Another Attempt at the "Orton Effect"

I was just itching to try this again.  This time I used a shot of some old typewriters I took in Molson (a very cool ghost town in Washington state).

Here is the original  image straight out of the camera:

And after editing, using only the PSE guided "Orton Effect" and then adding a soft dark edge:

I'm loving this!  Can't wait to do more!!

So after investigating a bit on the internet, it looks like the guided "Orton Effect" was added with PSE version 10.   I did however find lots of tutorials showing how to manually create the same effect in either Photoshop or PSE, all of which looked fairly simple.  I plan to try some of them out to see how they compare to the effect provided in 10 & above (I'm currently using version 11).

The Orton Effect

In PS Elements 11 (and probably in other versions as well) there is something called the "Orton Effect".  It can be found under the "Guided" tab and then "Photo Effects".  In my effort to learn more and try new things, I thought I'd give it a go.

Since flowers seem like a natural subject to use a "soft, dreamy" effect on, I chose this shot I took of a lovely bouquet from a friend. (Thanks Joyce! And to think every one of these came out of her own yard!)

So I've never tried this before and since I'm usually trying to get crisp, sharp images it feels a little wrong to intentionally set about blurring a shot... but here we go...

Looking at a close up section of the before and after, my gut tells me I've absolutely ruined it! But when I look at the overall effect on the whole image and I kind of like it.

This may not be a prize winner, but keep in mind it was a first attempt..  If you don't like what you see here, please don't let it discourage you from trying it out for yourself. I'm sure there is a bevy of info out there on the web for using this technique and trust me,  I intend to take advantage of it.  I think with a little practice and maybe using multiple layers this could be a pretty cool tool.

What do you think?  If you've got experience or tips to share please leave a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

A Tad Bit of Editing

In my last blog entry (July 26), I showed 6 examples of the same shot taken using different camera modes.  I don't normally do much with black & white and maybe that's why my eye was drawn to one of those over the color shots.  At any rate this is the one I gravitated towards and threw into PS Elements.

I really didn't do all that much.  First the basics - adjusted "levels" and "brightness".  Then went to the "Filter Gallery" and applied a a small amount of the "Paint Daubs" and the very minimum of the "Poster Edges" filters. Since it's hard to see what the filters really accomplish, I'll include a couple of close-ups for comparison.

Above is the original.  It would've been fine with just a levels adjustment, but since I like to play, I continued on.  I liked the combination of the 2 filters which resulted in a crisper, more defined image (below).

On a side note, I shot this as experimentation.  I'd normally never shoot using the camera's black & white mode.  My theory being that I can always take a color shot and later convert it to b&w, but I'd have a dickens of a time trying to do that in reverse!

Using Different Camera Modes

Holy Moly!  Sometime back I made it my goal to post on my blog once a week - at a minimum. Well my last post was in April, so I'm obviously failing miserably.  Daily life has got in the way of blogging, but luckily it has not taken me away from my camera. I've been snapping away like crazy.

Recently I've been trying to experiment and learn more using different camera settings.  I've been using my manual settings more, but I've also been trying out the various auto modes.  I took these shots of some lovely yellow glads my hubby brought me.  I put the camera on a tripod, placed the vase of flowers in front of my black fridge - no surprise there if you've read my previous posts! ;) - and proceeded to shoot the same scene using different shooting modes.

I won't go into detail about the exact modes used because all cameras are different. But even if you're using a point & shoot, it most likely has lots of options to choose from.  My goal is simply to encourage you to try them out and see what you get.  

The above are samples from images straight out of the camera.  No editing.  Or I should say, no editing yet!  My next post will be one of these images after I run it through Elements and have my way with it.  Yee Haw!

Resizing Images

We've all received that photo in an email where a huge, hairy nostril (or some such thing) is staring back at us. Very irritating.  Worse yet, are you the guilty party who might be sending these gargantuan files?

Today's cameras are capable of giving us wonderfully, huge images which are great for printing. However any image that you plan to show on the screen, be it email or posting on a website, can be reduced to a fraction of the original file size and still show beautifully.  The human eye will never know the difference and it will also load in a fraction of the time.

I've been resizing images forever and it really hadn't occurred to me to do a "How To" on the subject.  However thinking back, this is probably the number one thing people have asked me to show them.  Pretty basic stuff, but if you're new to photo editing it's definitely something you need to know.

If you've read my previous posts you know that I'm using Photoshop Elements and that I never, never, never recommend altering your original image.  The first thing I always do after opening an image in Elements is go to "File" - "Duplicate".  Then close and put your original away for safe keeping.  OK, so now you've got a full size, duplicated image on your screen. Let's get started...

Above is my original (duplicated) image straight out of the camera.  It's a 2.87 MB file measuring 4912 x 3264 pixels - or roughly a 14 x 9" image at 350 ppi (pixels per inch).  Note -it's not legible in the above screen shot, but in the snippet below you can see that in order to fit the entire image in my work area it automatically opened at less than 20% (right above where the "image size" dialog box is). More on this later.

The fact that it's 350 ppi means that it is going to be MUCH larger on the screen than the 14 x 9" since screen resolution is more along the lines of 72 or 96 ppi.

Now go to "Image", select "Resize" and then "Image Size".  

On the left is the dialog box that opens showing my current file information.  Make sure that all 3 check boxes are checked.  Then on the right you can see what happens when changing the resolution from 350 to 72 (standard resolution for website viewing). The width & height have been reduced drastically as it pertains to pixels, yet our actual document size in inches remains the same.  In other words, we have just reduced the file size dramatically, but you've now got an image that will display correctly at approximately 14 x 9" (or whatever your original started out as). This is still a pretty big image for most purposes, so you may want to take it a step further.

Keeping all the boxes checked, go up to the pixel dimensions. Since we have "Constrain Proportions" checked, it will only be necessary to change either the width or the height. The other will adjust automatically.  At 72 ppi, a width of 600 px's gives us an image that will display at approximately 8 x 5".  Or you may want to go 800 px's wide or whatever.  My point being that something in this range is a much more manageable size to send via email, especially if you're sending multiple images.  It's also plenty big for posting to facebook*, etc.  So decide on a size and hit "OK".

*If you're a facebook junkie, please read the comments section at the bottom of this post for an update to this info.

And WHOOPS!  You now see a tiny, barely recognizable, little image.  Before you start cursing at me, note that Elements is still displaying your image at less than 20%.  This pretty well illustrates just how much you have reduced the file size.  To now see your image at the true size you have reduced it to, simply grab your zoom tool and increase the image to 100%.  

Voila! At 100% my image is now displaying on the screen at that approximate size of 8 x 5" that I had chose.  It's worth noting here that once your image is displayed on the web, the size will appear slightly different on different monitors. This is due to the fact that monitors come in and can be set at different resolutions.  Not to worry - regardless you now have an image that is not obnoxiously large.

Now rather than doing a "File" - "Save" or "Save As", I select "File" - "Save for Web".

The above dialog box will open giving you the option to set the quality.  I find that a JPEG set at anything around 80% or above is excellent.  This "Save for Web" step further optimizes your image for the web and removes some of the file information.  The viewing dimensions remain the same, but your file size has been reduced even further, making loading just that much faster.

Whew!  For something I consider pretty basic information, this just might be my longest post yet - and I still don't know that I've explained it all that well.  If you've got any questions please leave them via a comment and I'll do my best to respond.