50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography
Tilt-shift photography is a creative and unique type of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model. Below we present 50 beautiful examples of tilt-shift photography. All examples are linked to their sources. We strongly encourage you to explore other works of the photographers we’ve featured in this post.
To add good miniature effect to your photographs, shoot subjects from a high angle (especially from the air). It creates the illusion of looking down at a miniature model. A camera equipped with a tilt-shift lens, which simulates a shallow depth of field, is essentially all you need to start.
You may also want to take a look at the following related posts:
- Beautiful Examples Of High-Speed Photography
- 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
- 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos
50 Amazing Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography
Christopher Chan
Sydney Apple Store Miniature; Fake tilt shift effect applied to a 3xp HDR.
Vesuviano – Nicola De Pisapia
Model of a model of reality. Vietri sul mare (SA) Italy.
Tilt-Shift Photography: It’s A Small World After All
oseillo
On the photo: Barcelona, Spain.
Tilt-Shift Videos
Beached from Keith Loutit
Time-Lapse video of Tamarama Beach, Sydney.
Bathtub III from Keith Loutit
Time-Lapse video of Sydney Harbor with tilt-Shift.
Bathtub II from Keith Loutit
Time-Lapse video at Sydney with tilt-Shift.
From Julien Vignali
Time Lapse video with Tilt-Shift.
Harrowdown Hill from Beggars
From Mrjerz
Multnomah Falls in Miniature from Andrew Curtis
Time-Lapse video at Multnomah Falls.
Monde liliputien (illusion d’optique) Uploaded by kronsilds
You can find further videos in a Metafilter round-up of tiltshift videos.
How To Make Fake Miniature Tilt-Shift Photos?
To add good miniature effect to your photographs, shoot subjects from a high angle (especially from the air). It creates the illusion of looking down at a miniature model. A camera equipped with a tilt-shift lens, which simulates a shallow depth of field, is essentially all you need to start.
Resources:
- Do-It-Yourself Tutorial: Tilt-Shift Lens
Create a tilt-shift lens yourself if you can’t afford to buy one. - Focusing the Tilt-Shift Lens
- Using Tilt-Shift Lenses to Control Depth of Field
- Using Tilt-Shift Lenses to Control Perspective
- Why does tiltshift photography make things look tiny?
- Tilt/Shift Photography Links
And if you don’t have specialized equipment, you can make use of Adobe Photoshop or any other image-editing software. Manipulate the focus in such a way that it gives the image the effect of having been shot with a macro lens. Secondly, increase the saturation and contrast in a way that the color looks like bright paint on a miniature model.
Resources:
- Tilt-Shift Photography Photoshop Tutorial
This tutorial shows you how to make photos of real life-sized subjects look like photos of miniature models. - Tilt-Shift Photoshop Tutorial
- Photoshop Tilt-Shift
- Fake Model Photography
With a very little effort, you can take existing photographs of everyday scenes and make it look like they’re actually of miniature models.
Sources and Resources
Here you’ll find links to further articles and related Area for further articles and related resources:
- 10 Tiny Tokyo Photos
- Flickr Pool: Tilt-shift miniature fakes
Consists of tilt-shift photos created using Adobe Photoshop. - Flickr Pool: Tilt-Shift HDR
Related posts
Please also consider our previous posts:
- Beautiful Examples Of High-Speed Photography
- 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
- 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos
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Anna Meenaghan
September 4th, 2009 4:28 amAs a contemporary artist myself I have to say that this kind of photography is really “livelike” and very interesting. It reminds me of abstract paintings created with paints as they too can appear very lifelike.
Anna
SALVER
September 8th, 2009 1:09 pmIS FANTASTIC, THE CITIES ARE CARTTON.
SALVER
September 8th, 2009 1:12 pmTHE IMAGES ARE FABULOUS, when I saw I could not believe CHANGES ARE REALLY GOOD.
GOOD AFFTERNON. DAY GOOD.
citizenVern
October 30th, 2009 10:37 pmTilt-shift photography uses very specific position/angle-shifting lenses, these use photoshop. Big difference. They are rad, i love them, but they aren’t tilt-shift. In fact, i believe they only simulate tilting, while shifting involves geometric perspective, not depth of field. Can we call them “fake tilt-shifts” at least, or simulated miniatures or smallgantics or whatever. How about “microshopped” or “puny-fied”? I just feel bad for all of the photographers out there who spent many thousands of dollars out there on the real deal. ;)
photographer
November 1st, 2009 10:21 pmNice dude.. Nice sharing! I’m starting learning the tilt shift photography. I have no expensive lens as of now (the cost is insane)… can you share some tools or software to make tilt shift?
Corey Lansdell
November 17th, 2009 8:38 amVery interesting photographic technique that I was completely unaware of! So fun…It’s amazing how a technique can take a regular scene and transform it into something compelling and unusual! Thanks for sharing these.
Corey
Francesco
December 24th, 2009 12:22 amI like it very much
http://www.flickr.com/photos/texsesterzio/4208895424/sizes/o/
rachel
February 23rd, 2010 11:23 amHere are a few of mine.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119033&id=559590138&l=68cadbda98
Newyorkiz
February 24th, 2010 8:30 pm50 Amazing Photographs Of Tilt-Shift
http://www.geekiz.com/50-photographies-de-tilt-shift
arrecki
March 4th, 2010 3:00 amA mi się ta funkcja średnio podoba ja chcę zdjęcie mieć ostre na całym kadrze, a nie że w środku ostre, po bokach rozmazane. Może i efekt czasem może być od czasu do czasu wykorzystywany, ale żeby wydawać kilkaset zł więcej no to już przesada. Pozdrawiam
Ładne zdjęcia – skadrowane z pomysłem, ale mogły być ładniejsze bez tych rozmazań.
Pdf Ninja
March 14th, 2010 12:53 pmHere’s the most recent tilt-shift time-lapse video from New York City:
http://www.vimeo.com/9679622
Alan
March 24th, 2010 6:50 amvery interesting pictures ….keep up the good work
rfasching
March 26th, 2010 1:52 pmHere is one video example, we did at x-mas in Austria, enjoy:
http://www.bit.ly/a8gHUo
jmleclercq
March 27th, 2010 9:48 pmGreat collection !
Jean-Michel
marker
March 28th, 2010 8:15 pmsome great shots on these article, but many are fakes, so they don;t count.
some cool& real tilt-shit here,
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tilt&w=63338696%40N00
james lee
April 16th, 2010 11:23 amYou did such beautiful work with these photos. These are so good to see. You are vert talented in your work.
ponte vedra beach cosmetic dentist
Gilby
April 20th, 2010 4:29 pmIt ‘s nice to see you giving credit to people other than Keith Loutit for a change.
But having said that I’m still a sucker for miniature video. I especially love the scene with the helicopter rescue in Sydney. Here it is in case you missed it – plus a few tips on how to do tilt-shift: http://nov0caine.posterous.com/what-lens-does-keith-loutit-use
Asl
April 20th, 2010 11:11 pmwow! nice. good ones.
daynie
April 27th, 2010 1:04 amphoto collection of nice things .. I so want to learn photography
ardywong
May 17th, 2010 10:46 pmone or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.
Barbara
July 5th, 2010 4:38 amall those pictures are really cool. You can find some more on http://digital-artist-toolbox.com/?p=24
Paweł Pruszkowski
July 22nd, 2010 12:19 amYou don’t need neither specialized equipment nor photo manipulation software to do such things. There is a technique called freelensing that helps achieving the tilt-shift effect. All you need to do is to detach your lens from your camera body, tilt it a little and then shoot. This way you can shoot t-s pics with all your lens.
Examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arimeq/4435004620/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arimeq/4410693622/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arimeq/4462703168/
Flickr freelensing group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/freelensing/
NetlabLoligo
August 18th, 2010 8:58 amThis is very cool. I have never heard of tilt-shift photography before. . .
Sad thought: I guess it’s too late to get a tsp of the space shuttle taking off.
-s
LittleGorm
October 6th, 2010 10:20 amWhy would you want to do that? Frankly I thought the pictures were more apt for a 10 year old with an instamatic. Sorry, but I come from a generation of photographers who want crisp and in-focus images. Ansel Adams would be turning in his grave.
Steve Vento
March 19th, 2013 7:17 pmYay, Im glad I found one person that thinks that photographs should be in focus.
Steve Livinston
October 7th, 2010 5:54 pmUm? after it become so structured and repeatable the effect almost intsantly becomes a cliche. Like many photoshop or camera techniques you need a concept first and the a technique to say it best. HDR is another classic effect looking for a concept. With any effect after you are clearly not presenting a realistic representation of a scene you had better had some sort of depth to the concept beyond wow that’s cool!. At least most of the time anyway./
imho….
Steve
Aaron
October 10th, 2010 11:01 amLove Tilt-Shift. Recently purchased the Canon 45mm TS-E so I could do it for real!
http://www.aaron-photography.com/blog/09-10-2010-HDR-Tilt-Shift-in-Kettering/
Shashank Shekhar Das
November 14th, 2010 10:09 pmAOTA are marvelous just a query are all of this using the tilt shift lens?
Shashank Shekhar Das
November 14th, 2010 10:12 pmAOTA are marvelous…, being n armature, its just a query, are all of this using the tilt shift lens?
james
December 4th, 2010 1:17 amLove the tilt shift effect – also in videos
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/tokyo-miniature-videos-created-by-tilt-shift/
Michael
January 19th, 2011 10:44 pmi got really into looking up tilt shift photography and stumbled upon this video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VGP_66bMeA
Curt
January 21st, 2011 1:19 pmWho cares what Ansel Adams would think? Last time I checked, Ansel was dead. If you don’t like fake tilt-shift photos, or real tilt shift photos, or if you are a member of that stuck-up, cranky, stick-in-the-mud generation that demands only “crisp and in-focus images” then why are you seeking out these images in the first place? And who are you to say that ALL photographs must be composed and executed just like a bunch of dead photographers? The point is, nobody asked you.
Ansel Adams didn’t have Photoshop, and we can only speculate as to how he would feel about things like fake tilt-shift, but why would that even matter in the first place? Yes it is gimmicky, and yes, it is done with software and not a real tilt-shift lens. But again, who cares? If it brings pleasure to a lot of people, and doesn’t harm anyone, there really is no valid reason for you to dump all over other people’s art. The people who like this kind of thing won’t care, and the killjoys who agree with you are a bunch of uptight pantloads anyway. Remember this: your objections and criticism are nothing more than your opinion, and my opinion is your opinion sucks.
So, thanks for letting the world know what you don’t care for. Now you are free to roam the web enjoying a very narrow range of rigidly-defined art by dead masters while raining on everyone’s parade.
John Burnett
February 1st, 2012 4:58 pmBack in Ansel’s day, they would’ve said “Nice work, but obviously dark-roomed!”
Koras
May 21st, 2011 10:33 amAmazing Tilt Shift Photos :) Here are another great collection of this type of photo
http://www.freewebelements.com/tilt-shift-photography/
Ask
June 16th, 2011 5:44 pmTo add good miniature effect to your photographs, shoot subjects from a high angle especially from the air. It creates the illusion of looking down at a miniature model. A camera equipped with a tilt-shift lens, which simulates a shallow depth of field, is essentially all you need to start.
lee
June 30th, 2011 9:10 pmI would have like to seen the normal shot in parallel to the tilt shift for comparison as for most i see miniature though some one i showed saw images for what they are
Arlean Tibbit
July 3rd, 2011 6:19 pmamazing, this is such a great website!!!!!
Martino
August 8th, 2011 9:02 amQue fotos de mierda.. haciendola toda borrosa creen darle calidad a una toma??
que boludes
Tina Kroy
October 31st, 2011 5:31 pmMost of the pics are really great. But, umm….isn’t that a brick wall in the background of the scene that’s supposed to be Nice, France? It’s the 21st pic down and looks like somone’s model set using a short focal length. Not a true tilt-shift.
Tom
May 3rd, 2012 9:39 amOf the two conflicting messages, one from LittleGorm and the other from Curt, neither is well thought out. Adams did indeed strive for sharpness and detail. That is what he did, and he did it very well. But I don’t recall that he was against new modes of expression or technique. That’s what his Zone System was. I don’t think he’s turning over in his grave.
As a workshop participant about 45 years ago, I was privileged to learn from Adams, and to sit in the evening with others in Adams’ back yard in Yosemite, talking with him. He didn’t strike me as a judgmental man at all. Not one who would denounce a new branch of photography, unless perhaps it was poorly done (as I saw was the case with several of the prints I’d brought with me).
This tilt-shift thing seems to be a very powerful tool, as shown in the wonderful photos above, all of which succeed. But it could also be used to make junk, as sometimes seen in the “print it badly, mount it crooked, and call it art” crowd. To succeed, a fine photograph cannot be merely an accident–it must carry out your purpose for making it.
It’s good to explore new things, to find new forms of expression. But Curt’s calling practitioners and defenders of existing, highly developed, forms “killjoys” who have “uptight pantloads” misses widely. As if his path were the only one worth traveling. I’m glad that photography is such a broad endeavor!
I’m led to wonder whether Adams ever tried this? He may well have, though sharpness was his tool. He had plenty of lenses that tilted and shifted.
prakash wahurwagh
May 4th, 2012 2:15 pmhi now i understood the hollywood s dark secrete of movies ….how they destroy buildings or cars or railway stations or a big bunch of people…but this is amazing and film makers must be happy to recive this technique of photgraphy……i am happy to know this……best of luck and thanx i wonder one day we ( camera) would be able to see in all eight directions simultatneously and we could feel it simultaneously in a one frame of time line.
Chris
September 18th, 2012 10:21 pmHe’s some tilt-shift photos II made http://www.keymas.co.uk/blog/miniature-conveyor-system-images-tilt-shift/
Karl Blessing
October 2nd, 2012 4:54 amThe one by Vesuviano is not tilt-shift, if you click on the link to the flickr account he(or she) actually says it was done in photoshop not with a lens.