Hand-made tilt-shift

I have been wanted to write about "tilt-shift hand-made" for a long time.

Brief information: Tilt-shift is an effect obtained by special lenses or by processing in a graphics editor. The effect is the shift or tilt of the optical axis relative to the matrix. The optical axis of a conventional lens is parallel to the camera's matrix. Initially, this was invented to correct perspective distortions when shooting architecture, but now its began to be applied as a macro-miniature effect, where the picture is similar to the toy world.

Still there is a way of obtaining such effect with the help of Photoshop, but to me it is not very interesting. We will talk about the physical method of achieving the effect of tilt-shift.

If we need a shift or tilt of the optical axis, then in simple terms, the lens needs to be rotated or tilted. I took the Soviet lens Mir-1B 37 mm, attached the EOS-M42 adapter to the bayonet, and the lens did not start to wind and just put it, slightly tilting and rotating in different directions. In this way, you can focus on the wanted object or point.

In this photo I tried to focus on the cup. The maximum focus turned out on it, and the background is blurred, although it should be in focus when shooting normally.

I was interested to take pictures of people, it turned out unusual portraits.
Pay attention to the focus plane - from the left focuses on infinity and smoothly moves into the blurred foreground on the right. The lens was turned to the right side.

An ordinary portrait of two girls in the park on a Mir-1B lens.

Now unscrew the lens and turn it sideways.

You can get a variety of "vanilla" images.

In such a survey, everything is achieved only experimentally - you need to take the lens in your hands, put it to the camera and tilt it in different directions. Be prepared for strong vignetting along the edges and possible framing.

The best option will be a lens with medium format cameras, since it covers a larger optical plane. But the Soviet fixed lenses are also quite good. It is better to use lenses with a focal length of up to 50 mm. Well, if you already have a tilt-shift lens or you have money on it, then I don't know what you have forgotten here...

And if you are going to take photos of people, then practice better on....cats...and then you can torture the model while you catch the focus in this way.

For landscapes, it seems to me that the effect of tilt-shift with the help of an unscrewed lens is the least suitable, but you can still try.

Experiment and create! Thank you for attention!