How to create the Orton effect in Photoshop

The Orton effect is named after Michael Orton, who first used it and described it using a positive film. Today we can create a similar effect in Photoshop.
The Orton effect is used to create a very soft and diffused image where the colors really pop up.

Open the image in Photoshop and make a duplicate of [...]

How to work with transparencies in Photoshop

Transparency in Photoshop is an effect applied to an object or a layer which allows items beneath it to show through.
One way to achieve this is to lower the opacity of the layer we want to make transparent. In the following example we are going to work with 2 different layers and 1 photograph.

The first [...]