Shooting with a tilt-shift lens (not PhotoShop) - how do you get on with it?

Diamond hell

Diamond hell

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Thomas
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I bought a TS-E 24mm a while back: it was there, I had some cash and I fancied a toy.

Now, I know it's possible/easy to filter up a tilt-shift effect in Photoshop, but I wanted to try doing it out of the camera. I figured it would be challenging and fun.

Thankfully it actually is.

I'm curious to know what other people do with their tilt-shift lenses (I had a search, but didn't come up with anything concrete). Also if you own one, what situations have you been in where the tilt-shift on the lens has been a really killer feature. Here's the rub for me: aside from the 'miniature' look you can create at the margins of the adjustment, I haven't found an application for the lens where I couldn't have done what I did with anything else.

I do know that the TSE 24mm makes a damned fine prime when set straight and true though!

Entertainingly a close mate of mine who's a seasoned photography pro has tried the lens, but can't make it work for him, because he's short-sighted and can't manually focus with it!

So a couple of back to back straight and true (S&T) vs tilt and shift (T&S) images from roughly the same location, at the same time:

M40 S&T:

7847515722_b2a09b695e_b.jpg


M40 T&S:

7847515952_0c1067cae1_b.jpg


Compton Bay S&T:

7760242950_167e568084_b.jpg


Compton Bay T&S:

7760244100_b9687e6850_b.jpg


and a really weird effect from the sun on this T&S image of Newport harbour:

7301568196_99dcee362b_b.jpg


The thing that bugs me about shooting T&S is that it nearly always seems to wash out the colours when it's wound right over. Any insight into this would be really helpful.

Cheers.
 
It's also a new addition for me. I'll mostly be using it as a straight-up prime for landscapes, for panoramas and for increasing depth of field.
 
Although I haven't yet tried it, I have seen some great example of tilt shift lenses used in weddings and portraiture, although I can imagine this requires a lot of practice!
 
sl888 said:
You have an amazing lens for landscape and architecture. It takes time to learn how to properly use this lens.
Click to expand...

I agree about it taking time to learn it properly and that's part of the reason I bought it. It makes me chuckle when I've had kids (generally) saying 'why don't you just apply a filter in Photoshop?'. Because it rather misses the point of the journey of learning to use the lens!

Thanks for the encouragement and the links - I've already seen a couple - but more is always good! :)
 
Must admit, I've never really managed to pull off the Miniature World look with the tilt and shift lens.
I'm happy to use it to get everything in focus.

I occasionally describe it to others as my lazy landscape photographers lens.
I know that with the horizon on the top 1/4 I only need 0.5 deg down tilt to get everything from my feet to the horizon pin sharp whatever the aperture. Bit of aperture for safety, jobs done. I can hand hold landscape scenes in far lower light than a conventional lens :)

I own both the Mk1 and Mk2 24mm TSE (I really must get around to selling the Mk1).
I promised myself that if I was still using the Mk1 as my main lens after a year, then I'd treat myself to an upgrade.
Used with care, the Mk1 image quality is good enough to print to A3 however you abuse the movements and it makes a fine prime lens (ignoring the CA).
But the Mk2 is astonishing - it is unbelievably sharp.
It's great for shooting stars. The usual challenge with star (not star trails) is getting the corners sharp enough to avoid smearing the faint points of light while at the same time letting in enough light to keep the exposure short. The Mk2 so good that I only need check one point of focus and know that even wide open the corners will be pin sharp. Trouble is that 24mm is not really quite wide enough for stars and I'm beginning to get a hankering for the 17mm TSE.

Oh - and I've never managed to work out how to focus the thing without Live View.
With a bit of practice using Live View zoomed in to check near focus, far focus then tweaking the movements, it doesn't take long to set up a shot.
 
I still don't really get TS. I've read a few articles now and still don't really get why you can't just move your camera rather than shift the lens?

I get the tilt part and the parallel planes.
 
I hired a 24mm Mk 1 some months ago,I must admit it took a bit of getting used to.
Buildings and panoramas I found fairly straightforward just using the shift ,tilt I really struggled with when I used it on a 5Dmk1 but on a 40D with live view it was a lot easier but still difficult.
One day when I have some ( a lot) of spare cash I will buy one and get the hang of it but for now I am afraid DxO will have to do to correct verticals!
 
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