Tilt and Shift - selective focus

There is so much can be done to an image in Photoshop that I can never catch up with it.  Some people are adamant about keeping the authenticity of the original shot while others think post-processing is equally important.  If I can take pictures like the professionals do (in fact professionals are also big in post-processing), I would probably vote for authenticity, but I am not there yet. Besides, Photoshop enhancement helps to bring the images to another level of creativity that excites me. When the tools are available to increase our creative options, why not? It is also great fun to play with these options.

Tilt and shift feature allows us to choose a focused area in a scene picture. This selective area will be particularly focused and the highlighted subjects look like miniatures. Cars will look like match boxes and pedestrians will resemble the people we see in Small World.

I am testing out this feature, and I used it on some of my archived images. They are not the perfect candidates to demonstrate this feature, but I believe that you would get the idea.  When I later get better examples, I will try again and do another post.  It is great fun to experiment different options.

Other than the center courtyard, 5^th Street area has been updated and stores renovated many times.  Luckily there are still some staple shops and restaurants to maintain its originality. I always enjoy this view standing on the stairway to second floor looking down.  The outside seating of this restaurant is the place where we like to hang out on sunny days. Quality food and retro ambiance are simply appealing.

Above shot was taken in Vancouver, Canada. Sailing boats are just so much more interesting than steam boats to photograph.  I used telephoto lens for this shot and all boats were originally focused. But now I only want to focus on the boats in the center area, and made the rest more like backdrops.

Butchart Garden has its abundant trees and flowers that are popular focal points.  However, in this case, I blurred a large part of the scene and set the focus on the ‘small people’ and the path they are walking down on purpose. Instead of focusing on beautiful flower and trees, focus is on people.

 

To clarify, this blur effect is not the same as the blur effect on close-up pictures. Blur effect on close-up shots is created using shallow depth of field. I have added texture to the image below. Texture adds ambiance and I cannot help not to play with it when comes to flower shots.

PS. For Tilt & Shift effect, go to Filter, choose Blur and Tilt & Shift. With a little bit of practice, you will have lots of fun experiment many options.