Teal shift. What is a tilt-shift lens and how to make it yourself. Alternative Methods for Creating a Tilt-Shift Effect

Tilt-shift (Tilt-shift / Tilt-shift) photography (or "miniature effect") is still a relatively new direction, and this is a great way to create interest in your work through social media, galleries and portfolio. The only problem is the price of the equipment. Even if you already have SLR camera, a tilt-shift lens will cost you about 1500 USD, and not all of us are ready to venture such expenses for the sake of one photo effect.

But the good news is that you can recreate the tilt-shift effect for free or for a small fee in a variety of ways. The results of applying all the methods that will be discussed are actually better than a photo taken with a classic tilt-shift lens, because you always have the original image to continue working with, and not be content with the result.

How to Create a Tilt-Shift Photo Without an Appropriate Lens

Option 1: TiltShiftMaker.com

If you're just getting started with tilt-shift photography, TiltShift Maker is a great choice because it's so simple. You upload your photo or a link to a photo on the web, make a few adjustments using the suggested settings, and download the finished image in seconds.

TiltShiftMaker.com also has a gallery of excellent user-contributed tilt-shift photos that are indispensable if you're looking for inspiration or want to figure out which photos the effect works best with.

Option 2: Tilt-Shift Photoshop Filters

All varieties of tilt-shift filters for Photoshop are able to create a miniature effect within your usual workflow. My favorite filter is available for $5 from Graphic River and comes with 14 other photo effects filters.

Option 3: Tilt-Shift Lesson in Photoshop

There are tons of tutorials on how to create a tilt-shift effect in Photoshop. My favorite tutorial called "How to create your own tilt-shift photograph in Photoshop" is posted on photo.tutsplu . It is simple, clear and generously illustrated.

How to Create Your Own Tilt-Shift Photo in Photoshop

Simulating the miniature effect is a great way to spice up a sometimes-boring shot. This effect is also called tilt-shift because the result of its application resembles a photograph taken with a tilt-shift lens, in which the lenses can be tilted and shifted. In this tutorial, we will explore this interesting effect and find out how to achieve it without spending money on new lenses.

Step 1. How it works?

The simulation of miniatures is possible thanks to an optical illusion that makes us believe that we are looking at a snapshot of a miniature world, and not a life-size image. This perception is associated with a small depth of field. We usually encounter shallow depths of field in macro photography, when the object in the photo seems much smaller than it actually is.

Step 2. Choosing the right angle

The best pseudo miniatures are obtained when shooting from a high altitude combined with a good view, and the greater the angle between the camera lens and the ground, the better. Shots taken at low angles also have their charm, but for pseudo-miniatures, the best results are obtained with large shooting angles. That's why aerial shots emulate photographs that look like miniature models of reality.

If you intend to get a good effect, take your time to think and choose the best place for shooting. In the city, this can be an observation deck, if you “dare” to go there, and outside the city, any hill, like a hill, will do. Height and good review will provide unusually interesting pictures with miniature effect. Another indispensable condition for a good result is shooting in the daytime. Even if your night shot is very brightly lit, the effect of shallow depth of field will not be as noticeable as when shooting during the day.

Step 3: Getting Started in Photoshop

The first step towards photo miniaturization is to switch to the Quick Mask mode (Quick mask), which will happen when you press the “Q” key, or on the icon in the tool palette. You can also switch to this mode by selecting the Edit in Quick Mask Mode command from the Select menu. With the help of a mask, we can tell the program which areas of the image should be in focus or blurred.

Step 4. Turn on the tool Gradient (Gradient)

The Gradient Tool can be selected by clicking on the icon in the Layers Palette, or by pressing the "G" key.

Select reflected gradient from the toolbar at the top (mirror gradient, fourth icon from the left) and the color transition option "from black to white".

Step 5 Draw the Focus Line

This step is unlikely to avoid a lot of trial and error in the pursuit of the ideal result, and it will probably take the most time. Stretching the line, start from the point where the sharpness should be maximum. Depending on the direction of the drawn line (up or down from the starting point), the gradient will be different. Try different options to choose the best result, in your opinion.

The main thing is not to stretch the line too much, because it ultimately determines the depth of field of your image, and do not be confused by the gradient turning into red, despite the fact that the transition from black to white is selected, it should be!

Be careful not to make the gradient bar too narrow, otherwise a blurred area of ​​the image will obscure a small part of what is in focus, and vice versa, an overly stretched gradient will lead to excessive depth of field, canceling out the effect we are trying to achieve.

The ideal gradient should have a decent band of solid, solid color where the sharpness will be emphasized, but the fading area should also be left enough so that the Lens Blur effect (Blur at a shallow depth of field) that will be applied looks believable.

Step 6. Returning to Standard Mode

Once satisfied with the result of the masking, switch to the standard editing mode by clicking on the icon in the tool palette again, or by pressing the "Q" key. By doing this, you will see a rectangular selection of the gradient area, the borders of which you defined in the previous step in the "red mode".

Step 7: Adding a Lens Blur Effect

Now we will apply a special blur effect that will reduce the depth of field. Go to the menu Filter> Blur (Filter> Blur) and select Lens Blur (Blur with a small depth of field).

Step 8Setting up the filter

In the Lens Blur filter editing window, you will see an illustration of the preliminary result of applying the effect on your image and the settings controls on the right. Most of the default settings are quite satisfactory for the effect we want.

I would change the iris shape from hexagon to octagon, but that decision is up to you. You can do whatever you want with the settings, as long as the result suits you and you would be happy to click OK in the upper right corner.

Step 9 Deselect

After applying the filter, remove the selection by pressing Ctrl + D, or by selecting the menu Select (Selection) command Deselect (Deselect).

Step 10

To evoke the feeling of a toy world, we will slightly increase the saturation of the colors in the photo. Press Ctrl + U or go to Image> Adjustments (Image> Correction) and select Hue & Saturation (Hue / Saturation).

Now move the saturation slider to the right to increase it, but don't get carried away. A slight shift is enough to give the impression that the photo shows a toy model of a real painting. Ready!

Final result

Conclusion

Simulating the miniature effect in a photograph is a wonderful technique that can be used for many landscape shots. This effect is very easy to implement in Photoshop, as you have just seen. This tutorial has only touched on the basics of creating pseudo thumbnails, but much more can be done using the described method. More advanced techniques can use selective focus and separate layers to create a more realistic effect. This lesson is over.

If you're the lucky owner of Photoshop CS6, you'll be happy to know that Adobe has added a special tilt-shift effect ("Tilt-shift" in the Filter/Blur menu) to simplify the whole process, which previously included the need to use a quick mask, the "Blur" filter and corrective functions. You can verify the effectiveness of the new "gadget" by watching the lesson on the ComputerArts website.

Using the Tilt-Shift filter in Photoshop CS6

Ben Secret takes an innovative approach to color saturation and creates a miniature village

Tilt-shift (Tilt-shift) is a special method of selective focusing and defocusing of image areas manually, which is implemented by tilting and shifting the camera lens relative to the plane of the surface being filmed. Today, this technique is better known as a method of turning ordinary photographs into miniature models of cities and villages. The effect is achieved by simulating an exaggerated depth of field (usually the center of the image is in focus, and everything near or far is blurred) to create an image that looks like an angled close-up scene from a small world.

Photoshop CS6 offers an ingeniously simple Tilt-shift blur effect that, combined with enhanced saturation, is ideal for creating optically deceptive illusions of miniature models of real photographs. In this tutorial, I will show you how to add this effect to your image.

1. First, load your photo into Photoshop and duplicate it. The classic angle for tilt-shift photography usually comes from shots taken from a fairly high altitude (maybe an office window or a hillside) with a medium focal length not designed for too clear perspective, and with little interesting detail in the central part. However, this effect can be used much more creatively.

2. Filter Tilt-shift (Slope-offset) you will find in the menu Filters (Filter) in the group Blur (Blur). A circle will immediately appear in front of you in the center, which represents the focal point of the lens (focal point). The lines on each side define the width of the horizontal bars within which the image must be in focus. As you approach the dotted line, the sharpness is weakened, and beyond it the image is completely blurred. Set the blur radius to 25px.

3. Solid lines can be used to adjust the position of the wash front on both sides. Here we exaggerate the depth of field, so focus on the landscape. I made in focus a narrow strip that crosses the entire village. Then, since the image has a close foreground at the bottom, I lifted the bottom dashed line so that the transition from the blurred area to the sharp one had more contrast. The distortion control slider adds a perspective effect to the blur (I set it to 80% here).

4. The defocus effect is only half the battle on the way to our goal, and the other half is to give the image a bright, colorful look, and for this I will resort to my own trick, and not Hue / Saturation adjustment layers (Color tone/saturation), or Vibrance (Vibration).

Copy your blurred image to a new layer by pressing Cmd / Ctrl + J, and change the blending mode to Color (Chroma).

5. Now create an adjustment layer for the duplicate Curves / Curves (in fact, almost any adjustment layer can be used here) and fasten it to the bottom layer with a clipping mask (clipping mask). This can be done either by selecting the Create Clipping Mask command from the Layers menu, or by holding down the Opt/Alt key on the line separating the layers in the Layers Palette. Now change the blending mode for the adjustment layer to Overlay (Overlap) and adjust the degree of saturation with the opacity slider.

final image

The method described in the first lesson is significantly more time consuming than any of the ones described here, but it has huge advantage in terms of control over the process of creating an effect that you can localize on a specific object in your photo or on a selected compositional center.

However, before jumping into any kind of tilt-shift tutorial in Photoshop, I would recommend running the photo through one of the other methods first to get an idea of ​​what the final result might look like. The worst thing you can do is waste precious time doing this tutorial and finally come to the conclusion that the photo you chose is not suitable for the tilt-shift effect.

The apps may be limited in the management features that other available methods have, but here you have much more opportunity to view your photos at any time and take more if, for some reason, the end result is not quite to your liking.

Depending on what you are photographing and how serious you are about deep learning tilt-shift technique with all its possibilities, quite a decent result can be obtained using mobile phone or tablet before resorting to shooting with a DSLR camera to get a similar shot and then edit it.

Conclusion

Technique Tilt-shift photos available to everyone, no matter what your budget. This is the case when there is an opportunity to be creative using the resources available to you. With so many inexpensive and simple ways creating very believable miniature imitations for your photos, it is now quite possible to fulfill your cherished plan.

Ready for a new lesson? But why am I asking? Of course we are ready! Today we will consider a very interesting lesson. Since I don’t publish the basics of Photoshop anymore, it’s natural that the lessons become more and more interesting. What I will teach you today, you will certainly like it, I guarantee!

So, stop “pouring water”, let me tell you better what the lesson will be about today and, of course, I will tell you, my dear readers, how to achieve the tilt-shift effect.

You have probably seen similar photos on the Internet. Interesting effect, isn't it? It seemed to be an ordinary photo, but it turned out like this interesting photo. Something like a picture of toys. There, supposedly a dollhouse, model cars and the dolls themselves. At first glance, you might think so. Still want to learn how to achieve this effect in ? Then let's move on!

I took just such a photo, and I will teach you by its example how to tilt shift in photoshop!

Step 1. Switching to the " Quick mask". You can do this by clicking on the button, as in the screenshot:

Step 2. Select the tool Gradient” > “specular gradient”:

Step 3 Now let's use the gradient. Make the center what you want to highlight in the photo. Here's how I did it (I drew a red line for you to see):

Step 4 We repeat step 1, only now turn off this “ Quick mask”.

Step 5 Let's go to Filter > Blur > Shallow Depth of Field Blur… :

And we should have a window like this:

Here we can adjust the blur using the slider “ Radius” according to your taste.

Step 6 Everything seems to be ready, you think. Yes, in fact, we have achieved what we wanted. But, I advise you to add saturation! I strongly advise. So let's repeat after me:

You can also add brightness.

Let's see what we've got for you!

After

Agree, it turned out very interesting! True, the most difficult thing in this matter is not the effect itself, but the rule to photograph. After all, not all photos fit, some more, some smaller, and some do not fit at all.

Tilt-shift lens - whatever one may say, a useful thing. Take, for example, the effect adored by many: large-sized objects being filmed are depicted as tiny figures. in many compact cameras built-in software filters that simulate this effect. However, it is created with a tilt-shift lens. Below we provide answers to five popular questions related to tilt-shift lenses so that you can learn a little more about its capabilities before using it.

What are tilt-shift lenses?

This type of lens is often referred to as perspective corrective. Tilt-shift lenses have the ability to tilt, rotate (from English tilt), the image plane at an angle to the plane of the photosensitive layer. And also to shift (from the English shift) the image plane along the plane of the photosensitive layer.

How does a tilt-shift lens work?

The design of the lens is such (which outwardly distinguishes it from the many "relatives") that the front part is movable. It can be tilted at a predetermined angle relative to the sensor plane. As a result, you can get the depth of field in one part of the scene being shot is extremely small, in another - close to infinity.

• Note. translator - you can learn more about IPIG from the article

The ability to shift the front of the lens along the plane of the photosensitive sensor can be useful in architectural photography. When photographing a building with a normal lens, you will most likely encounter a distorted image of straight lines. The verticals will curve and converge towards the center of the frame.

The image of tall structures with a conventional lens can be distorted.

The use of a tilt-shift lens in architecture photography is an opportunity to correct the perspective image at the shooting stage. Instead of doing the correction at the processing stage.

Who makes tilt-shift lenses?

Canon offers 4 TS-E (tilt-shift) lenses that "cover" the focal length range from 17mm to 90mm. Nikon produces 3 lenses (PS-E, perspective control - “perspective control”) with focal lengths ranging from 24 to 85 mm.

Native tilt-shift lenses are compatible with both full-frame cameras and cameras with an APS-C sensor.

• PRome. translator - more about the size of modern photosensitive sensors and related features You can find out from the article.

When is it appropriate to use a tilt-shift lens?

It comes in handy when shooting architecture. It will allow you to “keep” the high walls of buildings vertical, which, when shooting with a conventional lens, “strive” to bend into an arc and lean towards the center of the frame. This distortion is the stronger, the higher the building being photographed and the closer you are to it - the photographer.

In the mode of tilting the plane of the front lens at an angle to the plane of the photosensitive sensor, the tilt-shift lens is very useful in landscape photography. In scenes where it is necessary to depict objects, both distant and nearby in relation to the shooting point, in sharpness at the same time.

How to attach a tilt-shift lens to a camera? Are there any features?

Such lenses have a typical mount. They are attached to the camera in the same way as conventional lenses. The lens itself has elements that allow you to control the tilt angle relative to the sensor plane and the amount of displacement relative to the optical axis of the lens.

Tilt-shift is a photography genre that has become very popular over the past few years. In fact, this is photographing an ordinary subject or scene from life, which the tilt shift lens transforms into a miniature in the picture.

In such photographs, the main effect can be achieved through rotation or shift. To get high-quality professional photos in the minimalist genre, without resorting to Photoshop tricks, the only right option is to use tilt shift.

Photographers have many opportunities to realize their creative ideas. All this thanks to a wide choice of models, the main task of which is to project the seen picture onto the surface of the film. IN Lately the tilt-shift lens gained particular popularity.

This is a model with functions that allow you to correct the view and have the ability to shift and (or) rotate the image plane with respect to the plane of the photosensitive layer. The angle of inclination and the amount of offset are controlled by two elements.

The lens is attached to the tilt shift camera in the same way as a normal one. By the way, in order not to deny yourself the pleasure of creating absolutely fantastic photographs, you can build a tilt-shift lens with your own hands.

Shooting process

A conventional camera provides sharp focus in only one plane. Without the tilt function, the image plane is parallel to the focal and perpendicular to the optical axis. All objects in focus are at the same distance from the camera.

And when tilted or rotated, the focal plane becomes at an angle to the image. Consequently, all objects at different distances fall into the field of view, i.e. near and far, and are displayed without distortion.

This property is called the Scheimpflug principle. According to this principle, the use of rotations allows you to change the shape. For example, if the device and the focused image are parallel, then the depth of field is the same on both sides.

But when tilted or rotated, it takes on a wedge-shaped shape, with the top of the cone at the axis of rotation. Moreover, at the top of the wedge, the sharpness is almost zero and increases with distance from the camera. For such types of shooting as landscape, architectural, tilt lens is simply irreplaceable.

Opportunities

When using a conventional camera, the plane may or may not coincide with the image. Basically, this happens when photographing tall buildings. Parallel lines visually rush to one point, and this leads to image distortion.

The building in the photo does not look natural, as if it is tilted backwards. Shift is a shift or shift parallel to the image that allows you to adjust the position of your subject without changing the angle of the camera itself. Shift can be used to keep the image plane parallel to the object, or vice versa to emphasize distortion for artistic effect.

The tilt and shift functions make it possible to use just one device for different directions in photography.

Is it possible to do tilt/shift?

Having even a little idea about photographic genres and cameras, you can try to make a tilt-shift lens with your own hands. Any amateur photographer can handle this.

In order to get a tilt-shift lens with your own hands, we need:

1. SLR or DSLR camera;
2. oversized lens;
3. corrugated rubber tube;
4. a plastic protective cover for your camera;
5. a drill or utility knife to cut out the center of the bayonet;
6. hot glue gun or other glue;
7. black tape.

The first thing to do is cut out the middle of the lid with a utility knife. Then cut off a piece of corrugated tube of the desired size, insert the device there and attach it to the tube with glue. You need to let the glue dry. Hide the gluing place by carefully wrapping it with black electrical tape. Making a tilt-shift lens with your own hands is not so difficult.

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Principle of operation

The optical scheme of Tilt/Shift lenses is such that the field of a high-quality image is much larger than the area of ​​the frame, due to which the photographer can shift the frame within the boundaries of this field by moving or tilting the lens relative to the sensor plane. As a result, the correspondence between the perspective centers of the lens and the image is lost. The result is an effect that corresponds to the framing shift from the center of the image to the edge in lenses with a wide angle of view.

Shift has two main uses: changing perspective or widening the angle of view (using multiple shots). In this case, the sensor does not capture the entire circular image as a whole, but part of it - the central rectangular crop. Multiple shots are used to widen the angle of view.

To say that Tilt / Shift lenses fix something in the frame is not entirely true. Rather, they allow us to restructure the plot according to our usual perception. As you know, our visual perception does not accurately reflect the geometric construction of the world, as a mirror does, but produces a psychological processing of the seen picture in the brain.

The other side of the coin is that lenses with a shift function are larger and heavier than conventional lenses (at the same focus values ​​and largest aperture). In addition, with a significant shift, those parts of the circular image that have already deteriorated quality will fall into the field of view. But here it must be said that on a conventional lens, a constantly available image is often not of the best quality. Tilt/shift lens with focal length 24 mm corresponds in its optical data to a conventional lens with focal length 16 mm due to the same size of the circular image. And from this it follows that the tilt / shift lens with a focus of 24 mm is inferior in the quality of the resulting optical image to a conventional lens with a focus of 24 mm. This is understandable - the larger the angle of view, the lower the quality.

In the marking of lenses that allow only a shift of the optical axis in the transverse direction, there are letters PC, which mean perspective control (eng. Perspective Control, Perspective Correction). With the additional ability to tilt the optical axis, the lens is most often marked with the abbreviation TS, which means shift and tilt.

Usage example

For example, you need to shoot both the flowers in the foreground and the castle in the background.

The red line marks the area of ​​best focus. As you can see, only at F16 do we manage to capture both in depth of field. But at the same time, both objects are on the borders of the depth of field and will not be perfectly sharp. Not to mention the fact that F16 is a lens aperture value that exceeds the diffraction limit for most modern cameras and therefore also contributes to reducing the sharpness of the photo.