Thank you, sir, for this very good explanation and way to get the plane of focus using the angle with the right amount of tilt to get the subject plane in focus! Your video is the first ever I have been blessed to watch and learn how a tilt/shift lens can be rightly used in order to get the wished result! Wishing you all the very best and a happy new year 2023! Best regards from Sweden! (I am grateful to find your YT-channel for first time and now subscribing also!) 💯👍❤
Thanks! It would be remiss of me not to point to the main index of all my tilt/shift articles/videos [and book!] www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/
Thanks so much Keith. Your videos are very lucid and easy to follow as is your book. I have owned a TS-E 24mm II for some time but having read it was all trial and error - got to grips on shift but nowhere on tilt. Gave up on that aspect. However I then came across your blog and the reference to your You Tube playlist and book. I bought at the e-book version that is very good and coupled with your excellent videos am finally getting somewhere. Printed book arriving from Amazon today or tomorrow as I think a printed book coupled with an e-book is better for reference purposes. Well done !!!!
Thanks Eric - If you have any suggestions for aspects of tilt shift use that are not clear, do drop me a line at Northlight Images, since the videos came about some time after I'd written the book and I'm always looking for ideas to make new videos or explain aspects of lens use.
Thank you, Keith... That was extremely useful. Will prepare and print a high res focal plane test chat and practice... A great video as usual with clear instructions. Cheers...
Thanks - the specific pattern just needs to produce fringing to give the angle of lens rotation. Obviously this varies wit distance and camera and lens, so you will need to experiment a bit.
True, I picture the focus plane I need to use, as parallel to the front of the lens. When -- and aided by peaking lines, I see when the item touched the new focus plane. When peaking make the item to be imaged, light up. -- There I find peaking a great aid.
Wonderful, I recognize a lot of the trouble. But I wonder if your camera are missing peaking aids, as all you so detailed show us, display clear on the view screen. Also the "direction" of the focus plane it is a great pointer.
Thanks - The process is meant for DSLR or Mirrorless - peaking aids indeed may help. The important bit is in finding out how much to rotate the lens. The video is meant more as showing the principles of the process than a step by step guide - I've found it's one of those things that some have difficulty with, whilst others see it right away
Nice one! I use it usually for landscapes to isolate certain parts of the image. Like a diagonal bunch of flowers etc. You can use magic lantern with the canon dslrs to get focus peaking. Would be almost impossible without it. It would be very difficult to eye ball and adjust in bright light and unmanaged conditions. Very difficult to “guess” if moving the setup would be better or one must play around with lens and / or camera tilt. Great video all the same!
Thanks ML doesn't work on any Canon camera of mine... but the moire technique for lens rotation here is one I use with DSLRs, but in the studio. Focus peaking is certainly a 'nice to have' feature, but far from essential. Then again, all these techniques are experimental and require an iterative approach to allow for the differences between lenses. Outdoors I almost always use the tilt tables to get an initial tilt setting and the necessary lens rotation is easier to guess.
@@KeithCooper It is odd in this day and age Canon protects such "software" interfaces. Sometimes, the ML updates are valid only on certain release of camera firmware. Many vendors seem to be "upgrading" the bodies with what are essentially only firmware updates + some cosmetic changes to make it seem different. I find focus peaking very helpful. Without it, I cannot even exactly see the plane of sharpness in an already shot picture. This is in bright light - outdoors. Yes, it is guesswork and iterative. In an uncontrolled condition in an unknown place, speed is very useful as well. The most complicated "guess" I face is whether I should change rotate / tilt lens or the camera or move. Each is a one way action - complicated to undo perfectly easily. Great video all the same!
Very good explanation Keith! Watching the video I imagine already a lot of interesting setups/compositions! One question, the so called miniature effect. In the easiest case you have in-focus band crossing the image horizontal vertical in the middle an all the other parts are blurry. From your experience do have some ‚rules‘ in order to optimise the effect?
The 'small world' look has no real rules it's an effect that is very dependent on the subject and personal taste. Start with full tilt (Up), a wide aperture, and change the focus setting to move the plane of focus. Looking down on subjects can emphasise the look. A slight twist of the tilt axis may help. I've got examples in several of my tilt shift reviews (the proper written ones ;-) ) However I'l admit that I've not (personally) seen an example of it I thought much of. It falls into my category of 'OK, done that... what next' ;-) As ever, tastes differ! Mine is that it cannot be optimised... YMMV
The site is today in the process of being moved to a new server, so if you get problems, I'm hoping all will be well later... The TS-E50 review has some 'small world' examples: www.northlight-images.co.uk/ts-e-50mm-f-2-8l-macro-review/
Excellent stuff Keith 👍
Thanks - I've now covered all the main aspects of tilt/shift use. Time to think up some ideas for some more videos ;-)
Thank you, sir, for this very good explanation and way to get the plane of focus using the angle with the right amount of tilt to get the subject plane in focus! Your video is the first ever I have been blessed to watch and learn how a tilt/shift lens can be rightly used in order to get the wished result! Wishing you all the very best and a happy new year 2023! Best regards from Sweden! (I am grateful to find your YT-channel for first time and now subscribing also!) 💯👍❤
Thanks!
It would be remiss of me not to point to the main index of all my tilt/shift articles/videos [and book!]
www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/
Thanks so much Keith. Your videos are very lucid and easy to follow as is your book.
I have owned a TS-E 24mm II for some time but having read it was all trial and error - got to grips on shift but nowhere on tilt. Gave up on that aspect. However I then came across your blog and the reference to your You Tube playlist and book.
I bought at the e-book version that is very good and coupled with your excellent videos am finally getting somewhere. Printed book arriving from Amazon today or tomorrow as I think a printed book coupled with an e-book is better for reference purposes.
Well done !!!!
Thanks Eric - If you have any suggestions for aspects of tilt shift use that are not clear, do drop me a line at Northlight Images, since the videos came about some time after I'd written the book and I'm always looking for ideas to make new videos or explain aspects of lens use.
Thank you, Keith... That was extremely useful. Will prepare and print a high res focal plane test chat and practice... A great video as usual with clear instructions. Cheers...
Thanks - the specific pattern just needs to produce fringing to give the angle of lens rotation. Obviously this varies wit distance and camera and lens, so you will need to experiment a bit.
True, I picture the focus plane I need to use, as parallel to the front of the lens. When -- and aided by peaking lines, I see when the item touched the new focus plane. When peaking make the item to be imaged, light up. -- There I find peaking a great aid.
Yes, the peaking can be really helpful - all my techniques were developed for DSLR, so peaking is a 'bonus extra' in setting up ;-)
@@KeithCooper Exactly
Wonderful, I recognize a lot of the trouble. But I wonder if your camera are missing peaking aids, as all you so detailed show us, display clear on the view screen. Also the "direction" of the focus plane it is a great pointer.
Thanks - The process is meant for DSLR or Mirrorless - peaking aids indeed may help.
The important bit is in finding out how much to rotate the lens.
The video is meant more as showing the principles of the process than a step by step guide - I've found it's one of those things that some have difficulty with, whilst others see it right away
Nice one!
I use it usually for landscapes to isolate certain parts of the image. Like a diagonal bunch of flowers etc.
You can use magic lantern with the canon dslrs to get focus peaking. Would be almost impossible without it. It would be very difficult to eye ball and adjust in bright light and unmanaged conditions.
Very difficult to “guess” if moving the setup would be better or one must play around with lens and / or camera tilt.
Great video all the same!
Thanks
ML doesn't work on any Canon camera of mine... but the moire technique for lens rotation here is one I use with DSLRs, but in the studio. Focus peaking is certainly a 'nice to have' feature, but far from essential.
Then again, all these techniques are experimental and require an iterative approach to allow for the differences between lenses. Outdoors I almost always use the tilt tables to get an initial tilt setting and the necessary lens rotation is easier to guess.
@@KeithCooper It is odd in this day and age Canon protects such "software" interfaces. Sometimes, the ML updates are valid only on certain release of camera firmware.
Many vendors seem to be "upgrading" the bodies with what are essentially only firmware updates + some cosmetic changes to make it seem different.
I find focus peaking very helpful. Without it, I cannot even exactly see the plane of sharpness in an already shot picture. This is in bright light - outdoors.
Yes, it is guesswork and iterative. In an uncontrolled condition in an unknown place, speed is very useful as well. The most complicated "guess" I face is whether I should change rotate / tilt lens or the camera or move. Each is a one way action - complicated to undo perfectly easily.
Great video all the same!
Very good explanation Keith! Watching the video I imagine already a lot of interesting setups/compositions!
One question,
the so called miniature effect. In the easiest case you have in-focus band crossing the image horizontal vertical in the middle an all the other parts are blurry. From your experience do have some ‚rules‘ in order to optimise the effect?
The 'small world' look has no real rules it's an effect that is very dependent on the subject and personal taste.
Start with full tilt (Up), a wide aperture, and change the focus setting to move the plane of focus. Looking down on subjects can emphasise the look. A slight twist of the tilt axis may help.
I've got examples in several of my tilt shift reviews (the proper written ones ;-) )
However I'l admit that I've not (personally) seen an example of it I thought much of. It falls into my category of 'OK, done that... what next' ;-)
As ever, tastes differ! Mine is that it cannot be optimised... YMMV
Thanks for answer Keith! Will try your recommendations and read the articles👍
The site is today in the process of being moved to a new server, so if you get problems, I'm hoping all will be well later...
The TS-E50 review has some 'small world' examples:
www.northlight-images.co.uk/ts-e-50mm-f-2-8l-macro-review/
What’s that building in the intro you use?
The John Lewis store in Leicester