It isn’t as easy as it should be finding authentic tilt-shift pictures, at least that’s the way it is for me. If you have a library of confirmed authentic tilt-shifts, please point your finger.
Until then, I’ll do my part in starting this library. But I might as well keep you on your TOEs while I’m at it!
To the best of my discernment, only 3 of these four images are authentic tilt-shifts. By authentic, I mean taken with an actual tilt-shift lens.
The fake tilt-shift was probably made using software similar to tiltshiftmaker.com.
Due to the high cost of tilt-shift lenses and the demand for the miniature images they produce, programs like Photoshop and Gimp have made it possible for people to take any snapshot and, in theory, adjust its properties so as to render it toy-like. The manipulated image has been given the rather obvious name of fake tilt-shift, which basically involves selective blurring to simulate a narrow depth of field.
As I said, in theory any snapshot in your album of photos could be made miniature, but Bitwalk, who has worked with this post-processing technique, recommends the following:
1. The scene. It’s very important to pick a scene that the brain would take for a model. Try to exclude people with extreme poses, certain vehicles that wouldn’t fit in etc.
2. Angle. Ideally I think it should look like you are looking down a display case. So not too steep or shallow.
For those of you who not only lack the expendable income to buy a tilt-shift lens, but also the determination and time to transform your photos into models, tiltshift maker does the work for you.
Smashcut directed this 28-second video, which he calls Toy-town TV-Tower, using fake tilt-shift effects. When asked how he managed to conceal this fantastic snow world behind glass, he answered:
just messing around with masking etc. in After Effects with a bit of extra CC in Photoshop
I am thinking about looping these 28-seconds and projecting them onto my wall, the accordion music accompanying the arthritic crank of the camera. Each time the TV-Tower wobbles near the end, I imagine the snow globe in my hand being shaken. In this way, winter rains perpetually over this miniature landscape.
