Sunday, August 19, 2007

tilt shift photography

heysailori don't think i've talked about the lensbaby yet, but let's talk about the tilt-shift! i first found out about tilt shift photography through andrew's make magazine - here's the article about how to make your own tiltshift. flickr has gads of photos, but it's hard to sift through the ones that were born from hours of photoshop and the ones straight off the negative. if you are at all familiar with my naked people earrings, you'll see why i would appreciate how this lens can turn everything into a model trainset. this photo below is via pinboke at flickr.

and while a lot of the best pictures seem to be taken from airplanes or by cubicle dwelling, metropolitan business people from their (skyscraper high) office windows, this room is made doll-sized, and this one below seems like it could translate into a great hycroft shot:
tilt shift:


and hycroft wedding, courtesy of jonetsu:
hycroftjonetsu

3 comments:

GF Girl said...

k - now I don't like you - I have to change my plans again - I love all the photos - and I love the fish eyes too. I haven't decided yet but I want to overhaul my room too - I mean I think it is time and since I can't change the wall color, I don't know. I was thinking neutrals and jewel tones - like teal, deep yellow and fushias/purples - but I don't know about the bedspread
I'm thinking I have to find some kind of fabric to pull it all together and use that for accents - I want it to be soothing too - so I'm torn. Help - oh design diva.

Chicago Wedding Photojournalist said...

It's funny that how fast paced the digital wold has become the most old-fashioned feature of cameras has been almost forgoton - just for speed.

Here's some wedding examples:
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/fashion_designer/pages/fashion_designer_01.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/fashion_designer/pages/fashion_designer_02.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/fashion_designer/pages/fashion_designer_36.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/fashion_designer/pages/fashion_designer_76.html

http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2007/destination/pages/destination_wedding_28.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2007/destination/pages/destination_wedding_31.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2007/destination/pages/destination_wedding_32.html
(if i DO say so myself, that's a really killer series from the ceremony)
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2007/destination/pages/destination_wedding_48.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2007/destination/pages/destination_wedding_50.html

The beauty of the tilt shift is that it allows you a plane of focus other than parallel to the direction you're pointing you camera, so in wedding images, it gives me the opportunity to draw visual connections between objects that are important and blur objects that aren't. So in the last image there, the maid of honor toasting hte couple where the maid and the glasses are in focus better illustrating the 'moment' than if the MOH and the fireplace were in focus as a standard lens would have portrayed.

http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/irish_wedding/pages/atlanta_GA_01.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/irish_wedding/pages/atlanta_GA_28.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/irish_wedding/pages/atlanta_GA_29.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/irish_wedding/pages/atlanta_GA_32.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/irish_wedding/pages/atlanta_GA_33.html
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/irish_wedding/pages/atlanta_GA_42.html

This one is definately a classic:
http://neilcowley.com/weddings/2006/baseball_fans/pages/baseball_fans_29.html

The only drawback is speed, I've worked with the TS and free'd lenses for three years now but even though, for fast paced moments I don't generally choose them because its just not possible to get the focus where it needs to be.

Chicago Wedding Photojournalist said...

Oh, and yes it actually is easy to 'see' the ones that have been photoshopped, if there is simply blur on either side of the focal point - then it's just photoshop. If there are sharp objects at multiple distances from the camera - then it's the real thing.