Tilt & Shift - Make perspective correct images without Photoshop Transforms
I went to Racine, WI to a photography Meetup group meeting at StudioMLP owned by Michael LaPointe. The topic of the event was getting published in magazines, and afterwards there were some lighting instruction and a few models on hand to shoot with as well. I highly recommend joining your local Meetup groups and actively contributing. There is much to learn, networking, and friendship. I often meet models I end up hiring later, and photographers I later work with on other projects. StudioMLP is a work in progress but a great space, large and very functional and I truly appreciated Michael for allowing us to take over the studio for the afternoon.
I brought my daughter Melissa with me (who is a photography major among other things) because we both have an interest in architecture. The studio was in a revitalized industrial campus, lots of odd old red brick buildings, smoke stacks, loading docks, barbed wire etc. Many geometric lines, industrial mixed use buildings that have been modified and changed over the years creating an interesting place to walk around and shoot in. I'm sure it would be a great location to do portraits (Michael LaPointe may not appreciate that I said that but I know most of my 3 readers don't live in Wisconsin).
My main interest in going was in studying the buildings and after the brief lecture we had some time to go out side and shoot while the studio lighting was being set up. The weather turned cold, grey and wet but for the purposes of this topic will not really matter.
As many of you know one of the challenges of shooting buildings, bridges, and other tall or large structures with 35mm film, digital, or 2 1/4 cameras is the perspective issues. Buildings, trees, smoke stacks all bending inward, or leaning to one side. Sometimes walls can look concaved or bloating depending on the lens and angle you choose.
Wide angle lenses are often used to get the entire building in but unnatural curves creep into the images. Often we don't even realize this as our minds correct for us so we don't always notice distortions until we are home looking at the images and realize something went wrong.
Some people will turn to Photoshop ( like me) and start doing Transform distortions, and perspective corrections, or using filters that adjust for lens distortions or perhaps toss the image altogether.
Photographers with limited gear have known for years to shoot certain shapes and buildings at 45 degree angles, looking up at the right angles of buildings to use the distortions in our favor but that does not always work to get the images we want. We may learn to compromise our artistic vision based on the limitations of the gear we own.
Architectural Professionals use 4X5 view cameras and other large format cameras that have tilt and swing capabilities that allow the photographer to make adjustments to the film (or censor) plane to correct or enhance these issues. It's the same tools commercial photographers use in the studio and one of the reasons they can make such amazing images in the studio that seem so hard to duplicate in hobby studios or by portrait shooters. I won't get into the technicalities of view cameras as there are lots of places online and great books that you can turn to which educate about them.
Like most of you I can't afford a large format view camera, (although I have used them in the past at other studios) and the time it takes to make exposures does not always fit into our speed-of-light lifestyles. The ROI is not there for most of us to justify such a purchase. So what's a 35mm SLR or digital photographer to do to go beyond Photoshop Band-Aids after the fact?
Tilt Lenses are the answer...
As you know I mostly use Canon so I will talk about the ones they offer. Canon just release new models with even more adjustment capabilities in the last few weeks. The new TS-E 17mm f/4L and the TS-E 24mm f3.5L II. I'll talk about the one I use without getting technical. As usual I'll leave that to the many sights out there that explain tilt, shift, swing, and rail systems that control perspective. Canon was the first to offer these types of lenses and makes more variety than any other manufacturer.
I have the last version of the TS-E 24mm that was current a month ago (it's so hard keeping up with new toys). The first thing you should know about these lenses is that they are manual focus and do not offer built-in image Stabilization.
These are professional lenses and intended to be used in thoughtful and often technical ways but you don't have to be an engineer to use them. Mine is mostly used for product shots. Although I shot hand-held on this outing they are generally suppose to be a tripod only lens. Without going into to too much depth let me just show two examples of the lens in action; a shot of a building with a normal wide angle zoom lens and another using the TS-E lens.
Notice the corrections of these buildings. No Photoshop retouching at all. The TS-E lens saves time and creates a more accurate and correct image. These lenses also have many creative functions as well such as stretching an object or building or purposefully distorting it. Unlike distortions in Photoshop where the images blur and pixels stretch ineffectively, using the lens for certain effects is much more realistic, sharp and editable. I hope you get to play with one of these soon, rent one before you buy it and like any lens be thoughtful about how much you'll get out of it and use it before making the investment.
If you do a lot of product photography, interiors, industrial or architecture these lenses will save you considerable amounts of time and effort, and provide more accurate results than you can do manipulating the files in your image editor. Let me know what you think, and if you've used the lenses yourself I'd love to hear about it. Drop me an e-mail and let me know your thoughts.
I brought my daughter Melissa with me (who is a photography major among other things) because we both have an interest in architecture. The studio was in a revitalized industrial campus, lots of odd old red brick buildings, smoke stacks, loading docks, barbed wire etc. Many geometric lines, industrial mixed use buildings that have been modified and changed over the years creating an interesting place to walk around and shoot in. I'm sure it would be a great location to do portraits (Michael LaPointe may not appreciate that I said that but I know most of my 3 readers don't live in Wisconsin).
My main interest in going was in studying the buildings and after the brief lecture we had some time to go out side and shoot while the studio lighting was being set up. The weather turned cold, grey and wet but for the purposes of this topic will not really matter.
As many of you know one of the challenges of shooting buildings, bridges, and other tall or large structures with 35mm film, digital, or 2 1/4 cameras is the perspective issues. Buildings, trees, smoke stacks all bending inward, or leaning to one side. Sometimes walls can look concaved or bloating depending on the lens and angle you choose.
Wide angle lenses are often used to get the entire building in but unnatural curves creep into the images. Often we don't even realize this as our minds correct for us so we don't always notice distortions until we are home looking at the images and realize something went wrong.
Some people will turn to Photoshop ( like me) and start doing Transform distortions, and perspective corrections, or using filters that adjust for lens distortions or perhaps toss the image altogether.
Photographers with limited gear have known for years to shoot certain shapes and buildings at 45 degree angles, looking up at the right angles of buildings to use the distortions in our favor but that does not always work to get the images we want. We may learn to compromise our artistic vision based on the limitations of the gear we own.
Architectural Professionals use 4X5 view cameras and other large format cameras that have tilt and swing capabilities that allow the photographer to make adjustments to the film (or censor) plane to correct or enhance these issues. It's the same tools commercial photographers use in the studio and one of the reasons they can make such amazing images in the studio that seem so hard to duplicate in hobby studios or by portrait shooters. I won't get into the technicalities of view cameras as there are lots of places online and great books that you can turn to which educate about them.
Like most of you I can't afford a large format view camera, (although I have used them in the past at other studios) and the time it takes to make exposures does not always fit into our speed-of-light lifestyles. The ROI is not there for most of us to justify such a purchase. So what's a 35mm SLR or digital photographer to do to go beyond Photoshop Band-Aids after the fact?
Tilt Lenses are the answer...
As you know I mostly use Canon so I will talk about the ones they offer. Canon just release new models with even more adjustment capabilities in the last few weeks. The new TS-E 17mm f/4L and the TS-E 24mm f3.5L II. I'll talk about the one I use without getting technical. As usual I'll leave that to the many sights out there that explain tilt, shift, swing, and rail systems that control perspective. Canon was the first to offer these types of lenses and makes more variety than any other manufacturer.
I have the last version of the TS-E 24mm that was current a month ago (it's so hard keeping up with new toys). The first thing you should know about these lenses is that they are manual focus and do not offer built-in image Stabilization.
These are professional lenses and intended to be used in thoughtful and often technical ways but you don't have to be an engineer to use them. Mine is mostly used for product shots. Although I shot hand-held on this outing they are generally suppose to be a tripod only lens. Without going into to too much depth let me just show two examples of the lens in action; a shot of a building with a normal wide angle zoom lens and another using the TS-E lens.
Click on images to see larger versions.
Notice the corrections of these buildings. No Photoshop retouching at all. The TS-E lens saves time and creates a more accurate and correct image. These lenses also have many creative functions as well such as stretching an object or building or purposefully distorting it. Unlike distortions in Photoshop where the images blur and pixels stretch ineffectively, using the lens for certain effects is much more realistic, sharp and editable. I hope you get to play with one of these soon, rent one before you buy it and like any lens be thoughtful about how much you'll get out of it and use it before making the investment.
Color Variations are a result of the quality of the lens, no color correction has been done on these images.
If you do a lot of product photography, interiors, industrial or architecture these lenses will save you considerable amounts of time and effort, and provide more accurate results than you can do manipulating the files in your image editor. Let me know what you think, and if you've used the lenses yourself I'd love to hear about it. Drop me an e-mail and let me know your thoughts.
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