tilt and shift

Keeping lines straight when doing architecture, Controling the focal plane, making things look small through selective focus
 
It is used to create the correct perspective when taking a wide angle, close up picture. For example it corrects Walls that would otherwise be on a slant. It's main use is in architectural type pics, or at least that's my understanding.

Andy
 
Not many average Joes have £1400 to drop on a lens.. so not not really!
 
I wouldn't say totally correct perspectives and verticals, but they certainly improve them. The easy way nowadays is to correct these issues post production in PS, however the quality you get from having the original pixels in the right place in the Raw file is always better than stretching/squashing pixels in PS. But yes, they ain't cheap... So for the architectural specialists.

S
 
They are also great for seamlessly stitching together multiple exposures.

Fantastic lenses, and widely used by archy photographers but not exclusively.

I'd love to shoot fashion with one but a bit pricey for what would essentially be a toy lol
 
You need to bear in mind that a tilt-shift lens has two different functions, tilt and shift, and they are completely different in their effects.

Most people here have talked about the shift function. That's what allows you to have straight lines in architectural shots, and it's what helps when stitching panoramas.

The tilt function controls the plane of focus. One use of it is for those "fake miniature" shots, which are good for keeping small children amused for 5 minutes but the novelty quickly wears off. But there are two MAJOR uses of this functionality. One is landscape photography, where you can make the plane of focus (nearly) horizontal instead of vertical, so everything in the frame front-to-back is sharp. The other is for table-top applications such as food photography or small product photography, where you can again get the plane of focus nearly horizontal. That allows you to get the top of a cake in focus whilst the table on which it sits is slightly OOF, for example.

Perspective correction can be done in software but the quality takes a hit. Fake miniature effects can be done in software. The other things I've mentioned can't.
 
clariasync said:
Can you get a similar effect from a lens baby?

Zak
Click to expand...

Yes, sort of, but lens baby uses really poor optics (on purpose! it is a lomo lens after all), and I don't think the focal length is particularly suitable for architecture either. I don't think it even has proper controls, but the it is a fun lens.
 
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