Orton Imagery -- painterly effects in photography

[Leighow]

Michal Orton
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has perfected a technique for layering two slides of the same subject to acheive painterly effects. Such effects are described at http://members.tripod.com/~KatieNielsen/index-2.html

Some other outstanding work along the same line is seen in the images by Richard Martin, e.g. in Spaun at:
http://www.richardmartinphoto.com/RMPpages/Trav_Movie.html

Layering in PS
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Last weekend as I wandered a photo trade show I saw such an image on display and asked how I might do same in PS. The reply was that I did not need two images, I only needed one, but that I had to layer altered (blurr, burned, etc, etc) copies of the original and apply varying degrees of layer-over-layer opacity.

"SLIDE 1"
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A few minutes ago I set out to play with a Spring picture:

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/LAYER.jpg


COMPOSITE
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The I proceeded as a rookie to create 4 layers (not all of which I am sure that I am using!). Somewhere in the process I started burning, bluring, and blackening selected layers and ended up with this more parinterly "Autum-colored image". Ok -- this is a little off target. But it is a start, and something that I was clueless about an hour ago. See what you think. Seems like something to try -- and I know that Mitch and others have applied some very selective blurrs with excellent results.


PLEASE ADD YOU LAYERED IMAGES TO THIS POST
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ALong this line, next week as the early wild flowers begin to bloom in the woods by the edges of the swamp, I will add to this post.

If this interests you too , please add to this post. It seems to me to have more potential than a pure use of the available brushes et al in PS.

HOWIE

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/LAYERS.jpg

[slejhamer]

Creative, Howie! It's pretty amazing what can be done with a few blurry layers and no other filters.

You might also try running the high-pass filter before you run gaussian blur - Filters > Others > High Pass, setting between 5 and 10. It will look odd until you set the layer type (overlay, screen, luminosity, etc.) It functions sort of as an edge mask.

Cheers,

[Leighow]

Thanks Mitch and thanks for the tips.

I must buy a book on PS. I just seem to fall blindly into the process.

And yes, there seems to be an infinite number of options. Moments ago I tried setting a backgound on a flower shot to the e-sumi brush. The result was very interesting. It made me think that some of these brushes warrant a second look - if not a second second of my wife's viewing time! !!

HOWIE

[Leighow]

Situation
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Spring is finally here and summer is a month away!
I walk by this neighbours front yard at about 8 am each morning on my way to nearby woods and a 2 hour walk with my dog. The garden faces south and so was the first to offer a real show of tulips -- although in the past week warm temperatures have accelerated plant growth every where.

This morning sun was just right when I took this shot looking along the length of the garden (while trying to avoid the house and a basketball hoop!). While framing the shot the garage door opened, a 3 year old exited along with his toy poodle.

Technical
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The processing was all about layering images as discussed earlier in this post, and so this composition consists of 4 layers, several of which required several layers as well – why I am not sure, all part of the fun I guess.

This is not a question of adding tulips from other images, as all these layers do is blur the original shot. Here is the best that I could come up with today. On close, I have asked myself whether layers are required at all. Why not just use curves on the original image (to blacken) and then blur? I have no good answer. Maybe that would work too. By the way I left this as a fairly small print because some asparagus-looking flower that is now pushing sunwards through the center tulips!

Unresolved Challenge
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The unresolved challenge w.r.t. the “film” sandwich (described in the original post) seems to be to have the background blurs of the flowers et al be larger than the original. I suspect that this enlargement happens with a glass lens but not with PS. If enlargement can be achieved, then the overlay of the original crisp image “may” stand out better against the background. I was not able to do this. So I will try again soon. If you try please post here too.

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/Composite_2-(4-by-6).jpg

HOWIE