Skyline

'Skyline' at Lytham., originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

While out photowandering (not quite as aimless as it sounds, but not really deliberate location photography either) I found this boat, possibly an ex ship's lifeboat, stranded on the shoreline near Lytham. The day was dull, overcast and there was rain in the air so I was frankly glad to find something to photograph before I was forced to give up and go to Tesco for a bit of EDRT.
That's Economic Downturn Retail Therapy, buying stuff like cheese and paracetomol that you need anyway as if its Harvey Nichols binge buying.

I know. But it works for me.

Back at home I did my usual Photomatixphotoshoptopaz processing, but then, for some reason thought I would try out Orton effect.
I used to use Orton in the old days (that's before digital or BD) by overlaying contact copies of slides, one of which was out of focus for a sort of 'glowing ethereal' look.

...and this is the finished image. I used layers in Photoshop to create a Gaussian Blur effect while retaining the detail.

There is a useful tutorial here:

http://pcin.net/update/2006/11/01/the-orton-effect-digital-photography-tip-of-the-week/

No, I'm not sure either.