Before, we begin, we have to understand what does "tilt" and "shift" mean. A Tilt-shift lens enables you to rotate the lens against the image's plane, hence "tilt", and also "shift", where you move the lens along the image plane. The combined movements of the lens creates an optical illusion where the scenes look like they’re miniatures - by focusing on a part of the image and blurring out its surroundings.

Using Photoshop, we can mimic the images shot with a tilt-shift lens too! Let's learn how we can achieve this effect.

Before & After

This technique doesn't work for all photos, so try to pick the right ones. Miniature photographs are usually taken from the top, so images that usually work best are those with elevated angles. Also, photos that contain people are the most interesting.

1. Once you have your image ready in Photoshop, enter Quick Mask Mode (Q).
Image ID: 3763657 © Valeriy Ivanov 123rf.com

2. Set your foreground and background colors and black and white respectively (D), then select the Gradient tool (G) and use "Reflected Gradient".



3. While holding down Shift, drag a line upwards starting from where you want your focus point to be, and your end point, where the transition to blur will take place. For this part, you might have to try a few times to get a good result (If you're not satisfied with the outcome, just hit undo and try again till you think it's right).



4. Once done, you will see that the area where you've applied your gradient has become red - The strongest being at your main focus area, slowly fading as it moves further away.



5. Now that you've selected the area you wanted, tap Q again to switch from Quick Mask Mode to Standard Mode. The Areas that are selected will be the parts that will be blurred out.




6. Now go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and adjust the radius, determining how blur the photo will be. As an example we set ours to 20. This area is subjective and differs from photo to photo, so tweak it until it looks just about right to you. However, make sure not to overdo it.





7. Tap (Ctrl+D) to clear the selection.




8. Now we adjust the colors and lighting of the photo to that of miniature model photography, that is usually bright and contrasted. We will first add a new adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation). Slightly increase the saturation. We set it to +25.




9. Okay now let’s create another adjustment layer for the curves. (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). Here are our settings.



10. To make the effect more obvious, we cropped the image slightly.

Here are a few more examples:
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Image ID: 2029656 © iofoto 123rf.com


Image ID: 2495336 © imajdeposu 123rf.com