photoshop and copy three times (Ctrl. + J)
Top layer → Set blend mode to “Multiply” and opacity to approx. 60%
Second layer → Apply blend mode “Negative multiply” and filter/blur filter/Gaussian blur with radius 33px (at 33 MP, or more if required)
Select the three copied layers and right-click “Reduce to one layer”, alternatively group with Ctrl+G
Reduce the opacity of the merged layer between 20 and 35% so that the effect does not look artificial.
Apply luminance mask if required

Method 5: With Photoshop + Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer:

Duplicate background (Ctrl+J)
Apply filter/blur filter/Gaussian blur with radius approx. 33% (at 33 MP, or more if required) to duplicated layer
Add new brightness/contrast adjustment layer → brightness +50, contrast +40 (experiment as required)
Right-click on the adjustment layer and select “Create clipping mask”.
Layer with filter effect → Set opacity between 15 and 25%
Apply luminance mask if required

Method 6: With Photoshop + Soft Light blending method:

Duplicate background twice with Ctrl+J
Apply brightness +30 to a layer (a little more if necessary)
Apply brightness +30 (a little more if necessary) to the second layer and use the “Gaussian blur” blur filter
Mixing methods Soft light, set for both levels
Group both layers (Ctrl+G) and, if necessary, apply a luminance mask or layer mask to the group, otherwise the dark tones will be too dark.

This and all other shots of this post you can request under “Prints” as an art print for your wall at home directly from me.

Conclusion

In my eyes, all 6 methods do what they are supposed to do. If I don’t see the need to edit an image in Photoshop any further, I use method 1 and the complete application in Lightroom. Method 2 is my quick’n’dirty go-to method, which can be adjusted quickly without much effort. It differs from Method 5 only in the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, which of course adds a little more “light glow”. If the fog is dense, method 2 is usually enough for me; if the sun shines through a little, I think method 5 is slightly better.

Method 3 is similarly effective and does what it should. However, the detour via Camera Raw is usually too cumbersome for me, which is why I rarely use it. Method 4 is probably the most “professional”. In my opinion, the effect is also one of the best achieved here. It is slightly more complicated than the other methods, but the effect is good. Method 6 is actually the “correct” method with regard to editing in the analog age, but you really have to be careful with the dark areas of the image, which become a little darker and, if necessary, adjust the brightness a little afterwards so that the end result fits.

I hope you were able to learn something and find one or more Orton effect methods for yourselves. Thanks for reading/watching and see you next time. Ciao.

VLOG to the BLOG

In today’s video, I’ll give you a total of 6 methods on how you can quickly and easily apply the so-called Orton effect to your images using Lightroom or Photoshop. The Orton effect is a fairytale, painterly look that gives your images a little glow and softness. Mystical moods are enhanced, fog or haze appear a little stronger and more mysterious, structures in the water a little softer. Have fun watching!

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6 methods to create the Orton effect