tilt/shift photography!!!!!!!

[iPhoto17]

my friend showed me something called tilt/shift photography and went online to find a tilt/shift lens, but sadly they are around 1800 dollars, is there a way to simulate tilt/shift with a normal lens?

 

[Josh66]

There was a thread not long ago asking about that...

One person suggested to just hold the lens up to the mount and move it around. Not perfect, but it would work. You would surely have some light leaks though...

Lensbabies are pretty much T/S lenses. They just don't shift. Tilt only.

 

[Josh66]

You could try something like this too:
Build a Tilt-Shift Camera Lens for Peanuts | CreativePro.com

 

[iPhoto17]

There was a thread not long ago asking about that...

One person suggested to just hold the lens up to the mount and move it around. Not perfect, but it would work. You would surely have some light leaks though...

Lensbabies are pretty much T/S lenses. They just don't shift. Tilt only.

can you please explain more on this, i didnt quite understand....nevermind, do you mean not actually having the lens locked into the camera and hold the lens up to the body and tilt it and whatnot? i should try this, but how does shutter speed and aperture play into this?

 

[Christie Photo]

...is there a way to simulate tilt/shift with a normal lens?

The "shift" and "rise/fall" are fairly easy to simulate in Photoshop using perspective correction.

The "tilt" will more of a challenge. I JUST saw that here somewhere, but can't recall where. It involves making multiple exposures, all focused at gradually increasing depths and then stitching or merging the images somehow.

-Pete

 

[Josh66]

There was a thread not long ago asking about that...

One person suggested to just hold the lens up to the mount and move it around. Not perfect, but it would work. You would surely have some light leaks though...

Lensbabies are pretty much T/S lenses. They just don't shift. Tilt only.

can you please explain more on this, i didnt quite understand....nevermind, do you mean not actually having the lens locked into the camera and hold the lens up to the body and tilt it and whatnot? i should try this, but how does shutter speed and aperture play into this?

Yes, just hold it up to the mount by hand. You might be able to rig up some kind of rubber boot to help make it light tight.

You won't be able to autofocus, and you'll have to shoot in Manual mode.
Metering will still work fine, but you will only have control over aperture if your lens has an aperture ring. Shutter speed will basically be the only way you'll be able to control the exposure. (or ISO)

On Canon lenses, you can can sort of get around that by holding the DOF preview button down as you remove the lens.

Mount lens to camera, select aperture, hold down DOF preview, remove lens. It will still be stopped down. To get the aperture opened up again, just mount the lens back onto the camera (with the camera on, of course).

The same trick probably works for other brands too, but I've never tried it.

 

[iPhoto17]

...is there a way to simulate tilt/shift with a normal lens?

The "shift" and "rise/fall" are fairly easy to simulate in Photoshop using perspective correction.

The "tilt" will more of a challenge. I JUST saw that here somewhere, but can't recall where. It involves making multiple exposures, all focused at gradually increasing depths and then stitching or merging the images somehow.

-Pete

almost like old stereoscopic photos used for old 3d stereoscopes

 

[iPhoto17]

my D3000 wont let me take pictures without the lens on it

 

[Christie Photo]

almost like old stereoscopic photos used for old 3d stereoscopes

No... not really. Well, not at all.

Stereoscope photos were just that: stereo images. Two images made at slightly different angels to provide a 3D effect when viewed together.

Tilting a lens allows the plane of focus to be different than a static lens standard. The lens and sensor will no longer be on parallel planes.

If you were making a table-top photograph of something not so tall... say a book. Tilting the lens forward would allow you to have the entire surface of the book cover come into focus while working with a large aperture.

I hope this isn't confusing.

-Pete

 

[Josh66]

my D3000 wont let me take pictures without the lens on it

Even in manual mode?

That sucks... That would mean lots of interesting things like pinhole, t-rings (for mounting to a telescope), the use of any lens that would require an adapter, etc, would not be possible.

 

[iPhoto17]

my D3000 wont let me take pictures without the lens on it

Even in manual mode?

That sucks... That would mean lots of interesting things like pinhole, t-rings (for mounting to a telescope), the use of any lens that would require an adapter, etc, would not be possible.

oooo, i forgot manual mode

 

[iPhoto17]

i tried it in manual mode, and it worked, but im not really getting the tilt/shift effect, the pictures just come out as they normally would, how close to i hold the lens to the body?

 

[Josh66]

I tried it too, and was also unable to reproduce the effect.... Getting it focused was pretty difficult too...

Building your own (see the link a few posts up) might be the only option other than just ponying up for a real T/S lens...

You could also try a Lensbaby - they do tilt. ...A lot cheaper than a T/S lens...

I've been wanting a T/S lens for a while ... I might have to get myself one for Christmas. It'll probably be that long before I can save up the money, lol.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

A tilt-shift lens was originally designed (that I know of) for architectural photography so its price tag, compared to a "nifty fifty," is high.

Btw, it was designed to do the exact opposite of what most people want to do today. It was designed to correct perspective errors due to tilt-shift.

All that to say that it is an expensive way to do a special effect. And, as most special effects, it is only fun/interesting for a few shots.

Just look around the forum. How many people want a fisheye lens? How many fisheye lenses do you see for sale?

Such lenses wear out their novelty effect very fast.

You are better off learning how to take a straight shot first.When you can get a good one of those and you have money to waste, please, spend your money however you want.

 

[Mike_E]

Get an old Crown Graphic and one of these..
Moveable Digital back 4x5 camera on Nikon D3 D300 D4000 - eBay (item 250553103728 end time Jul-22-10 01:03:17 PDT)