Creating a Tilt-Shift Effect to Your Images

by Geoffrey Holland

Watching a recent edition of >CLICK – the BBC’s flagship technology programme broadcast at weekends on the BBC News Channel - I saw a demonstration of a free web site that enables you to create the special effect of ‘Tilt-Shifting’ in your photographs. I had not heard of Tilt-Shifting before but a quick look in my Digital Photographers Handbook revealed that it is a special photographic technique designed to change the focus of your picture in unusual ways. Mostly used by professional photographers, the technique allows you to position the plane of best focus. This gives you a very deep or shallow depth of field without adjusting the aperture – ideal for architecture and landscape work, and invaluable for still life and portraiture. A ‘fun’ use is to give subjects in your photographs the look of miniature scale models. Unfortunately, to achieve this effect you need to purchase a specialist ‘tilt/shift lens costing £1,000 to £3,000 – a purchase I am unlikely to make any day soon! However, you no longer need the expensive lens for you can now obtain a similar effect for free at the Tilt Shift Maker web site: www.tiltshiftmaker.com

An example of a ‘tilt-shifted’ photo on the web site

You need to find one of your photos that will look good with the tilt-shift effect. There are two rules to take into account. Firstly, is the photo of a scene in the distance, or a close-up shot? – Photos of scenes work much better. Secondly, does the photo have a good balance of both near and far areas in it? The bottom of the photo should be that part of the scene nearest the camera. As you move to the top of the photo, the distance of objects in the photo should gradually become further away. The web site gives detailed instructions on what makes a suitable tilt/shift photo with examples of good and bad images.

Once you have selected a suitable photograph you upload it to the Tilt Shift Maker web site. You can then make some optional changes to the way the tilt shifted image will look. These include adjusting the desired focus size – either narrow or wide and in between, alter the defocus strength between weak and strong and change the defocus gradient between quick and slow. Finally, you click the ‘Get Full Size’ button, wait a few seconds and click ‘here’ to download your adjusted image which you can then view or save to your photo catalogue. Why not give it a go?

Below are two of my tilt shifted images.

Bournemouth Pier and People on Red Arrows day

Recycle Man at the Eden Project, Cornwall