Purpose of tilt shifting lens?

What would a tilt shift lens be used for? Just landscape?

Landscapes.
Architecture.
Making large things look miniature.

Any time you want to really increase or selectively decrease your depth of field.

mattmoran wrote: Any time you want to really increase or selectively decrease your depth of field.

That's the tilt part.

Shift allows you to move the image cast by the lens on the film or sensor.

For instance if you are shooting a building with a normal lens to get the top of the building might require tilting the camera up. This causes the sides of the building to converge towards each other. With a shift lens you could keep the camera level, and shift the lens upwards to get the top of the building, and then the sides of the building would be parallel in the photo.

I have a buddy who shoots landscapes with an old medium format tilt-shift lens. He takes three exposures, one shifted to the left, one in the center, and one shifted to the right, and then stitches them in PS. Shifting, rather than turning the tripod head or camera, means each photo lines up perfectly, and is easy to stitch. Turning the camera, without a panoramic head, changes the perspective between near and far objects differently, and can make stitching tricky.

View cameras allow a greater variety of camera movements, and photographers have found many uses for them. A tilt-shift lens brings some of that to cameras that normally don't allow camera movements.

But here is my answer...tilt shift lenses are fun to the point they make things look like toys. lol I mean they appear to be toy like, but that is not the reason to shoot tilt shift. Henry, gave a really good answer.

For more on camera movements google the "Scheimpflug principle".

Henry Peach wrote: For more on camera movements google the "Scheimpflug principle".

Wow, umm is that even a word? lol Scheimflug? How do you pronounce that? lol

It's a German(?) last name. I pronounce it shime-floog, but someone who knows German probably knows better.

Henry Peach wrote: It's a German(?) last name. I pronounce it shime-floog, but someone who knows German probably knows better.

Alright. Thanks. Now that I know how to pronounce it, I can look it up and understand it better.

I think the Lensbaby is a variation of this on a smaller scale, at least with the Original and 2.0, you move the lens in and out to focus, then shift or turn it to whatever position you want.

Vincent Laforet does photos using tilt shift, you can see some in his portfolio on his website - www.laforetvisuals.com .

Well Tilt shift photography can be fun, the purpose is to make things seem like toyish.
Real life structures, people etc..

To achieve this result of Tilt Shift well you can purchase lens specifically for that.
Or you can do it in various software I actually have a photoshop action script I had made a while back that you can use to get the result. But there's even easier ways if you have the software.

Software such as Topaz Lens Effect has a Tilt Shift feature. So does OnOne tools.

* If anyone is interested in the Photoshop Action contact me and I will give you the link
to my site where you can download it.

Here's some examples I have done with Tilt shift.

Provo wrote: Well Tilt shift photography can be fun, the purpose is to make things seem like toyish.
Real life structures, people etc..

To achieve this result of Tilt Shift well you can purchase lens specifically for that.
Or you can do it in various software I actually have a photoshop action script I had made a while back that you can use to get the result. But there's even easier ways if you have the software.

Software such as Topaz Lens Effect has a Tilt Shift feature. So does OnOne tools.

* If anyone is interested in the Photoshop Action contact me and I will give you the link
to my site where you can download it.

Here's some examples I have done with Tilt shift.

How time u have to play with toys i kid laughing, magic picture happy time me make.

Provo wrote: Well Tilt shift photography can be fun, the purpose is to make things seem like toyish.
Real life structures, people etc..

To achieve this result of Tilt Shift well you can purchase lens specifically for that.
Or you can do it in various software I actually have a photoshop action script I had made a while back that you can use to get the result. But there's even easier ways if you have the software.

Software such as Topaz Lens Effect has a Tilt Shift feature. So does OnOne tools.

* If anyone is interested in the Photoshop Action contact me and I will give you the link
to my site where you can download it.

Here's some examples I have done with Tilt shift.

Really like your work

Vincent wrote:

Provo wrote: Well Tilt shift photography can be fun, the purpose is to make things seem like toyish.
Real life structures, people etc..

To achieve this result of Tilt Shift well you can purchase lens specifically for that.
Or you can do it in various software I actually have a photoshop action script I had made a while back that you can use to get the result. But there's even easier ways if you have the software.

Software such as Topaz Lens Effect has a Tilt Shift feature. So does OnOne tools.

* If anyone is interested in the Photoshop Action contact me and I will give you the link
to my site where you can download it.

Here's some examples I have done with Tilt shift.

Really like your work

let's see more

Provo wrote: Well Tilt shift photography can be fun, the purpose is to make things seem like toyish.
Real life structures, people etc..

To achieve this result of Tilt Shift well you can purchase lens specifically for that.
Or you can do it in various software I actually have a photoshop action script I had made a while back that you can use to get the result. But there's even easier ways if you have the software.

Software such as Topaz Lens Effect has a Tilt Shift feature. So does OnOne tools.

* If anyone is interested in the Photoshop Action contact me and I will give you the link
to my site where you can download it.

Here's some examples I have done with Tilt shift.

When you look at the photos of the landscape photography masters of the 20th century you are often seeing the effects of camera movements. By slighting tilting the lens downward they adjust the orientation of the DOF so that it's also tilted forward rather than parallel to the film plane. With horizontal subjects, such as the ground, this has the effect of appearing like deeper DOF is achieved. If you think of DOF as a box, with the lens plane parallel to the film plane the DOF for a subject perpendicular to the film plane is measured from front to back in the box. By tilting the lens plane the DOF for a subject perpendicular to the film plane can be measured at diagonal in the box, and that's a longer distance. If tried with a subject parallel to the film plane, such as a tall building this could cause the roof to be outside the DOF, as the DOF is tilted forward.