Tilt-shift Lenses Are Not Just For Architecture

Tilt-shift lenses are a versatile tool that you can use for many types of photography. They are known for their ability to control perspective which makes them an essential tool in architecture photography. However, with a bit of imagination you can use that functionality with any image. You can achieve more composition and cropping options, increased image resolution, and no distortion compared to other lenses. It’s easy to understand why it is my favorite lens!

My Ash Cave image is a top favorite of mine for two reasons. First, I really like the outcome. Second, I tried a technique using a tilt-shift lens for taking the shot that worked wonderfully and was a great experience. Ash Cave in Ohio’s Hocking Hills State Park is not the kind of cave you normally envision. It’s is what’s called a recess cave formed when a middle layer of sandstone was eroded away. The cave formed in a horseshoe shape measuring 700 from end-to-end, 100 feet front-to-back, and 90 feet high. Depending on the climatic conditions there is often a 90-foot-high waterfall in the center.

The Shot

In 2015 I decided to make a quick trip to Hocking Hills State Park. A short walk from the parking lot along a paved trail quickly brought me to one end of the cave. What a site! Lush vegetation, a small creek fed by that tall, delicate waterfall and beautiful rock textures. A landscape photographer’s dream.

tilt-shift ash cave — *Ash Cave and Waterfall – click to enlarge/purchase*

Compositionally, the creek made a great leading line to the image. To enhance this, I flipped the composition so the stream appears in the lower left corner rather than the right corner. I also removed a wooden platform from the rear of the cave to keeps just the natural elements. The logs lying in the creek had smooth cut ends. I modified these a bit to give a rough, more natural look.

While I was shooting there was also a family visiting. Fortunately, the technique I was using would allow me to easily remove all of them. However, the more I looked at the image without people, I realized it needed a human element to convey scale. To do this, I adjusted my layer masks to reveal one woman in the center of the image to provide a sense of just how large the cave is.

The Tilt-Shift Technique

For this image I used my 24 tilt-shift lens. These TS lenses work in a similar fashion to view cameras. I only used the shift functionality for this image so I will not address tilt functionality. The shift function moves the image circle left or right while the camera remains stationary. The orientation of the sensor plane never changes relative to the subject. This avoids the distortion you get when taking “normal” photo-stitched panoramas by rotating the camera.

Additionally, the lens (again, the camera does not move) can also be rotated to shift the image circle in a diagonal direction. Thus, you can approximate the entire image circle by shifting the lens through a full cycle of lens rotation. With the camera in portrait mode, you get an elongated image due to the sensor being rectangular as shown below. If you have the camera in landscape orientation you get the same shape, just rotated 90 degrees. For this image I took 21 photos and stitched them together. The uncropped version is below.

I’ve overlaid two rectangles on the image above. The red rectangle (2:3 aspect ratio) represents a single shot from the 24mm tilt-shift lens on a full frame camera. While this gives a nice composition, the cropping options are limited and the composition pales in comparison to the one I chose. My chosen composition (4:5 aspect ratio) is represented by the green rectangle. This also illustrates how we have many cropping options to find one that best suits the scene.

Photostitching

I mentioned earlier that if I had mounted the camera in a landscape orientation, I would have an image of the same shape just rotated 90 degrees. The thing is, if needed you can do both and photostitch 42 images together to really expand your cropping choices. This scene didn’t need it so I didn’t bother doing this although in retrospect it would have been nice for illustrative purposes in this article.

Photostitching 42 or even 21 images together can place quite a strain on you computer. There are a couple of ways you can reduce the load. First, evaluate if you need to do the full rotation of the lens. Sometimes you may only need a half or quarter depending on the composition. No need to photostitch images you know you will just crop out.

Second, you can avoid duplication. The 21-image count is based on a left/center/right sequence in seven 30 degree stops as you rotate the lens. This inherently also creates some duplicate shots especially for the center image. To reduce the computer load you can eliminate the duplicates. However, if your computer can handle all 21 or 42 images I would photostitch them all as it help to produce a smoother blending.

Resolution

At this point you might be thinking there are two ways to get the same composition as I did without all the hassle. First, I could simply move backwards until I got everything in view. This assumes you have the real estate to do that. Second, you could use an ultra wide-angle lens, e.g. 14mm, to get a similar composition. Both could work and only take one shot.

Despite this, the tilt-shift and photostitch approach has some significant advantages. First, for my camera a single image in a 2:3 aspect ratio is 22.1 megapixels (MP). If you crop to a 4:5 aspect ratio it drops to 18.4 MP. Conversely photostitching and cropping to the same composition and 4:5 aspect ratio clocks in at 40.8MP! The resolution is more than doubled.

Second, ultra wide-angle lenses are notorious for their inherent distortion. With the the tilt-shift and photostitch you get a doubling of resolution and no distortion!

More Information On Tilt-Shift Lenses

The internet is a great place to learn more about these lenses. I’ve found two webpages in particular that have very useful information and explain a sometimes complicated subject in simple terms. The first is on Perspective control (the shift function) and the second is on Depth of Field control (the tilt function).