The Orton Effect for Portraits

I posted a while ago about how I've been obsessively using the Orton Effect action on my portraits lately.
Typically this action is known for enhancing landscapes but I love the dreamy & hazy effect it has and thought I'd give it a whirl on some faces.  Personally, I love it~


Here's another example of how I used it on a portrait recently:


I opened my original image in Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac...

I lightened under her eyes just a bit using the clone tool on Lighten around 20%.

Then I softened the skin using Baby Powder Room action.

Next I cropped the picture to a square focusing on just her portrait.

Then I ran the Orton Action and adjusted the Brightness/Contrast as follows when the pop-up windows came up:

+39 for the first window on Brightness.

-7 for the Brightness on second window.  I have no formula for this, it's just how it looked good to me at the time.

Then I erased most of the effect off her face using the built in layer mask....what this does is just soften her hair and the surroundings and give it just a touch of a 'glow'~

I love the great color of her hair here but it still looked too ordinary to me so I ran the Pioneer Woman 70's action and took the opacity to 50%...

Much Better:)

Here's my final...

So don't be afraid to try typical actions in new ways....never know what you'll end up with!