Photography is an extremely vast realm; there is too much to learn. Talking about hardware, apart from cameras, lenses are talked about the most. Camera lenses are grouped into different categories so that it is easier to find the one that is most suitable for your needs. However, there is one lens that confuses most photographers. It is the Tilt-Shift lens.Â
This article not only answers what is a tilt-shift lens but also teaches you how to use it to get the most out of it.
What is a Tilt-Shift Lens?
As the name suggests, these lenses have an optics mechanism that tilts and shifts. Moreover, the newer versions of these lenses can rotate as well. This provides them with an even more range of tilt and shift. As you can imagine, these lenses are for a very specific purpose, therefore, they are quite pricey.
This gives rise to another question; what exactly is the purpose of a tilt-shift lens? Photography is all about perspective. Capturing a scene as natural as it looks to a human eye has been the ultimate test of cameras. For instance, when you are standing in a row of buildings, they appear to shrink as you look towards the horizon. When you take a picture, the same feeling of depth is present in image. That is perspective.
Now, imagine if you could play with that perspective and capture the same view in different ways. That’s where a tilt-shift lens comes in. It opens up new possibilities for you and allows a greater depth of field.
Another important point that must be discussed here is that although it has manual focus, it does not auto-focus feature or even in-lens stabilization.
When to use a Tilt-Shift Lens?
Now that you understand what is a tilt-shift lens, it is time to get a glimpse of the possibilities that open up with this lens.
First of all, you might have noticed that while photographing architecture with a normal lens, you tilt your camera upwards. Unfortunately, this distorts the perspective of the building. With the tilt feature, you shift the lens instead of the camera which allows you to maintain the perspective.
Secondly, the main advantage of using a tilt-shift lens is that you can have multiple subjects in focus. This feature is pretty useful in portrait photography, especially group portraits.
Thirdly, it lets you create panoramas with extreme ease. You just keep the camera balanced and then capture a panorama using left-shift, center, and lastly, right-shift.
There are many more ways in which you can use a tilt-shift lens to create astonishing results. Another bonus use of this lens is that it allows you to photograph into a mirror without getting the camera’s reflection in the frame.
Understanding Tilt and Shift
At this stage, you only understand what is a tilt-shift lens? But now, let us dig a little deeper and learn how it functions. We are going to describe both tilt and shift function separately so that you can understand easily.Â
Before we move on, it is important to know that the tilt and shift functions work relative to the camera’s sensor.
Using Tilt
Let us talk about tilt first. In a normal lens, the lens plane is parallel to the image plane or image sensor. It means that if you focus on an object with a moderate aperture, everything will be in focus if the object is not too far.
However, in the case of this length, when you tilt the lens left or right, both planes do not remain parallel and the focal plane runs vertically through the frame. The main advantage of this is that everything from front to back of the frame is in focus while the things on left and right are not in focus.
Secondly, you can change the depth of field by tilting the lens up and down. If you have ever wondered how to take capture a city so that it looks like a miniature, it is done through this technique.
Learning about the workings of these features will help you better understand what is a tilt-shift lens, so let’s move on to the shift feature.
Using Shift
This feature enables the optics to shift relative to the image sensor, thus projecting a larger image circle than normal lenses. This is extremely useful as it lets you photograph images from otherwise impossible angles. Just like we mentioned above that while you are photographing architecture, the images get distorted. However, the shift feature keeps the vertical lines from converging, thus creating perfect images.
Similarly, for photographing reflections in the mirror, you keep the camera out of the reflection. Then, simply shift the lens. For instance, if the mirror is to the right of the camera, you shift the lens towards the right. Doing this is otherwise impossible with a traditional lens.
Conclusion - What is a Tilt-Shift Lens?
To wrap it all up, you now not only understand what is a tilt-shift lens but also know that it is an extremely creative tool. It can be used for perfectly capturing parallel lines as well as for portrait and panoramic photography. Moreover, it also enables you to capture images from an impossible angle so why not give it a try?
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Have a nice photoshoot!Â
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