Basic Tilt-Shift Simplified

**Don Burkett** · 08-31-2011, 05:13 PM

Always review the news and community but haven't been a contributor for awhile, something I plan to rectify.

Thanks to a recent posting regarding Adorama refurbs, acquired a ts-e 24mm 3.5L II. Online research material on how to use Tilt-Shift lenses tends to always gravitate towards technical explanations rather than simple instructions. For the benefit of others who may venture into this amazing capability I thought I'd share the simple instruction I eventually found.

Focus to Distance, Tilt to Closest..

While I have an awful lot to learn about the capabilities of this lens. That simple instruction has got me off and running with very satisfactory results. As I learn other simple principals will share them. If others have simple instructions on how to get the best out of this type of lens I'd appreciate the knowledge. Except for how to do miniatures. That aspect of this lens is extremely will documented.

Here are two examples of using the Focus to Distance, Tilt to Closest Rule

In this example, focused on the Smoke Stack and tilted down about 1.5 degrees to bring the railing into focus.

Shot Settings: 5D MII - f/9 1/1250 ISO 200

.

In this example, focused on the tape housing and tilted left about 8 degrees to bring the front of the tape into focus.

Shot Settings: 7D - f/5.6 1/5th @ ISO 640

Notice how a left/right tile created a thinner dof.

I guess f/5.6 vs f/8 in the first image has something to do with this, but suspect the DOF in a <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves />
<w:TrackFormatting />
<w:PunctuationKerning />
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas />
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w

oNotPromoteQF />
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables />
<w:SnapToGridInCell />
<w:WrapTextWithPunct />
<w:UseAsianBreakRules />
<w

ontGrowAutofit />
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark />
<w

ontVertAlignCellWithSp />
<w

ontBreakConstrainedForcedTables />
<w

ontVertAlignInTxbx />
<w:Word11KerningPairs />
<w:CachedColBalance />
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math" />
<m:brkBin m:val="before" />
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--" />
<m:smallFrac m:val="off" />
<m:dispDef />
<m:lMargin m:val="0" />
<m:rMargin m:val="0" />
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup" />
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440" />
<m:intLim m:val="subSup" />
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr" />
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]-->

Horizontal Shift runs vertically above the plane of the Tape Measure whereas in the Vertical Shift the DOF runs horizontally.

As I learn more I will share if there's interest. There is one more tip for those learning a Tilt-Shift lens... Pack a notebook. The only way to compare various settings is to take copious notes on each setting referencing back to the image number.

Thread: Basic Tilt-Shift Simplified

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Display

Threaded View

Basic Tilt-Shift Simplified

Posting Permissions