Page 112 - (DK) Advanced Photography Guide

110 APPLYING | TILT-SHIFT LENS

SHOOTING TALL BUILDINGS

Architectural photographers use tilt-shift lenses to suitably wide-angle shot, you can emulate the
prevent the sides of tall buildings from converging effects of a shift lens postproduction and correct
excessively. Tilt-shift lenses achieve this by allowing converging verticals using perspective correction
you to raise, lower, and tilt the lens in relation to tools (see pp.162–63) – but at a cost of losing some
the camera’s sensor. Using a shift lens is not a quick image resolution. Although shift lenses can be fiddly
process – it takes time to compose a shot as neither to use, they produce images at your camera’s
the shift nor the focusing are automated. With a maximum resolution.

SET UP YOUR CAMERA POSITION THE CAMERA FOCUS PRECISELY
To use a tilt-shift lens correctly, you Check that your camera is parallel All tilt-shift lenses have to be
have to set your camera on a tripod. It to your subject. Use the camera’s built-in focused manually. Focus very carefully
is almost impossible to get the precision spirit level if it has one. Otherwise, fit a on your subject, or select a suitable
that you need if you hold your camera photographer’s spirit level to the hot aperture setting and use hyperfocal
in your hand. shoe. Adjust the tripod head if necessary. distance focusing (see p.90).

USING TILTS

Tilts can be used to control sharpness.
Initially, a lens’s plane of focus is
parallel to its front element. Tilting
the lens also tilts the plane of focus.
If you tilt the lens downward, the
plane of focus makes both near and
far objects sharper, so the depth of
field appears to increase. This
enables you to achieve sharpness
from front to back with only
moderate aperture settings. If you
tilt the lens upward, the depth of ADJUST LENS SHIFT SHOOT AND REVIEW
field appears to shrink. With careful Raise the lens (a movement called Take the photo, then check it
focusing, this can help to isolate “rise”) until the entire building is included carefully. Zoom in to the image and make
elements in the scene and make in the frame. Use a moderate amount sure that the shot is in focus right across
them stand out more. of rise if possible, as image quality the photo, and that there is no significant
deteriorates as rise increases. loss of quality around the edges.

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