Remember the fun we had creating Little Planets? Well here’s another cool technique we think you might enjoy playing around with. Tilt shift miniature photography uses a technique where a tilt shift lens is used to make real life scenes appear as miniature scale models.
The good news for those who don’t have the budget for an expensive lens is that this effect can easily be achieved using photo editing software like PhotoShop or Gimp (which is free). Below are some amazing tilt shift miniatures from around the web to get you inspired:
Keith Loutit’s time-lapse tilt-shift videos
Serpentine by Harald Kirr
Harvard Book Store by Azripal
Tiltshift, outside Waterloo station by Cloudsoup
Keen to give this a try? The following links should help to get you started:
Creating the tilt shift miniature effect in Photoshop or Gimp:
Using a tilt shift lens:
And just for fun … (purists – look away now):
- A website that will do it for you
- An app for your iphone that will allow you to achieve the miniature effect
For more inspriation, look no further than these tilt shift miniatures from our very own talented bubblers:
US Open final … in minature by hazy
Sydney Opera House by Lorraine Creagh
Robin Hoods Bay, Tilt Shift by TallGuy
Monsal Head – The Peak District by Steven Lee
Minature Bangkok by David Goymer
If you’d like to give this a go, please feel free to post your results below … and don’t forget to add them to the The Tilt-Shift Photography Gallery.
Good luck!
bellmusker
I love this effect! Even though I’m a scribe and not a photographer, images like this always make me sit up straight, tilt my head to the side and think, damn, wish I could do that! Wonderful.
CreativeJuices1
That’s just too frickin cool
Karin Taylor
Wow
This is so clever
I loove the opera house in particular
onefourseven
Amazing!!
Had a go at this recently……gives great results!!
janpiller
This is great because I couldn’t see putting out the big bucks for the lens!!
John Jovic
Yeah, doing this with software is very effective. The effect you get from a lens is slightly different but I’m not sure it matters.
red addiction
Awesome affects!!
owlspook
wooeee quite cool effect! may give it a go .. especially pleased and thanks to whomever did the gimp tutorial (big smile)
Colleen Milburn
Fantastic – can’t wait to try – thank you!!
Stephen Mitchell
Thanks for the GIMP links!
aglaia b
whoaaaaaa
extraordinary!!!!
THANKS SO MUCH for all the info. i too would love to try this! ;-) xox
Aimee Stewart
I LOVVVEEEE Tilt Shift effect. I’ve been experimenting with it for awhile, and also its effects on photomanipulations. Here’s one that I did awhile back:
I can’t wait to see what people come up with after they see your journal!
funkyfacestudio
I have only tried it once ……………
kimberleigh sarah
This is so amazing!
waitin' for rain
two of mine :
Adriana Glackin
Thanks for highlighting the Tilt-Shift group – surely one of the smallest groups on rb ;)
Melinda Kerr
I’ve seen a lot of Keith Loutit’s work before-it’s mind blowing. Well done for highlighting him.
Martin Pot
If you want to experiment with faking this, photos taken from a higher viewpoint will result in a better-looking tilt-shift, as the higher viewpoint helps add to the miniaturised look.
maremarie
The effect is amazing :-)….. has anybody tried the website that does the whole thing automatically? It only sends empty files back to me after I’ve uploaded (small) pictures. I would like to use GIMO, but have some troubles with applying the gradient (I’m fairly new to this software)
maremarie
I meant “GIMP” :-)
pyko
wow this is an awesome idea! must give it a go soon :D
Paul Rees-Jones
I tried it….
Peter Hill
The fake tilt effect is one aspect of tilt photography, the other is the Scheimpflug Principle, which originated from medium format photogrpahy as a means of achieving total definition and clarity in the entire DOF, and can be achieved, so I am told, by a tilt+shift lens. You can red about it here
So far, I haven’t achieved it yet, but I have shot the ministure variety (non-fake) with the Canon TS-E 24mm f3.5L tilt+Shift Lens:
And another:
And one more:
Tilt landscapes are a lot of fun!
Joe Thill
Fun Stuff, here’s a couple of my attempts:
and
Steven Guy
Thankyou for sharing all of this with us.
Nick Ford
These all look great. Always wondered how they were done.
Spent a bit of time testing it ………….. but my mask insn’t working. Got all my greys down …. but when i go to Lens Blur it (QuickMask mode), the whole pic blurs!! Arrgghhh. What am i doing wrong?
Phineous "Flas...
amazinc for sure
Scott Ward
I took this shot using a Canon 45mm tilt/shift lens. I would highly recommend the lens.
SARAND
these are so cool.. just got to give this a go..:)
jfpictures
anyone know how to do it with photoshop elements? No quick mask mode!
Joe Thill
I found a couple interesting links out there..
This website will actually make a tiltshift out of your image for you, and it allows for you to tweak and adjust the settings a bit Tilt Shift Maker
Here is a photoshop tutorial
Another photoshop tutuorial is here
Unfortunately I could not find anything on doing this with photoshop elements.. If i do see something though i’ll be sure to post!
Hope this helps, and most importantly, Have Fun!
Scott Denny
Although not as good as some of the ones posted here…they are awesome!! Here is one attempt I made.
Scott Denny
Sorry….
Zefira
Thanks for the info – amazing effect!
Nick Ford
Nick Ford
2nd attempt with a better pic. The view from my old balcony. :(
Nathalie Chaput
Awesome!
Tried it and here is the result.
Natalie Tyler
I’ve really enjoyed seeing these pop up all over the place this week. Great work everyone!
patjila
As seen on Redbubble it is interesting for trying out which I will try, thanks for the tutorial!