Pixiq

How do you make the world seem smaller than it already is?

Video source YouTube

Tilt-Shift lenses can be used to create tiny looking objects, people that look like ants, matchbox sized cars, lakes that look like puddles, and viewers faces full of amazement and delight! Big places can be made to look incredibly small and marvelously fun.

All you need to produce this transformation of reality is a good DSLR, a tripod, and a lens that can at least tilt away from the normal lens axis.

While the process is fairly simple, high quality tilt-shift lenses are not the least expensive of lenses to purchase. In the past, these lenses cost thousands of dollars because of their limited market. Generally, the users have been professionals who photograph architectural or studio product subjects. Because most of these lenses require precise micro tilting and micro shifting mechanisms, they are much more costly to build.  Even today, the best TS lenses will set you back at least a few thousand bucks.

In recent years, partially due to the capabilities of digital cameras, there has been a sharp increase in interest in making what are called "TS Miniaturizations". This is the technique of using a tilted lens on the front of a DSLR or a Video camera to produce the effect of making the world look very tiny.

What is a Tilt Shift Lens?

Normal cameras and lenses are engineered to insure that the sharpest focus is entirely on the focal plane (sensor or film). When a lens is focused, it means that the subject being focused and anything else in the same image plane (which is parallel to the back of the camera) will render as sharply as possible across the entire sensor. Basically, there are two parallel image planes. One is at the subject and the other is its projection on to the plane of the sensor.

Video source YouTube

For normal use, a tilt-shift lens is designed in such a way as to allow the plane of sharp focus to be placed wherever the user needs it. In other words, the lens can be tilted to focus a planar (flat) surface object such as a wall onto the sensor. This makes the surface of the wall and anything in the same plane lay exactly on the sensor (or film). The resulting image shows the wall and any windows or details on the wall sharply from one end to the other. All details not in the same plane are thrown out of focus.

Video source YouTube

For the purpose of miniaturization, we would do the opposite. Tilting the lens can also place the plane of focus so that it bisects (cuts across) the plane of the sensor (or film). In this case, the tilting of the lens only puts a sliver of focus on the focal plane and the rest of the image area is made up of out of focus light. This creates a very defined sweet spot of selective focus that can be used to among other things, define the subject and/or create miniaturization.

I will explain how miniaturization is achieved and a few other secrets of shooting with TS lenses in another post.