The Orton Technique

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Originally uploaded by dehmystic.

This picture is an example of the Orton technique. This process was originally used in film photography. Two pictures were taken, one two stops over exposed and blurred, and the other one stop over exposed and sharply focused. These two shots were then combined with a mask when printed.

The digital method is much easier and only requires a single sharp image to start with. I used a plugin for the GIMP. The plugin automatically creates duplicates, increases the exposures, and multiplies the layers together.

I think the effect is very impressive.