Faking a Tilt Shift Photo
Hi, everybody. I’m going to show you how to make a Fake Tilt Shift effect in Photoshop. I have used Photoshop CS4 for this tutorial. This photoshop tutorial is quite simple.
I came from the photography scenary and discovered the Tilt Shift Lenses about two year ago. Tilt Shift lenses focus on a single part of the photo and shift (blur) the surrounding area to create an optical illusion of miniaturized scenery. Real Tilt Shift lenses are quite expensive, but a similar effect can be achieved by using Photoshop.
Here is what we are going to do:
We’ll use this one: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1214107
An above ground shot is usually best for this type of technique. Cityscapes, crowds, streets, and similar things are perfect.
Open the shot in Adobe Photoshop and click onto “Quick Mask Mode” or press the “Q” key.
Select the gradient tool.
Select the “reflected gradient”.
Draw vertically upwards from where you want the point of focus to be up the screen to the top of the window, and release the mouse button. A red transparent line should appear.
Go back into “Standard Mask Mode” pressing “Q” key.
In Photoshop CS go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur (Or if you have Photoshop 7.0 you can use Gaussian Blur). Then select the amount of blur you’d like. You’re free to experiment.
(Optional) For a more “plastic” feel you can increase the saturation and contrast in the photo.
There you have it – you should have a nice “fake tilt shift” photo. You can experiment with lots of different photographs – some are a lot better than others for “miniaturization”.
