I got a wonderful link from Lightstalking – check my links on the upper left – about Tilt-shift photography. If you are on Twitter, this is a good site to follow because they find all kinds of interesting things for the amateur/serious amateur photographer to do.
Tilt-shift is a technique used often in landscape photography, architectural images, and to create miniatures – make your photos look as if they are miniature scale models. It also increases color saturation and contrast. The technique has been around a long time and requires a specialized lens for your small or medium format camera that enables you to get tilt and/or shift. The explanation of how exactly it works it quite technical and I can’t say I understand it completely.
To get the miniature look, it’s best to take a photo from a high angle. Even on regular photos, however, tilt-shift can be fun. And how can you achieve this look? Here’s a web site that can do it for you automatically.
I’ll post a couple of photos to show you the effects you can achieve. I only had one photo taken from an angle to give a true miniature-type effect.
Here’s the original photo.
For fun, here’s how some of the other images turned out.
Here’s how it looks with the tilt-shift applied.
I love the image – notice the difference in colors and focus. On the web site link, you can increase or decrease the width of the area in focus, control the gradient, and fool around with adjustments.
Here’s some more so you can see the effects. first, the Forum in Rome.
The kid’s soccer game: I like the sense of motion I got by putting the focus band above the calves.
Westminster Abbey
Now I’ll do a few photos from the fair food booths, first regular, then tilt-shift:
Now you try it. You can use your own photos or get one from the web. You have the choice. Click on http://tiltshiftmaker.com/ and get started. I’m going to be taking some photos that will work well with this technique and I think I’m going to do a college of the fair food photos in tilt-shift. It would be fun to see what you do!
And, by the way, if you’re interested in more photos of London or Rome, you can see them here. Also, you can read about London and Rome on my travel journal pages.
