There are a lot of important elements that go into having a successful landscapephotograph. Of course, you have to have great composition, beautiful light, an interestingscene, and all that. But, above all, the image needs to be sharp. Sharpness is paramountin landscape photography, and it’s what ultimately led me to the tilt-shift lens.
For several years my go-to landscape lens was the Canon 17-40mm F/4L. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutelynothing wrong with this lens. My 17-40 and I have been through a lot together. We’veseen some amazing things and made some beautiful photographs, but I got to a pointwhere I demanded more. I decided to get more serious about my landscape photographyand to do so, I needed a serious lens. The 17-40 just lacked the sharpness I desiredand had come accustomed to with my prime lenses.
Here we will look at the process of using a Tilt-Shift lens for focus control. Before we break into the lighting lesson, we will talk about how the Tilt-Shift lens works and how we will use it as a creative focus tool for our shoot today. I have a 45mm 2.8 Tilt-Shift lens. If you are completely new to tilt/shift lenses you might first want to read the original article about using tilt/shift lenses that Keith wrote after getting his first tilt/shift 24mm lens. Normally the plane of sharp focus of a lens is a flat plane parallel to the sensor of your camera. A tilt-shift lens is a specially-designed piece of optics, one that allows you to tilt the plane of focus. Instead of a standard plane of focus that’s parallel to your camera sensor, you get a plane of focus that’s tilted–allowing you to capture cool artistic effects, or to keep objects both near and far in focus. Another thing to keep in mind with tilt-shift lenses is that they are manual focus only. This scared me a bit, but it quickly become a part of my workflow with no issue. When I shoot landscape with the tilt-shift, I typically go into it with the intention it will be a panorama. Creating a plane of sharp focus in front of it. A slice of focused space if you like, that also moves forward and backward, but always parallel to the film plane. Tilt shift lenses are designed to emulate the camera movements found on larger monorail and technical field cameras. These cameras, with their fine mechanical controls, have the.
After a ton of research and talking to people, I eventually decided on the Canon TS-E 24mm F/3.5 L II Tilt-Shiftlensas my new companion. Moving to this lens was a big commitment. Not only was it ahefty financial investment, but you have to be willing to change your workflow. Thesharpness of this lens is what initially caught my attention, but the shift capabilitiesadded a whole new creative dimension. Another thing to keep in mind with tilt-shiftlenses is that they are manual focus only. This scared me a bit, but it quickly becomea part of my workflow with no issue.
When I shoot landscape with the tilt-shift, I typically go into it with the intention it will be a panorama. A lot of architectureand real estate photographers use tilt-shifts because they allow you to eliminatethe distortion created by wide-angle lens. That same shift functionality also allowsyou to easily and seamlessly create panoramic photographs.
The tilt-shift lens rotates on it’s mount, which allows you to shift vertically or horizontally. When shooting,I always start with the middle shot (no shift). This is important because this isthe image you need to set your exposure with. When the lens is shifted it restrictsthe amount of light entering the camera. This means you won’t get an accurate readingwith your camera’s light meter if the lens is shifted. It is for this same reasonyou want to be careful not to shoot your shifted frames at the extremes. You cancontrol how much shift you apply to the lens. If you apply the maximum amount, youwill notice a pretty strong vignette on the outermost edge. So it’s good practiceto back off a bit or just crop it out in post processing.
Below are examples of how I approach a vertical and horizontal panoramic. I do all the stitching in Adobe Lightroom (Photo/Photo Merge/Panorama)
Vertical Shift
Horizontal Shift
Now you can take this a step further. Like I said, I bought this lens becauseof it’s sharpness. Typically, I shoot with an aperture of f/11 or f/16 and I getgreat results. But, if I have a scene in front of me that I’m pretty excited about,and I know there is a good chance it will end up as a large print, I willfocus stack the shots as well. This simply means that for everyframe I shoot for the panorama, I also shoot multiple shots at different focus points.This will guarantee I get a final image that is absolutely sharp from front to back.For example, in the dock picture below, the middle frame I took a shot focused atthe closest point to me and another about 3/4ths of the way into the scene. I don’tget too scientific about it, I just pick a couple points at varying distances. Ido this for the other two pieces of the panorama as well.
When post-processing focus-stacked panoramas I use both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.Here is a brief overview of my workflow:
- From Lightroom I export the frames with different focus points to Photoshop as layers.
- I combine the layers into a focus stacked image by first aligning the layers (Edit/Auto- Align Layers) and then combining them using Photoshop’s Auto-Blend (Edit/Auto-Blend Layers)
- Then I merge the layers and save the image back to Lightroom. I do this same process for all three frames of the panorama.
- Typically, I do all my panoramic stitching in Lightroom, UNLESS I’ve done focus-stacking. For some reason, Lightroom doesn’t like to merge these images. So, once I have all the focus stacked frames in Lightroom, I export them all back to Photoshop for stitching. (Photo/Edit In/Merge to Panorama in Photoshop)
- Once the photos are stitched, I save them back to Lightroom for all other post-processing.
Focus-stacked panoramas can be a bit of work to shoot. They can also take somepost-processing time. But it’s so worth it, I promise! Here are three examples ofimages I created by using the focus stacking technique mentioned above. (Click the thumbnail to see a bigger version)
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The images in this gallery were all taken withmy tilt shift lens, but without the added focus-stacking effort.
The tilt-shift is an extremely versatile lens. In a neutral position the lens acts as any other, but add a tilt and the options for selective focus play are many. Jay P. Morgan guides us through a shoot at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California and offers a simple explanation of tilt-shift focusing:
The shoot vignettes members of the 82nd Airborne inside a C-47 military transport aircraft. Space is extremely limited, so choosing the right lens was critical. A 45mm f/2.8 tilt-shift lens fit the bill; it worked well to minimize distortion while still offering lots of range and dramatic focusing in tight quarters.
Here’s an easy way to understand the effects of tilt lens focusing:
If you stand straight ahead of your subject and focus on them, the background will fall out of focus equally on either side. It acts as a regular lens would.
No Tilt
However, if you tilt or ‘swing’ the lens to the right, the subject and only the left side of the background come into focus. The right side of the foreground falls out of focus.
Tilting the lens to the left has an equal but opposite effect; the subject and right side of the background remain in focus, while the left side of the foreground is not. The focus must be put back on the subject each time the lens is tilted.
Tilt Shift Left
Tilting the lens up and down has the same effect, just on a horizontal axis. If the lens is tilted upwards, the background above the subject’s head will go out of focus, and the background below will be in focus. Again, the equal but opposite happens if the lens is pointed down; the background below will be out of focus, while the background above will be in focus.
Tilt Down
The team wanted to mimic the look of soldiers getting ready to parachute from an airplane flying high in the clouds. For the shoot, the team set up a Rosco 1700 fog machine outside the plane, and a Dynalight strobe pack and head with a Photoflex Octodome Softbox inside. A reflector was used to further tone down the light from the softbox, creating a soft key light on the subject. A fill light was fired through two layers of diffusion material taped in the doorway of the cockpit.
The team used the sunlight pouring in from the door to their benefit. They shot at 1/200 second, f/5.0 and at ISO 160, which allowed them to shoot with strobes but balance it with the sunlight. A tungsten white balance setting gave the light a blue moody hue.
“I love the way the focus of this lens can single out an individual person and let everything else fall way out of focus around them. It’s a great look.”
Fill Light
The team ended the session with a few photos using natural light. The color balance was switched to daylight and the tilt shift used in many directions.
The lens is tilted to the right; the two men on the right are in focus.
The lens is tilted to the left; the men on the far right is out of focus, keeping the emphasis and focus on the man at the door.
There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a tilt-shift lens. It’s hard to focus and takes a lot of concentration. The auto features, like auto focus, do not work and must be done manually. Exposing a photograph can be tricky as well. The Slanted Lens team suggests setting the exposure while the lens is in a neutral position, then tilting it.
The tilt-shift is a fun lens, becoming increasingly popular in wedding and portrait photography. With its versatility in many styles of photography and unique selective focusing features, it makes a great addition to any kit. But if the high price tag turns you off, there is always the option of renting.
“Go ahead and keep those cameras rolling. Keep on clicking.”
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Shift Focus Definition
Hi,
I’ve only used this feature on a 5×4 Linholf camera and we used it according to schinflugs (?) law by moving the lens plane we then had every thing in focus within the cone of focus. From zero to infinity.
But what you have suggested here is a good twist on the law. I learnt this in the RAAF on a photography course.Regards
Norm Ford
This is very interesting to me. I do a bit of model home photography and fixing the inevitable geometric distortions is an eye-crosser. I’d read that a tilt-shift would help with that. I like that you covered the fun in- and-out-of-focus technique that the tilt shift offers … but wondered if you have any thoughts on help with the converging vertical problem I run into?? Also … if you were to go out and get a tilt shift … which would you recommend for a Nikon (D300 or D7000 in other words, cropped sensor)? Thanks …
Tilt Shift Depth Of Focus
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