Orton Technique Underwater ??
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This is one of the few blog entries that is in english, so here we go..
There is a fabulous technique dating back from the slide photography time called “The Orton Technique“. While it is basicly a form of sandwiching two images in a single frame it gives the landscape photographs a dreamy look. The technique is developed by Mr. Michael Orton and is well explained overall in the net. You can find a detailed and very good explanation here.
In my days of meditation about what can be done underwater to enhance the picture quality, i had an idea to try out the orton technique and ortonize my underwater reef scenes.
After a few unsuccessful trials i think i came up with a somewhat successful result. While on land you will need a sturdy tripod and a cable or remote release for film. In our days of digital trickery all you need is a little knowledge of image editing softeware and a well selected base image. The image on top is shot in sharm el sheikh with a Ricoh GX camera in a Sea&Sea DX5000G housing with wide angle converter and using ambient light.
The photo below is manually ortonized so to speak, using 2 additional layers in GIMP and the commands blur, unsharp mask and curves for the required overexposure.
The result is a dreamy scene which is rich in color tones and contrasts but lacks a littlebit in sharpness. There are ready made actions for photoshop which handle the process for you but the best way is to use manual technique for full control.
This ends another day of experimenting wish you all happy diving and safe days,
Namaste,
Themocracy