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Stratification

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2005
240
0
Spokane, WA
There's always rental. They're still not cheap then, but definitely more reachable, and you can have a lot of fun in a week's worth of lens rental.
 

G5Unit

macrumors 68020
Apr 3, 2005
2,107
10
I'm calling the cops
Well there are ways of achieving this in Adobe After Effects, or of course Photoshop for single image.


Granted it will not look totally believable like this, but it would be much cheaper than a Tilt Shift lens[:
 

wheezy

macrumors 65816
Apr 7, 2005
1,280
1
Alpine, UT
They're a lot of fun, and pretty wonky. It's rarely sticking straight off your camera, the tilt and shifting just makes it look funny, but it's so fun. And for architecture it's incredible. I have the 45mm coming as a rental next week to play with with 2 weddings that I'm shooting, but I hope to get some good building photos in as well to put on iStock.

Lots of fun, I plan to buy one, I just need to figure out which one I want. First I rented the 24, next is the 45, lastly the 90.
 

Patriks7

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2008
1,421
626
Vienna
Damn, those things are awesome! But first I have to get my basic lenses before I go into the specialty stuff :p
 

object88

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2008
50
0
Indeed but they are awfully expensive. :(

The only tilt-shift lenses that I'm aware of are the LensBaby series, and comparatively, they don't seem like all that much. What else is out there, and what makes them different?
 

object88

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2008
50
0
and they go up from there

That they do... eBay seems to have number that are quite a bit more expensive. So, what do they have that LensBaby doesn't? Is it a question of features, camera interoperability, or just image quality?

Edit: Start looking at wikipedia articles on tilt-shift, and I'm starting to get an idea. Looks like the Canon, etc. models do a lot more for you, and LensBaby's products are geared towards a more... toylike effect.
 

Sir SpemzR

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 9, 2009
251
0
Inland Empire
quick attempt
not a great photo to test it on though
 

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Stratification

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2005
240
0
Spokane, WA
The only tilt-shift lenses that I'm aware of are the LensBaby series, and comparatively, they don't seem like all that much. What else is out there, and what makes them different?

The Lensbaby is not really a tilt-shift lens per se. More of a specialty/artistic lens. The Lensbaby has a curved, spherical focal "plane" that you can play with, whereas tilt-shift lenses have a flat focal plane that can be adjusted to be inline, or not, compared to your subject. Good ones are extremely expensive.

Some info from Canon on their newest Tilt-Shift lenses:
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2826
 

Ruahrc

macrumors 65816
Jun 9, 2009
1,345
0
Tilt shift lenses can (and should!) be used to do much more than the fake miniature pictures. They are indispensible for architectural photography, make shooting 2-shot panos a snap (just shift the lens over and you can overlay the two images in PS with no distortion correction needed as the shifting effect gives a perfect overlay and no parallax errors), and also are good for landscapers looking to optimize their depth of field (Scheimpflug effect).

The thing I was always confused about, lensbabies can sort of do the fake miniature effect, but can they do the other things that TS lenses are used for?

Ruahrc
 

AlaskaMoose

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2008
3,559
13,406
Alaska
The only tilt-shift lenses that I'm aware of are the LensBaby series, and comparatively, they don't seem like all that much. What else is out there, and what makes them different?

Canon has a couple of new tilt-shift lenses that are amazing, and so their respective reviews. But these are extremely expensive.
Here is the 24mm one, which is a little cheaper than the 17:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12092-USA/Canon_2543A004AA_Wide_Angle_Tilt_Shift.html
 

jampat

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2008
682
0
The thing I was always confused about, lensbabies can sort of do the fake miniature effect, but can they do the other things that TS lenses are used for?

Ruahrc

Lensbabies don't do shift, just tilt. They can be used to isolate part of a scene, but not most of the things that make TS lenses great. They are less than 1/4 of the price of a real TS though and quick to work with. A real TS requires setting up shots where the LB can be used for candids (as long as you are happy with one aperture, changing takes time).
 

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
Thought Id throw out there that if you truly want to get into tilt n shift, you should save your $ and buy a medium format camera.

Most 4x5 press cameras have some movements, rail cameras have many movements.

And for the price of the digital lens, youve got a complete film system!
 

wheezy

macrumors 65816
Apr 7, 2005
1,280
1
Alpine, UT
Missed the Fed Ex guy, heading off to the warehouse to pick up my 10day Rental of the 45mm TS from LensRentals.com, I'll post to this thread any cool pics I manage to take with it. I hope after 10 days and 2 weddings I'll have something to show for it!
 

Sir SpemzR

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 9, 2009
251
0
Inland Empire
Missed the Fed Ex guy, heading off to the warehouse to pick up my 10day Rental of the 45mm TS from LensRentals.com, I'll post to this thread any cool pics I manage to take with it. I hope after 10 days and 2 weddings I'll have something to show for it!

Try to get higher angles from what your shooting
i think it helps a lot more
 

wheezy

macrumors 65816
Apr 7, 2005
1,280
1
Alpine, UT
Try to get higher angles from what your shooting
i think it helps a lot more

Yeah, that's one of my plans. Not many highrises where I am... well, none actually. But the mountains get pretty high... however I don't know how well the 45mm will do at that. Oh well.
 
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