Tilt-shift photos seem to be the latest cool thing
The latest “cool thing” on the Internet seems to be collections of Tilt-Shift photos – especially the trick used when taking photos from a very high point (tall building or helicopter) and focusing on a small area down on the ground, creating an illusion that makes the scenery in the picture look like a model city. It’s pretty cool stuff, and I think the latest Internet craze of this technique, which is not a new one, started with Andy Baio linking to this: The City as an Avatar of itself. Then a flood of information followed; there’s a Flickr group here.
And here is good resource for information and links to nice photos: http://hame.ca/tiltshift.htm (Set up by the guy who took the brilliant photo above.)
The latest I found is a Japanese page featuring photos from Tokyo using this technique, there are some very nice pictures here at the “Bitter Girls” Blog. (via Del.icio.us)
Hey Johan! Thanks for spreading the word about t/s – yes, it’s not new… Using the classic tilt and shift adjustments that are a feature of fundamental, bellows-style cameras, one can achieve the effect seen in these images. There are still relatively few shooters out there doing this – Olivo Barbieri is probably the most well-known, as he’s been doing this since the late 90’s – and Miklos Gaal is another. Barbieri’s on tour with his latest, Site_Specific Las Vegas show (which includes video!) which accounts for most of the media attention. Other than that, the Bitter*girls are the only new shooters other than myself I’ve seen doing work in any quantity. I’ve only been going for the ‘toy trainset’ effect myself since November, and I hope to keep it up, and find new and interesting creative applications for the technique. My latest stuff will always be on my flickr page, or on my own page http://hame.ca/blog3/tiltshift/ … keep an eye out! Cheers. H.
Hi Hamish. Thanks for the comment and info + your great photos. You know one fundamental thing I haven’t been able to find on the Net as I have been searching for photos of the “toy trainset” style is sort of a basic technical guide to taking those kinds of pictures. Not being a professional photographer myself, I can only guess by piecing together various things I’ve read, like tilting the lens to achieve a Scheimpflug effect and positioning oneself high above and far from the target. It would be great to have sort of a “beginner’s guide” to taking such photos (although a beginner would not be able to obtain the hardware for it, but still…..interesting in theory at least).