The Orton Effect: First try: C&C

[RKDauph]

Seagull under the Ventura Beach California Pier

Just playing around:

[SaSha]

Both look really good ray. the first has good composition, the linear versus the reflection makes for interesting lines. Good timing catching the wave action also.

The second is really nice also, the effect works for me. Would you consider dodging the seagull so it stands out. I am assuming it is the subject in this photo and its head and body may be too shadowed, may have been the Orton action that did this to him.

Thanks for sharing.

[d2creative]

I like the first one a lot. Very cool look. Very illustrative.

What is this "orton effect" you speak of?

[LWimages]

I love the first one.
The second one I like, but the rig platform (that's what it looks like to me) in the background is a bit distracting.

[RKDauph]

Dennis: Basically, you create two layers, one that's sharp, the other slightly out of focus. Then youmerge them together.

Louis: That ain't no oil rig... It is the pilings from the larger platform at the end of the pier. I might to fade it some so it doesn't stand out so much.

Osy: I was 'dodging' the seagulls while under the pier <g> but will take your suggestion and do it again at the computer - shouldn't be near as messy...

[kenw]

ok, so the 1st 3 comments hit while I was composing and editing this.....

I've seen this effect off and on over the years. I'm not sure I understand the goal of it. I will assume it's an "art" filter, meaning that it makes a photograph more like hand-created image than photographic. I'm all for that and use such effects/filters often.

Leaving the effect aside for the moment, the images here don't really bring out the seagulls much, and even tho it appears that the effect has had an impact on the gulls and does highlight them to a degree, the overall composition and framing makes it hard to find them. How much is helped or hurt by the effect I can't tell. The bird is just lost in the scene: nothing guides the eye to it, the background is very bright and very busy with all the pilings.

Having said that, the 2nd one appears to work better because the background is more dull, blurred or whatever, and it appears that the effect has had a hand in contributing to that. In this case, the bird DOES stand out more (but still not enough imho). Also note the rule of thirds "compliance" in the 2nd vs the lack of it in the 1st.

The 1st lacks significant visual contrast between the gull and the pilings in the background and the reflections in the water overpower the gull and cause my eye to follow them right past the gull.

My bottom line? (yes, the there is one...) The compositional issues are defeating the benefit of the effect. I can't get past them to enjoy the art. Try these same images with some cropping and rebalancing, THEN apply the filter and see what happens. It might be that layers with and without the effect can be combined to tell the story more clearly. It's really a neat filter and I think it is definitely worth adding to the toolbelt.

[RKDauph]

Ken, Thank you for such a detailed response.

Dodged the gull a bit to bring it out.


Near 100% crop to highlight the gull here. Truth be known, although it is the same gull as in the above picture, I did not notice it until PP.

[epoh]

I think the first pic would be a lot stronger if you chopped off the whole top 3rd. It's still competing with the gull.

[kenw]

Wow. the differences in the 1st pic after the changes are very dramatic. The gull is now the brightest thing and truly stands out. Much, much better.

[SnapItUp]

This is an simple Orton example. I took just a blah picture with no post processing



and then ran the Orton process and cropped the image.



This effect was developed back with slide film where you would stack slides together. If anyone is interested, I'll try to dig up the process. It gives a mild 3-D effect.

Check out the following link for more information on Orton Photography.
http://pcin.net/update/2006/11/01/th...p-of-the-week/