playing with the new tilt-shift December 18, 2007
Posted by tcbp in : Photography , trackbackMy new lens arrived today, just as I was leaving my apartment to go back to campus for a meeting. It’s a new Canon 24mm 3.5L TS-E. That TS-E being the significant bit. This lens has movements akin to what I used to use on 4×5 cameras (only not as much range). With the tilts I can adjust the angle of the plane of focus, and either extend focus along something while using a small aperture or reduce my DOF in a larger scene which winds up with results similar to the “fake model photography” image manipulation technique people are overusing these days. I’d rather have the real thing, but there are other reasons to use a lens like this.
The shift allows you to adjust the view of the lens without screwing up perspective. An example would be taking a photograph of a building head on, then tilting back to see the whole building from bottom to top. The sides of the building converge towards the top. If instead you shift the lens upward you get the view of the whole building with the perspective of a camera that isn’t tilted. In other words, your parallel lines in real life are parallel in the picture. An added bonus is that as long as you don’t bump the camera any, a stitch of the shifted images is easy to perform flawlessly.
I’d say most of what I shot today was getting a hang of the lens, although its ability to manipulate perspective/view and focus are the main reasons I purchased it. I hope to add at least the 90mm TS-E, if not the 45mm some day.
The image below is from the top of the Hyatt parking garage in downtown Rochester. The shift was used to extend the vertical FOV of the final image with a resulting 2336×6176 pixel image. The camera was also mounted vertically. I also used the tilt to throw the building on the right out of focus and because I’m still having some fun with the novelty of the lens.
The next two images are merges of three separate images taken with the camera mounted on the tripod horizontally. The shift was still up and down, making for a more square final image (each image in full size is 3504 x over 4900 pixels). Again I used the tilt to throw the focus on to the center of the bridge in each case. I’m still working on getting used to how the tilt affects the DOF, however as it is a major “feature” of this lens I am sure I will continue to play with that capability for pretty much forever… hopefully I don’t overdo it!
I’m looking forward to doing more with this lens, particularly as I reacquaint myself with the capabilities of tilting & shifting.
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