circusring

orton and other effects are explained here: http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/ ... photoshop/

Rick, any chance of adding this set of steps below into one feature????This would save SO much tyme It's called the ORTON EFFECT Open your image (Image 1) 1. Duplicate the background layer (Right click on the background layer and choose duplicate) and name that layer Sharp 2. Create another duplicate of the background layer. 3. Change the Blending mode of the Sharp Copy to screen 4. With the Sharp Copy layer selected, under Layers, select Merge Down (Image 2) 5. Select the Sharp layer, choose Duplicate and name this layer Out of Focus 6. Under Effects Menu, choose Blur - Gaussian Blur (Image 3) Depending on the resolution of the image you are using, the amount of blue needed will change. Use enough that the shapes are still visible, but detail is not. For this 6.1 Megapixel image, a value of 15.9 was sufficient. 7. Change the layer blending mode of the Out Of Focus layer to Multiply. (Image 4) Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Final image including levels adjustment and cropping Once you are complete, you may find it necessary to adjust the opacity of your Out of Focus layer and/or apply a levels (or curves) adjustment layer to the Sharp layer if some tweaking is necessary.You can also adjust the amount of blur you apply to the out of focus image, as well as adjustments such as level, brightness and contrast and it is good practice to apply sharpening to your image Sharp layer. (Image 5) Not all images work well with this effect, but digital photography makes it easier to try it out on wide range of photos. I have included a few examples here of other photos with the Orton Effect applied, though the effect is lost on the small images. You can view another on my personal site, or view the Orton flickr.com group.