March 28, 2024

40 Awesome Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography

Tilt-shift photography refers to giving the subject of a photo a miniature look or toy-like appearance. This affect can either be achieved with a special camera lens and other shooting techniques, or it can be done in post processing with applications like Photoshop. There are a number of tilt-shift tutorials available that will show you how to achieve this effect on your own, but in this article we’re going to inspire you. Here are 40 awesome examples of tilt-shift photography.

Clicking on the images will take you to where we found them, and will allow you to see a larger version and learn more about the photographers.

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Henry Jones is a web developer, designer, and entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience. He is the founder of WDL and ThemeTrust.

32 Comments

  1. Brendan Wenzel Reply

    Wow, that’s amazing what can be done with a camera and some photoshop work. Most those don’t even look real. I especially like the soccer picture.

  2. Arvin Bautista Reply

    Eh, I am extremely sensitive to the difference between real tilt-shift and tilt-shift done in photoshop, and I must say most of these were done in Photoshop without perfect attention paid to detail…

    the biggest telltale sign is that in real tilt-shift, really bright areas would really blow-out when it goes out of focus compared to non bright areas. If they don’t, such as the traffic lights in #3, it clearly means it was a normal photo edited in photoshop.

    There are definitely steps to make it look better than that with just PS, but I don’t think people should just assume they just need to do a blur on the edges for it to work.

      1. Arvin bautista Reply

        I’m sorry but I wouldn’t put a photoshopped image of a dragon and call it a stunning example of nature photography, even if the image was compiled from actual photos of lizards. Nor would I consider a photo with an impressionist filter on it a stunning feature if landscape painting. No matter how good it is.

        Call this a stunning collection of tilt shift style photography but don’t pass it off as the real thing when the only thing that makes it that style was a Photoshop edit.

  3. Robin Q. Reply

    I thought the tilt-shift fad was over. I can’t believe that “designers” is still following this trend! What happen to creativity? What happened to pushing the boundaries of design and art to create something new? Where can you use this photography style in a design sense?

  4. Trevor Reply

    Not sure I agree with the definition of TS photography. It’s not only about miniaturisation – there are some *REAL* architectural purposes to TS lenses too.

    But these examples above are mighty fine!! Tx for sharing

  5. Steve Z Reply

    The problem with this article, is that it implies that making things look miniature is the only possibility, goal, and outcome of the tilt shift lens.

    Every example, is of the same thing. Get up high, and align the focal plane with only a small portion of the photo.

    This is a simplistic and basic approach to the lens, and is the core of the impression that the lens is a ‘fad’. Articles like this further this view, by offering only a limited view of what the lens can accomplish in the hands of an experienced user.

    Many awesome tilt shift image do not appear tilt shift at all to the casual viewer, as they align compositional elements at varying distances from the camera. Only an experienced photographer would recognize the impossible DOF. Furthermore, this only uses the tilt capacity, not the shift capability.

    So really the article should be called, “40 awesome examples of a tilt shift lens making things look miniature”

    1. denise Reply

      thank you Steve Z!! my thoughts exactly. there is more to tilt-shift than making things look like miniatures/toys. not to take away from these examples – they are cool – just not the be-all and end-all

  6. Dave Reply

    I’ve seen this done before, but could never quite figure out the technique, let alone figure out what it was called. Thanks for the insight!

  7. George Hausler Reply

    These photos are truly amazing! At first I though some of them were actual miniatures! They are that good! I’d like to know whats going on in our brains that we get fooled into thinking the images are tiny. These are very well done!

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