Focussing on Tilt Shift photography

Tilt Shift photography is a photographic technique that has been growing in popularity in recent years. Much of this is down to the plethora of apps and software packages that allow this technically complicated process to become much, much more simple.

A by-product of Tilt Shift photography is that it allows you to create a real-world scene, making it look like a miniature scale model.

Traditionally a type of camera lens that can be moved (shifted) and pointed at different angles (tilted) is used. This can have the effect of changing the focus of the picture in unusual ways. Or creating the effect of miniture faking.

The resulting "diorama illusion" blurs parts of the photo to simulate the shallow depth of field normally encountered in close-up photography, making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is; the blurring can be done either optically when the photograph is taken, or by digital postprocessing.

Here are two beautifully shot films that use the technique to mesmerising effect.

The first film, Tiny Capital focusses on Norway's capital, Oslo.

Norway recently reached 5 million inhabitants and the capital is growing rapidly. The city scene in Oslo is steadily thickening with taller buildings, more people and the never-ending construction sites.

Being by far the most populated city in Norway with 613 000 inhabitants, most Norwegians look to Oslo as a major capital. However, if one compares Oslo to other international capitals, Oslo only ranks as the 112th largest. Oslo is indeed a major capital, just a small one?

The video by Eirik Evjen was made out of 76,940 single photos, and edited as a single video. It was filmed under the warmest March ever in Oslo using tilt-shift lenses to create the miniature effect.

The second film features a picturesque Rio de Janeiro. Created by Jarbas Agnelli, it also utilises Tilt Shift techniques.

The City of Samba was captured during the Carnival of 2011.

There are various software effects packjages that allow you to create the tilt-shift effect with your own photos. Tilt Shift Maker is one of our favourites.