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How to Create an Orton Effect

The Orton effect, devised by photographer Michael Orton, is a technique for making photographs -- and other images -- softer, more painterly and more romantic. This is the view of Darwin Wiggett, an Orton effect fan and bestselling author of photography books. Some photo processing software has an built-in "Orton" effect tool. However, you can achieve the effect, referred to as a "diffuse glow" by The Photo Finishes with virtually any photo processing software, using generic techniques.

Things You'll Need

Photo processing software
Image in focus

Instructions

- 1
  Load an in-focus photograph or other image into your photo processing software.
- 2
  Blur the image so it looks out of focus. Copy the image, by pressing the "Ctrl" key plus the "C" key, or by accessing the "Copy" function through your photo processing software's menu structure. This copies the blurred version of the image onto your clipboard.
- 3
  Undo the blur by pressing the "Ctrl" key plus the "Z" key, or by accessing the "Undo" function through your photo processing software's menu structure. This restores the image back to its original form.
- 4
  Paste the blurred version of the image onto a new layer. You can sometimes achieve this by pressing the "Ctrl" key plus the "L" key. Find something in your photo processing software's menu structure amounting to "Paste as new layer," if "Ctrl + L" fails to work.
- 5
  Blend the layers by setting the blurred version of the image to "Darken" in the layer blend mode, or equivalent tool. Note the image is now a combination of the original and the blurred version.

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