What is Tilt Shift Photography ? 

This is the realm of photography that involves tilting the lens with respect to the picture plain and taking photos in that configuration. “Tilt-shift” actually has two movements: the rotation of the lens, called Tilt and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, the Shift.

Tilt

 On a regular camera, the image plane, lens plane, and object plane are parallel, and objects in sharp focus are all at the same distance from the camera.. When the lens plane is tilted relative to the image plane, the Point of Focus is at an angle to the image plane, and objects at different distances from the camera can all be sharply focused if they lie on a straight line.With the lens tilted, the image plane, lens plane, and PoF intersect at a common line.

Shift

In a subject plane parallel to the image plane, parallel lines in the subject remain parallel in the image. If the image plane is not parallel to the subject, as when pointing a camera up to photograph a tall building, parallel lines converge, and the result sometimes appears unnatural, such as a building that appears to be leaning backwards. Shift is a movement of the lens parallel to the image plane that allows the line of sight to be changed while keeping the image plane (and thus focus) parallel to the subject; it can be used to photograph a tall building while keeping the sides of the building parallel. The lens can also be shifted in the opposite direction and the camera tilted up to get a different effect.

The Lens 

Tilt Shift lens come under the segment of lens called perspective control lens. Basically they have a larger image circle, that is their image circle will be much larger than the real sensor or film being used. This enables the tilting and shifting of the lens to get desired effects. These lens are relatively more expensive. The main manufactures of these lens include Canon, Nikon, Schneider-Kreuznach, Hartblei, Hasselblad, Photokina etc. These lens are usually prime lens that are manual focus. They are usually manual focus because of the difficulty of getting a automatic focusing system in it. 

Adapters 

Another solution that photographers use regularly is tilt shift adapters. These allow mounting of regular lens as tilt shift or tilt alone lens on the camera. The adapter does the tilting and shifting. Though they do not give the equivalent quality or accuracy of real tilt shift lens, they are a common alternative. As they are cheaper than tilt shift primes these adapters are being used widely. 

Tilt-shift faking

This is a post process job where, a suitable image is selected so that the image contains an object that can be made to look like a miniature, then the DOF is manipulated by selective blurring to give the illusion of a very thin DOF and the image is also post processed to have a plasticy feel that makes it look like the photo of a miniature. 

What is Tilt Shifting used for ? 

Tilt shifting allows smaller depth of field in photos that usually have large DOF. These are usually photos taken at relatively wide focal lengths. The resultant application includes making real objects look like miniature models. Other use includes giving focus to an object from a clutter of objects, such images can be used in advertisements etc, examples of this would be the picture of a building to be used for its promo where the DOF is so selected that only the Building is in focus. Without tilt shift lens such narrow DOF in pictures of objects as large as a building are not possible due to financially and physicals constrains on lens designs.

If you cant afford a tilt shift lens try getting yourself an adapter. If that is also out of question then at least try experimenting with faking techniques. which can be found easily by searching on the net.

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