So I Bought a Tilt Shift Lens

Alveric wrote in post #16684773
You tilted when you should have shifted?

Maybe if you post the photo?

When you move the lens either up towards the sky or down to the ground that's "tilt" is it?

These are the finest lenses canon has in my opinion. Best thing to do is just get out and play and have fun. Careful not to get cut when you see the images this lens produces!

Steve Campbell wrote in post #16684789
When you move the lens either up towards the sky or down to the ground that's "tilt" is it?

Yup, that's the most distal of the knobs. The scales are actually labeled, T and S.

Here's the shot just converted from RAW to a Jpeg, nothing else.

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Yeah, you tilted when you shoulda shifted.

Maybe this can help a bit? You can jump right to the 'A-righting' section.

In a nutshell:

1. Position the camera at the desired height.
   
2. Make sure the camera is level with the horizon.
   
3. Shift as needed.
   

Alveric wrote in post #16684806
Yeah, you tilted when you shoulda shifted.

Maybe this can help a bit? You can jump right to the 'A-righting' section.

In a nutshell:

1. Position the camera at the desired height.
   
2. Make sure the camera is level with the horizon.
   
3. Shift as needed.
   

Ok, hopefully that's what happened. I know the lens can be rotated also. I guess maybe that was in the wrong position? I also shot a landscape shot that turned out a little better, although probably by fluke. I set up the tripod low, turned the lens down towards the water and shot. I'm not sure if I got any type of effect from that though maybe I did.

Two more things:

1. Watch your apertures. Even with the tilt function, if you shoot wide open you will get a small DOF.
   
2. When you tilt you introduce back keystone distortion, so you must adjust your tripod head accordingly (to point the camera slightly up or down), which might require reframing (lifting the camera by means of the tripod's centre column) or use of the shift function.
   

Alveric wrote in post #16684822
Two more things:

1. Watch your apertures. Even with the tilt function, if you shoot wide open you will get a small DOF.
   
2. When you tilt you introduce back keystone distortion, so you must adjust your tripod head accordingly (to point the camera slightly up or down), which might require reframing (lifting the camera by means of the tripod's centre column) or use of the shift function.
   

Thanks! I was only out for an hour or so, so not much time. It was -25 with the wind chill, so my hands were frozen just after a couple of minutes and it's not easy working with this lens with gloves. I have a couple of buddies who know more than I do about these things and I plan on getting out with them or even loaning them the lens! More practice for sure. Here's the landscape shot I took that came out ok, perhaps despite my lack of knowledge. Does it look like there is any tilt or shift effect here?

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^^^ you may or may not have used tilt - hard to say; at 24mm, f/13 hitting the hyperfocal would have easily given you the DoF in this pic. Since there's no real uprights to judge from, it's hard to say if shift was used. Nice pic, though.

Question - I don't have a body with LiveView, so I don't know - does LiveView engage the aperture blades a la the DoF preview button? If not, it's another thing that you may want to play with while actively making adjustments so that you can get a handle on what things are doing.

I've found that you have to press the DOF button even with LiveView.

Steve Campbell wrote in post #16684904
Thanks! I was only out for an hour or so, so not much time. It was -25 with the wind chill, so my hands were frozen just after a couple of minutes and it's not easy working with this lens with gloves. I have a couple of buddies who know more than I do about these things and I plan on getting out with them or even loaning them the lens! More practice for sure. Here's the landscape shot I took that came out ok, perhaps despite my lack of knowledge. Does it look like there is any tilt or shift effect here?

Just because one cannot tell automatically, doesn't mean you'd have got the same shot with a non-TS. I would have used both for a shot like this, but only by looking closely at the corners and near could I tell if you'd likely used tilt. (You should be able to get really sharp corners and infinity with tilt).

Also, even if HFD says you could get everything 'acceptably sharp' at f13, using the same aperture with tilt you should be able to get an overall sharper photo. The idea that you can go from using f13 with no tilt to say f5.6 with tilt doesn't usually pan out in practice - you still often need a smallish aperture (maybe in this case f8-f11), but you end up with a much sharper image because everything is much closer to the actual focal plane.

It does take some practice and everyone sets shots up slightly differently. If I haven't used mine for a while and go on a landscape trip, I try to go out once or twice before I go, just to make sure I don't have to think about mechanics, where the knobs are, what to check etc.. when I am doing it for real as the sun is rising.

Alveric wrote in post #16685135
I've found that you have to press the DOF button even with LiveView.

Yes, and hold it while you scan the frame in 5x ot 10x zo which can be a PITA. Another good thing about Magic Lantern not often talked about (I've seen many people on the forums even say DOF preview is utterly useless) is that you can 'sticky' the DOF preview. I think the lens is automatically stopped down in move mode too, but this might make shooting in LV annoying. With a 7D or 5DIII though this is just one switch rather than a menu item and might be doable -I haven't tried since I use ML.

We used the DOF button the first time around, but I never used it yesterday. I think practice, practice, practice is the key. We have many heritage buildings and homes around. This gives me an excuse to get out and shoot.

What would the procedure be for doing a 3 exposure bracket? Does the lens have to come back to 0 for each different exposure?

I bought a TS-45mm back in the summer, and like it very much, but sold it to fund the 85mm 1.2 II. They are amazing lens to give some new perspectives and angles, and help tell a story differently, only sold it because was a little long for my needs and needed the 85mm more, maybe next year I'll buy a 24mm or 17mm TS.

Steve Campbell wrote in post #16685928
What would the procedure be for doing a 3 exposure bracket?

Exactly the same as a non TS lens. Once you have it set with the middle exposure, just use bracketing or bracket manually.