First Orton Attempt

[Dave Woeller]

This is my first attempt at the Orton Affect, and now I know why they say file selection is important. I'm posting it to get more direction and knowledge on this process. I did vary from normal technique in the final step after the copy and paste. Instead of adding the multipy blending (It made the pads way dark and I had much trouble trying to retrieve them) I used the darken blending, which gave me a better result. Once again I know this is flawed but I appreciate the constructive help here.

[Julie Kenward]

I can't quite put my finger on it, Dave, but the whole image feels too blurry to me...even for an Orton effect. All the detail feels really washed out to me and I don't usually feel this way when looking at an image with an Orton twist.

I'd go back and try brightening the entire image before running through the process - I do this quite a bit. It's going to get darker and more dramatic so I tend to make the dark areas lighter to counteract it. Then, when you do the gaussian blur, don't take it quite as far. I usually go with the blur around 17-20 pixels at most and adjust more or less from there. See if those two suggestions help you out any.

And, yes, it is important to pick a good image for this process and you'll start to "see" which ones work and which ones don't as you go along. I find that anything with bright whites and deep tones in the same image can be problematic unless you lighten/brighten the lower tones separately from the whites before beginning the process.

[Dave Woeller]

Julie, Thanks for the guidance, and I see your points. I would have to agree that I had gone over the top with the gausian blur. I'll keep working at it and heed the advice.

[denise ippolito]

Dave, I think if you added a few other effects you could still come out w/ something sweet-you'd have to continue w/ either accented edges or an illustrated effect or paint daubs-you would have to experiment-but it is almost painterly at this point so it may be worth the extra effort.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Dave,
I can see what you were trying to accomplish here. I agree with the above comments...I personally would re-work this image and composition again...I would start off by cropping 1/4 from the bottom, and 1/4 from the top to eliminate some of the negative space...in addition, I would add canvas to both the left and right side of the frame to reconstruct the petals of both flowers that were clipped...The overall image looks like its washed out, flat; can't quite put my finger on it...I am very interested to see what the repost of this looks like...looking forward to seeing it...:cool:

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Dave,
I say well done for trying something new - don't give up - look forward to the next one!!
Regards,
Nicki

[John Ippolito]

Dave, I'm with Denise on this one. I think you can move forward on what you alredy have and just experiment. I like the strong saturated colors.