What the Heck’s Tilt Shift?
I’ve mentioned tilt shift a few times on this site and even posted a couple of test videos but I’ll give a brief explanation to anyone reading this blog for the first time. Tilt shift is a photographic technique that takes an ordinary photo and makes it look like a photo of a miniature toy set. It does this through selective focus and color saturation. Take enough photos and put them together using free software and you’ve got a tilt shift time-lapse video.
I’ve assembled the following videos from a range of excellent choices. I picked them for their quality as well as their unique subject matter. There are a few prominent names in tilt shift, such as Sam O’Hare and Keith Loutit, so I tried to limit the number of videos to one per videographer. Enjoy!
Hey, great post! I love tilt shift videos and follow all new items on vimeo and youtube. 2 other really great videos that might also be good enough for your list is the following: http://vimeo.com/17357050 & http://vimeo.com/18393782.
BR
John
Hi John. Thanks for the fantastic additions to the list. I hadn’t seen either of those before.
Love the post too, the first tilt-shift video I saw that caught my eye and made me do some research on the technique eventually landed me here. Check out the great video filmed around Jackson Hole: http://vimeo.com/21864555
Thanks for the link. I meant to watch the Jackson Hole video the other day but then my computer crashed. I think the shots from the cable car are the first moving tilt-shift I’ve seen.
These are all great! Little Big Berlin is my favorite. This technique and style is so pristine I made one myself of Philadelphia.
Philatopia – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RFz_0YuiIk
I liked watching your video. I think it came out well for your first time.
Its such a toss up between shooting actual tilt shift and doing it in post. The visual difference is minimal but what does everybody think of renting them from somewhere like borrowlenses.com and shooting actual tilt shift? I dont know the percentage of the videos above that used software vs actual TSE glass. Let me tell you, when we went to Paris, we brought all tilt shift glass on both canon and nikon sides. And not even for the DOF but just the fact that you can correct distortion in architecture and adjust the focal plane on all fronts. I highly recommend trying it out for a weekend. I think that glass is only like 50 bucks for a 3 day order.
http://vimeo.com/15110823
I haven’t tried an actual tilt shift lens but I’m intrigued. I’ve heard it can provide greater focal length for landscapes. As for time-lapse, I think it depends on the subject matter. My boats in the Santa Cruz marina video would have benefited because the boats’ masts reached the top of the screen and were blurry even though they should have been in focus. Because they were moving it was impractical to create several masks for every frame.
You’ve missed an important contender!
This video of miniature Shanghai:
http://www.vimeo.com/6901524
Thanks for the addition. I’d really liked the scene of night on the river.
Hey John, I dont know how fabolous are these videos, but I totally miss the focus at “High on London” video. I even can bet this isnt made with real TS lenses, but is PS effect…and by the way, in Vimeo, you are able to see MUCH greater pieces… for example: http://vimeo.com/6037430