Can't afford a tilt shift lens, thank god for PS!

[Overread]

I'm going to agree with Sach and say that a gradient blur would help matters - you still get the strong divided line of the blur, but when you get blurring with a lens (even a tilt shift) the blurring starts softer and then builds into a deeper blur. With tiltshift effect this transition is faster, but the eye still looks for this transition rather than a specific break line - this can be distracting at times as it throws the eye and makes it confusing to view the photo as a whole.

Also your original photo I think is having other problems - the main one to my eye being the cars moving in the foreground and the significant blur on them from their motion - this creates a line of blurr in the shot that distracts and makes the tiltshift effect much harder to see and lessens its impact.

 

[sam_justice]

Also your original photo I think is having other problems - the main one to my eye being the cars moving in the foreground and the significant blur on them from their motion - this creates a line of blurr in the shot that distracts and makes the tiltshift effect much harder to see and lessens its impact.

I agree the only problem were the lighting conditions. I have another exposure where the vehicles are pretty much still (not perfect) but the iso was bumped to about 1600 which seriously degraded the image. I ran it through lightrooms denoising software and the image became far softer. I went for the trade off in the end for the ghosting cars but the nicer quality.

 

[MissCream]

I don't know anything about tilt shift, this is the first time I've ever heard about it!
In my ignorant opinion I really like this photo!

 

[tirediron]

That's the whole idea of tilt shift.. The selective focus makes the image look as though it's a small model.
It is impossible to do this on a normal lens aside from a tilt shift lens.

Not to start a whole new argument, but this is not the whole idea of a tilt-shift (or perspective-correction) lens. The ability to create selective focus is a function (and a very cool one) of the lens, but the idea of the lens is to allow the photographer to control the perspective of the image; for instance a PC lens will allow you to prevent the 'collapsing' perspective that you get from a normal lens when trying to photograph a tall building from the base.

 

[Sachphotography]

That's the whole idea of tilt shift.. The selective focus makes the image look as though it's a small model.
It is impossible to do this on a normal lens aside from a tilt shift lens.

Not to start a whole new argument, but this is not the whole idea of a tilt-shift (or perspective-correction) lens. The ability to create selective focus is a function (and a very cool one) of the lens, but the idea of the lens is to allow the photographer to control the perspective of the image; for instance a PC lens will allow you to prevent the 'collapsing' perspective that you get from a normal lens when trying to photograph a tall building from the base.

I would pitch in on this with several useful links but Ive been told to take a hike.

 

[edouble]

Thanks for the mini how-to.

 

[sam_justice]

Here's another one, exposure bracketed on the D90 (standard bracketing, 3 exposures, one normal, 2 at 2 stop differences (high and low). Two post techniques - exposure fusion in photomatix (the dark exposure really brought out the lovely reflections whereas the blown exposure had some fantastic shadowing) then processed in PS.

 

[Village Idiot]

Hey guys. Check out my tutorial for generating a tilt shift image

TiltShift Generator - Art&Mobile

And I'm about to post a picture that isn't mine, so deal with it: :meh:

 

[Taylor510ce]

That's the whole idea of tilt shift.. The selective focus makes the image look as though it's a small model.
It is impossible to do this on a normal lens aside from a tilt shift lens.

Not to start a whole new argument, but this is not the whole idea of a tilt-shift (or perspective-correction) lens. The ability to create selective focus is a function (and a very cool one) of the lens, but the idea of the lens is to allow the photographer to control the perspective of the image; for instance a PC lens will allow you to prevent the 'collapsing' perspective that you get from a normal lens when trying to photograph a tall building from the base.

:thumbup:

To add to this, the main use ( or atleast the most common use that I have seen ) is to create maximum dof and sharpness by changing the plane of focus. That is why it is often used for landscape photography.

 

[sam_justice]

What do people think of the pier shot?

 

[MCPorche]

Something I'd have done to your original is go back, after adding the gradient and paint the building right behind the buses with the foreground color.

Since the idea is to create a faux DOF, and that entire building facade is in the same plane, it should all be focused the same. In yours, the bottom is in focus, and the top of the building is blurry.

Beyond that, it's a pretty good job.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Since the idea is to create a faux DOF, and that entire building facade is in the same plane, it should all be focused the same. In yours, the bottom is in focus, and the top of the building is blurry.

Not really. You can place the plane of focus on a tilt-shift lens pretty much anywhere you want it because you can change the tilt, and, rotate the lens.

 

[MCPorche]

Since the idea is to create a faux DOF, and that entire building facade is in the same plane, it should all be focused the same. In yours, the bottom is in focus, and the top of the building is blurry.

Not really. You can place the plane of focus on a tilt-shift lens pretty much anywhere you want it because you can change the tilt, and, rotate the lens.

Well, what I meant was...the idea was to create the illusion that the picture is of a miniature model. If it really were a picture of a model I think the entire facade of that building would be in the same plane of focus.

At least with the minature tilt-shift edits I've done, I've found that to give a more realistic look. Here's an example of what I mean:

La Vera Cruz - Efecto Tilt-Shift digital | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Look at how they made the entire building appear to be in focus. I think that gives a more realistic "miniature" look than had the top half been blurred.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Yeah, if that's what he was choosing to focus on. But it appeared to me he was focusing on the busses and the street.

*shrug*

 

[Lunchbox]

not bad