Tilt shift lens

[ylnad123]

After reading a lot on google about the tilt shift lenses I am still confused on what it does. I take a lot of pictures of shopping centers and office building and am wondering if this will help me more then the 10-20 I already have. Does someone have a picture taken with a tilt shift and the same picture without?

[Wilt]

The practical applications...

A rise-fall shift allows you to keep the film plane (sensor) parallel to the wall of a building yet still be able to see the upper portions of a skyscraper in a photo, thereby avoiding the converging lines of the 'falling over' building photo.

A lateral shift allows you to virtually position yourself to take a photo, yet keep yourself out of view from the reflections seen in mirrors on the wall opposite.

Both of the above are beneficial for architectural photographs of interiors.

A tilt allows you to alter the plane of focus, so that you can accomplish deeper apparent DOF without the need for as small an aperture. This is of greatest benefit to the landscape photographer, since trying to do this in interiors will result in other parts of the scene visibly out of focus!

[Jaetie]

maybe a little reading here may help, though i'm not sure if you've already read this.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...ns-Review.aspx

[ylnad123]

I understand the definition and understand what it does. But I guess I just can not tell if it will actually help me in what I do. Shopping centers are not usually tall, they are mostly long and sometimes have 90 degree breaks in them. I am just wondering if it would help me get more of the shopping center in the picture.

Lets say a shopping center is shaped like an L. Right now I can get the long end of the shopping ceter and a small part of the short end if I were to stand at the top of the L. I am wondering if at that angle with a tilt shift lens would I be able to get the whole L?

[coreypolis]

not really, but you can better control perspective so that it isn't as distorted and you can't keep focus over a whole section of the building. angle of view isn't really changed


think of food photography for a second, a real closeup shot of a piece of pie turned 45 degrees. because of the way its positioned and DOF, you can usually only get a very small area of it in focus. A T/S lens allows you to move the plane of focus so its parallel to the food, rather than perpendicular, so you can get the whole thing in focus.

[braduardo]

Look about half way down on this page:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...=236222&page=2

That's one of the best examples I can give you (that was given to me). For the effect it would have for buildings, just imagine the image bigger...

[Wilt]

What camera do you have? One problem with APS-C cameras is that you cannot get full benefit of the T+S lens...24mm TSE is like using only a 38mm TSE on full frame camera. A T&S does not increase your FOV...that is defined by your format size. It changes the apparent perspective.

You don't have to have a tall structure to benefit! I shot the interior of a private home with a high ceiling better with the shift lens than without. If you were shooting a 2 story open interior shopping mall, you could present the mall better in showing less of the floor and more of the upper level without the converging lines. Or a lateral shift might permit better composition than simply shifting the camera or angling it differently.

[ylnad123]

Ok thank you, that picture really helps. I guess I am just a visual learner. Thanks for all your help.