Ever wondered how photos that make people and buildings look like miniature scale models were taken? Those were done through a photography technique called perspective manipulation using a tilt shift lens. Aside from faking miniatures, tilt-shift camera lenses can also be used to produce a selective blur effect often seen in wedding pictures and whimsical photo shoots.
Given these useful features of the tilt shift lens, it’s a great addition to any budding photographer’s kit.
What is a Tilt Shift Lens?
The tilt shift lens derived its name from the two types of movements it can do: (1) rotation of the lens plane relative to the image plane or tilt and (2) movement of the lens parallel to the image plane or shift.
If you want to make an image sharp, you can use the tilt function to manage the orientation of the plane of focus. And if you want to take pictures of skyscrapers without merging parallel lines that make the subject look distorted, use the shift function.
What are the Best Lenses for Tilt Shift Photography?
If you’re interested in expanding your horizons as a photographer and trying out this unique lens, here are some of the best tilt shift lenses available on the market:
Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II Tilt-Shift Lens
Leading our list of the best tilt-shift lenses is the all-around Canon TS-E 24mm. If you must buy only one tilt-shift lens, we recommend this one. By far, this Canon lens has the best contrast, color, flare control, and tilt-shift capabilities.
The Canon TS-E is built with an ultra-low dispersion (UD) glass to prevent blur caused by color fringing, resulting in sharp and vibrant images.
The configuration of this lens is also easy to learn, so this is a great starter lens for beginners. Mastering the controls is easy as well with its enhanced range of movement of up to +/-8.5° and a revolving design that allows switching to portrait and landscape modes easily.
Key Features of the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II:
- Built-in circular aperture for an intricate blurred effect
- Eliminates chromatic aberrations and glare
- Ideal for both landscape and portrait shooting modes
- User-friendly controls and ergonomic body
- Enhanced range of movement of up to +/-8.5° in addition to its standard +/-90° range for smooth tilting and shifting
Canon 17mm TS-E Tilt-Shift Lens
Best paired with a 24mm Canon shift lens, the 17mm TS/E allows you to shoot cityscapes and architecture even when there isn’t enough space for you to back on or elevate your device. It’s also because of its ability to shoot in tight spaces, like alleys and city streets, that it’s favored by many as a travel lens and for tilt-shift photography.
The 17mm length also allows you to take sharp photos despite the wide angle. Due to its size, flare control is a breeze, too.
Key Features of the Canon 17mm TS/E:
- Extreme full-frame corners that make this lens sharp enough to bring out the mid and corner parts of the frame even when wide open at f/4
- Excellently manages chromatic aberration
- Made with UD glass, with specially coated aspherical elements to prevent chromatic aberrations and flare
- Can handle vignetting very well
- Has an angle of view of 93°
- Circular aperture for beautiful spot blurs
Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED Perspective Control-E NIKKOR Aspherical Lens
If you shoot with a Nikon camera, the 24mm Perspective Control-E (more popularly known as the PC-E) is a great option. It gives you the same level of sharpness and flare control as the Canon tilt-shift lenses on this list.
Key Features of the 24mm Perspective Control-E:
- Revolving capability of plus or minus 90-degrees, in 30-degree increments, for achieving a variety of tilt/shift shooting effects
- Patented ultra-wide, perspective control (PC) lens for excellent tilt, shift, and rotation capability that’s perfect for nature and architectural photography
- Prevents lens aberration when shooting with a wide aperture through its three aspherical elements
- Patented Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) for producing pictures with excellent colors, without ghosting and flare
- Nano Crystal Coat for significantly reduced internal reflections across a wide range of wavelengths and for crisp, clear photos
- Rounded 9-blade diaphragm for more natural out-of-focus elements
- Three extra-low dispersion (ED) glass elements technology for maximum level of sharpness and color correction
Nikon 85mm PC-E Micro-NIKKOR f/2.8D Tilt-Shift Lens
With an 85mm focal length, this tilt shift lens by Nikkor is ideal for a variety of subjects beyond architecture, from portraits and nature to product photography. It boasts a wide shifting range of plus or minus 11.5mm and a tilting range of plus or minus 8.5 degrees, so you’ll have plenty of control no matter what subject you choose.
If you’re looking for fantastic depth of field combined with exceptional perspective correction, this is a great lens to explore.
Key Features of the Nikon 85mm PC-E Micro Nikkor f/2.8D:
- Normal lens featuring tilt and shift movements
- TS rotation lets users freely combine tilting and shifting within the range of +/- 90 degrees in the direction of movement
- Designed with ED glass to minimize and compensate for chromatic aberrations, and a specially coated aspherical element for the highest possible glare-free image quality
- Features an angle of view of 28° on a full-frame camera
What is Tilt Shift Lens Photography Good For?
Traditionally, tilt-shift lenses are extremely popular in architectural photography, because of their ability to render vertical lines without distortion or an appearance of convergence.
Professional architecture photographers who require this type of perspective correction can achieve their goals in two ways. You can use a tilt-shift lens, or you can shoot a scene with an ultra-wide-angle lens, then perform perspective corrections in post processing. Because this sort of editing can be very time consuming, using a tilt-shift lens is a much easier approach.
Capturing tall subjects
Perspective correction is a useful photography technique not only for photographing tall buildings, but for capturing tall trees, high mountain peaks, and other tall objects without a sense of distortion or the appearance of a leaning subject. If you’ve ever struggled with photographing a tree and can’t get enough distance from it to be happy with your results, a tilt-shift lens is the ideal solution.
Scale distortion
Tilt-shift lenses are also very popular among photographers who want to take advantage of the ability to make elements within the scene look very small. No other lenses can provide a similar sense of scale distortion. Whether you’re shooting in a city or a broad landscape, using a tilt-shift lens can open new avenues of creativity for your images.
Why Does Tilt Shift Make Things Look Small?
When you photograph a small subject with a macro lens, you may use a very wide aperture such as f/1.2 or f/1.8. When shooting this wide open, you’re likely to have a strong focus falloff in both the foreground and the background. We’re accustomed to seeing very small objects photographed in this way with a very narrow band of focus.
Because we traditionally photograph landscapes and cityscapes with greater depth of field, this type of focus falloff is relatively uncommon in wider scenes.
Similar effect to a macro lens
A tilt-shift lens achieves a similar effect that a macro lens does, because it also creates focal blur in the foreground and background. That effect tends to be rare when shooting wide vistas or city scenes. By adjusting the focal plane with the tilt-shift knobs on the lens, you’re essentially shifting the plane of focus so it’s no longer parallel to the camera’s sensor. The result is that popular miniature tilt-shift look.
No need for Photoshop
No other variety of lens will create this skewed sense of scale. The only other way to achieve this miniature scale model look besides using a tilt-shift lens is to use selective blurring of the foreground and background in Adobe Photoshop. However, many photographic purists prefer capturing this style in-camera with a tilt-shift lens.
How to Use a Tilt Shift Lens?
You adjust the effects of a tilt-shift lens through the tilt knob and shift knob on the lens itself.
Tilt knob
The tilt-control knob adjusts which part of the scene looks sharp, by tilting the angle of the focal plane in relation to the camera’s image sensor. This lets you achieve sharp focus on two different focal points or subjects — even if they’re located at a different distance from your camera.
If you tilt the focal plane in the same direction as the subject’s plane, you can maximize the depth of field in the resulting image.
Shift knob
Next, you can adjust the shift knob on your tilt-shift lens to perfectly frame your photograph, without needing to move the camera or recompose. This is especially useful if you’re shooting from a tripod. This technique lets you perfectly calibrate your image to avoid perspective distortion.
When shooting a large subject from a high or low angle, the shift knob will ensure that vertical lines remain vertical.
If you’re new to using a tilt-shift lens, it’s always a good idea to check your progress periodically to make sure you’re happy with the results.
Using Tilt Shift to Control Perspective
When your primary goal is to control perspective or correct for perspective distortion, it’s helpful to place your camera on a tripod so you can make minor adjustments and calibrations as you go. Try to stand a reasonable distance from your subject to minimize the amount of distortion correction needed. Also, make sure your camera is level with respect to the horizon.
You can shoot subjects either from straight on, or from an angle. When shooting architecture at an angle, perspective distortion is much more exaggerated, but you’ll still be able to perform the necessary adjustments and corrections with your tilt-shift lens.
If the environment in which you’re shooting doesn’t let you get far enough away from your subject to comfortably photograph it with another lens, your tilt-shift lens will help adjust the perspective distortion. Just get as much distance between you and your subject as possible. Then concentrate your efforts on making the vertical lines appear more perpendicular to the horizon with the shift knob.
Ultimately, each scene you photograph will require a different combination of tilting and shifting to correct perspective distortion. Take your time and experiment with different angles, techniques, and distances from your subject. Eventually, you’ll be able to predict the results of your adjustments, and controlling perspective will become quick and easy.
Exploring your artistic side is one of the benefits of dipping your toes into tilt-shift photography. And with one of the best tilt-shift lenses at your disposal, learning the ropes of this skill will be easier and much more enjoyable.
Featured Image Maria Teneva on Unsplash.
