A friend of mine the other day introduced me to tilt-shift photography for the first time. I couldn’t believe what I saw.  In case you are like me and know very little about it, here are some details about this amazing photography technique.

Firstly, let me show you a mind blowing example.

As you can see from the example, this technique uses depth of field, angle of view, and color saturation to make real life photos look like you are photographing fake miniatures. When it’s done well, it’s awe inspiring. Tilt-shift miniature faking has become very popular. Tilt-shift lenses run between $1,000-$2,000 online, but surely go even higher. The tilt-shift lens allows for rotation and movement of the lens along the image plane to create this effect. When I heard that, I was like “Whuuuutt?”  Mainly, because I had no idea what I was reading.

Here is a great gallery of images using tilt-shift miniaturization. Google enough of these pics and you will swear someone is messing with you, and you’re actually looking at a fake.

Here’s some other cool news. Videographers are getting into the action. You may have seen the following Allstate ad during the Superbowl.

Now, when I saw that spot I didn’t get all excited because I thought the whole dang thing was fake. It wasn’t. You’ll notice that you can increase the miniaturization effect by removing frames in the video to make it look like it’s stop motion.

Let’s hope we see more tilt-shift photography and videography in the future for no other reason than for the fact that’s it’s damn cool.

Thumbnail Image: pinboke_planet on flickr