Is tilt-shift special or a gimmick??

[AlyJ]

Not a gimmick at all.

 

Changing the focal plane is a very useful tool as it being able to control converging vertical/horizontals.

 

Clayton Austin uses them very well a lot.

 

Also check out Bobby Earle

 

This is shot with a tilt shift

 

 

 

Thanks for the responses. I don't particularly see how the lens has done a better job on the wedding photo, than some post prod manipulation on photoshop or lightroom. So apart from the tree image, which I like a lot, it still seems t me that the main purpose is to make 'toy size' photos. The lenses are quite expensive, so I think I'll be giving the one a miss!

[livestrong]

Suggest you have a read...

 

Changing perspective in post is destructive and loses image quality. Changing the focal plane in post CANNOT be done.

 

The wedding photo example could not have been done in post as if you look behind the couple the background is still in focus because the focal plane was shifted. It is used a fair bit by some wedding photographers to isolate subjects and focus the viewers attention on a particular area of the picture. Like with the example links I posted those shots cannot be achieved without the use of the shifting of the focal plane. The use of a tilt shift in that photo has done a DIFFERENT job on the wedding photo.

 

Tilt shift lenses are not for everyone but they have capabilities which other lenses don't have. They can do things other lenses can't and which cannot be done in post. One other reason for the higher cost of the lenses is they are amazingly sharp with some of the best image quality performance of the lenses out there.