Tilt-Shift Photography

The tilt-shift technique allows photographers achieving a very special selective focus effect, producing the appearance of a miniature scene. While there are several ways of achieving this effect, in todays’ digital photography there are only two major approaches: taking a picture with a tilt-shift lens or reproducing the effect in post-processing.

Tilt-shift lenses made by major manufacturers are cream of the crop in lens design. They usually show excellence in image quality, and they are built to last. Tilting the lens simulates the look of a miniature scene, or a scene shot at a macro distance. Using a tilt-shift lens gives the most natural-looking effect for a simple reason: it’s being achieved with the optics by bending and refracting rays of light coming from the actual, three-dimensional scene.

If these lenses are that good, why doesn’t everyone own one? Naturally, things aren’t quite as rosy here. Photographers using tilt-shift lenses pay quite the price for the privilege. And we’re not just talking money here: although these lenses do indeed cost an arm and a leg, they have other limitations, restrictions and specifics that make them impractical to most photographers for real-world use.

All modern tilt-shift lenses are manual focus. This means you’ll have to focus your shot manually, and you’ll have to do it after tilting (or shifting) the lens, which is a slow and difficult process with todays’ AF cameras. On most tilt-shift lenses you’ll have to set aperture by hand as opposed to selecting it from the camera; some still force you to manually meter light or use stop-down metering, which further complicates and slows down the process. Finally, there’s not a single zoom tilt-shift lens in existence; you’ll be limited to a single focal length unless you’re ready to invest in a bunch of tilt-shift primes (and you’ll probably have to mortgage your house to do so).

If that’s not enough, consider that a picture, when taken with a tilt-shift lens, will irreversibly have that miniature look. You won’t be able to turn it into a ‘normal’ picture unless you took another shot of the same scene without tilting the lens. However, using tilt-shift lenses was the only option available to 35mm film photographers for a long time.

Tilt-shift photography suddenly became a much easier enterprise with the advent of computers. The tilt-shift effect is one of the easiest to reproduce by post processing your pictures. With modern tilt-shift software applying precise calculations you won’t lose much if anything by reproducing the look of a tilt-shift effect in the post. The end result will be practically indistinguishable from tilt-shift photography produced with a real tilt-shift lens.

What you gain in return is convenience. In fact, you gain lots of convenience. You can use any camera and any lens to take a picture. You can snap pictures, use autofocus, and even shoot moving subjects (try that with a tilt-shift lens!) You can zoom at will. And you get to keep the original undistorted picture.

One last argument in favor of tilt-shift software as opposed to using a tilt-shift lens is the price. Tilt-shift software costs less than 10% of the price of a tilt-shift lens – while offering more features and greater flexibility compared to even the best tilt-shift lens!

Tilt-Shift Generator produces convincing, natural-looking miniatures at a small fraction of the price of a real tilt-shift lens. It works just as good as or better than real tilt-shift lenses. With Tilt-Shift Generator, you can turn any picture into a faux-miniature, creating an image that looks like it’s been shot in a macro or diorama setting without actually being one. Its multiple settings and controls allow a far greater degree of flexibility than offered by even the best tilt-shift lenses.

Try Tilt-Shift Generator by downloading a free evaluation copy. It costs you nothing to try, and will set you back some $49.95 if you like it. Compare to the cost of a limited-use tilt-shift lens, and you’re in for some great savings!

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