Life after Photoshop

Tilt shift effect

Tilt shift lenses, or 'perspective control' lenses, have built-in lens movements which let you shift the lens up, down or sideways relative to the camera, or tilt it at an angle. The shift movement is good for correcting converging verticals in architectural shots, while the tilt movement has traditionally been used for depth of field control in studio photography.

This tilt movement works by aligning the camera's plane of focus with the subject's, but you can adjust the tilt the other way and dramatically reduce the depth of field, even with subjects some distance away from the camera.

This effect has been made popular by Lensbaby and its deliberately lo-fi lenses, where you can freely adjust the tilt of the lens.

It's also possible to recreate this effect digitally using 'tilt shift' filters. The effect is not quite the same since tilt lenses are acting on objects in 3D space while tilt shift filters are working on a 2D image, but the results can still be convincing and interesting enough to be worthwhile.

Create a tiny scene with this miniature effect

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The so-called ‘miniature’ or ‘tilt shift’ effect can be very convincing. It makes everyday scenes look like tiny models. You can apply it with lots of different programs and apps, and many cameras now have a ‘miniature’ effect built in. It’s often referred to as a ‘tilt shift’ effect too, because it’s associated with lenses […]

Saturday spotlight: Tilt-shift effect

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Digital tilt-shift effect tools are popular because they give images a retro ‘old-camera’ look and, in the right circumstances, can make a real-life subject look like a miniature model. But first some physics. Digital tilt-shift effects are rarely accurate. They only work if your whole subject is on a single flat, receding plane. If you […]

3 ways to add digital depth of field with the Perfect Effects 8 Lens Blur filter

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It’s easy to get shallow depth of field with a camera. You just need a camera with a large sensor, and a lens with a large maximum aperture and the laws of physics do the rest. But adding depth of field digitally is trickier, so let’s see if a filter designed specifically to do this […]

Create a miniature effect with this Focal Point 2 tilt shift technique

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Tilt shift effects are all the rage right now, either as tools within image-editing programs or built directly into the camera. They deliberately defocus parts of the image to create the look of old-fashioned lenses, highly-controllable studio or architectural lenses or, in the case of this Focal Point 2 tilt shift technique, they make a […]