Tilt-Shift Experiment #1

Sorry I’ve been a little off track with my posting lately. Been quite busy with the usual life happenings, work, etc. Currently I’ve been editing photos for the jewelry lookbook that I shot about two weeks ago and I can’t wait for the final result! This coming Sunday I have a senior portrait session which I’m super excited about because those are usually fun. And of course, I’m always looking for various potential opportunities out there.

In the meantime, I’ll post a few photos for you to enjoy of my experience with a tilt-shift lens! I finally decided to rent one and take it out for a weekend just to test the waters a bit with it, never having used this type of lens before. I had the Nikon PC-E 24mm f3.5 lens (PC in a Nikon indicating “perspective control” i.e. tilt-shift).

Third Ave., New York City © Brandie Raasch 2010

In the first image above I think you can see why tilt-shift lenses are great for architectural photography. Rather than the POV here being of someone looking up, as if you’ve ever tried to photograph a tall building you know you must do in order to get the top into view. Here however, the top of the building furthest back is in view while at the same there is no apparent tilting of the camera because the lens itself tilts to achieve this perspective.

Guggenheim Museum, New York City © Brandie Raasch 2010

Again, the image of the Guggenheim is straight on rather than the view being tilted upwards. In this photo I also added a lomography photo effect for fun.

Man Under Bridge, Central Park © Brandie Raasch 2010

Grand Central Station, New York City © Brandie Raasch 2010

Grand Central Station, New York City © Brandie Raasch 2010

In the next three photos above I added the same lomography effect to give the photos a different look. You can also see in these how the tilt-shift, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, has a miniaturizing effect which also adds to the unique perspective control that it offers.

Interestingly enough, as I was flipping through the June issue of Elle magazine I came across an editorial titled “In the Brights.” It was shot by Serge Leblon and I was instantly struck by two of the photos in the spread, almost certain they had to have been shot using a tilt-shift lens. Luckily I found the images over at TrendHunter and you can view the first here and the second here. What I was mostly interested in was the fact that I was seeing this lens used in a fashion spread as opposed to its typical use. What do you think about using tilt-shift in fashion photography? For myself, I’m always interested in new ideas and interesting ways of photographing subjects and though I’m sure it depends on the type of fashion shoot and the overall look one is going for, I thought it was definitely a unique and perhaps somewhat bold addition to this group of photos.

-B