In photography, the Orton effect is a technique for giving photographs a soft, almost mystical glow. Named for photographer Michael Orton, who first pioneered the effect in the 1980s, the effect is achieved by overlaying two versions of the same exact image, one exposed normally and sharp, and one overexposed and out of focus. The result is a soft glow around the edges of objects, especially in proximity to a light source.
In the original Orton effect using actual film, Orton had to do this manually by taking two versions of the same shot, then exposing them differently in a photo lab, and then finally overlaying the two images on top of each other in the final print. However in modern digital photography, the Orton effect can easily be achieved with only one original image using a few clicks in photoshop, or can even be automatically calculated and applied by some software photo filters.