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09-21-2009, 06:13 PM   #1
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Tilt shifting

So this week on Make there is an article on 'making your own tilt-shift lens'

Build a Tilt-Shift Camera Lens for Peanuts | CreativePro.com

Now this looks like in interesting idea, but I have a different question: Why do the photos taken with a tilt-shift lens look like they are miniatures? I mean, I can guess that it is something to do with the change in perspective (e.g. parallel lines not converging as they normally would), but exactly *what* is it that the tilt does to the perspective? (I am not convinced its the shallow DOF that does it - otherwise portrait photography would also make the subject look miniature)

On a similar vein, if a tilt-shift lens can make a 'real' photo look miniature, then can it also be used to make a photograph of miniatures look 'real'? This seems to me to be an overlooked area of miniature photography - if its possible to bend the perspective this way, surely the models would look nicer 'blown up' to 'real' size.

Or is there some key detail I am missing here?

09-21-2009, 06:46 PM   #2
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Here's my take.
09-21-2009, 06:49 PM   #3
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It's a combination of narrow DoF and the perspective. Portraits don't look like miniatures because there are no visual cues in the foreground and you are shooting from straight on.

This is a fake tilt-shift, and it's created entirely by blurring the foreground and background:



It looks like a miniature because you are familiar with miniature shots looking like this with a very narrow DoF from an overhead angle.

Tilt-shift miniature faking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
09-22-2009, 06:09 PM   #4
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Hmm.. Okay, that does make sense in a way - I mean, that image does look a bit miniature, and I can assume that all you did was blur the foreground and background.

The implication of this is that with super powerful lighting (to decrease aperture) and a steady enough subject (for shutter time) you could make a small object look 'real size'. Is that how 'model' shots in films look real then?

But yet... The person sitting next to me (who I said "What makes this image look like miniature people?") said that it doesn't look miniature to him - although when I showed him some other tilt-shift images he said they did look miniature.

So I thought of a little experiment. Which of these images are miniatures? Its probably pretty easy to pick, but in particular what is it about the first and last images that makes you answer a certain way?

Name:  baseball_cropped.jpg
Views: 435
Size:  34.6 KB

Name:  golden_demon.jpg
Views: 429
Size:  31.7 KB

Name:  golden_demon_soldier.jpg
Views: 432
Size:  5.2 KB

View Picture EXIF
Name:  MasterChiefMadameTussauds.jpg
Views: 494
Size:  23.6 KB

P.S. these were shamelessly ripped from various places on the web and cropped. I hope this is okay with everyone... I'm just using them for educational purposes

09-22-2009, 07:46 PM   #5
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Ignore the title of the link, but do read the article. Its about the necessity of using a tilt shift lens (or a PC - perspective control lens) in photographing a panorama, and being able to correctly stitch it together. He also goes through the setup and how to use it, in order to get the desired effect (well the one he is after....).

Creating Ultra Wide Panoramas

... also here are some lenses...

FP101: Tilt/Shift lenses on a budget | Nikas Culinaria
HARTBLEI 45mm Super-Rotator Tilt Shift Lens | HARTBLEI
http://www.foundphotography.com/PhotoThoughts/archives/2008/02/build_a_tilts...s_for_you.html
Arax Photo | Specials | MC ARAX 2.8/35mm Tilt & Shift lens.

Here is another take on tilt shift lenses......

Tilt-Shift Lenses for Jewelry Photography: Jewelry Photography | eHow.com
Hartblei Superrotator
Photographers rise: demand affordable tilt/shift lenses! Mutable Conclusions 2.0
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