Tilt-shift... aka "toy pics"

[Doppelgänger]

call me crazy, but i thought the importance of tilt-shift lenses is to fix the barrel distortion you get when using wide angel lenses... and to even out lines for proper perspective.

these look more like they are low DOF images distorted for artistic effect.

1. TS lenses help improve DOF that standard lenses can't achieve.
2. the look is called 'reverse-scheimpflug' aka selective focus.

I know... but I would hardly call it an improved DOF... rather manipulate it's focus plain to achieve effect.

ok you are right with the artistic effect, well played.

But as a real estate photographer, the other side of the TS-lens is its effect to correct barrel distortion and manipulate the DOF plain at low aperture to focus on the important subjects in low light situations (if you are good enough with the lens to do this).

^I understand what you mean


I'm no pro, nor claim to be, but my understanding of T-S is to create a DOF on more than just the y-axis (left-right to some of you). It also works best in pictures with a lot of detail and that a specific subject be a small part of the picture. Once again, that's just my take on the artistic side of it.

And as for doing it in PS, I use several steps of blurring to eliminate and hard-lines, adding lens distortion and sharpening. I'll usually do a few versions of the same picture before I am happy with it. I wish I had a better base picture of that A380 to use... but I was moving at 300mph at a 35* angle up and had wipped out the camera and hit AUTO, was at full zoom and dealing with L.A. smog lol