This weekend, I was supposed to be shooting a new model. The norm, however, prevailed: you talk to someone who says they wish to model; sometimes you even get far enough (as this time) to set a time and day; and then at some point, the model flakes out “due to an emergency.”

It’s amazing how many emergencies there are in the world of modeling.

At any rate, I took the opportunity to run my motorcycle up into the hills a bit and took my new tilt-shift lens along for the ride. I didn’t have to go far.

The image on this page was made near Humphrey’s Station, located just up Tollhouse Road from where I live.

The effect of the tilt-shift is obvious in one regard: You can definitely see what appears to be a vignetting of focus. This is illusory and if you look closely at the image, you’ll see why.

I’m no expert on the tilt-shift (yet) or how it works, but it’s my understanding that all you’re doing by adding in different adjustments to the lens is shifting the position of the plane of focus relative to the camera’s image sensor. As far as I understand it, there is still a “flat” plane of focus. If you’re shooting at f2.8, you’re going to have a narrow depth of field, which should track that plane. So if I’ve understood it correctly, you can imagine a kind of “swath” of focus running through the image.

Normally — and, again, this is my understanding and I haven’t delved deeply enough to know if there’s more to it than this — the easiest way to think of it is that that “swath” of focused area runs parallel to the back of your camera; i.e., parallel to the sensor. But by rotating, shifting, or tilting the lens (or even some combination of all these moves), you manipulate that.

If I’m right, and viewing the images makes me think I am, you can then, for example, shooting at f2.8, run that narrow “swath” of focused area at something other than parallel to the camera. In some of the images I took, it appears that I’ve managed to almost run it in a path away from the camera — approximating a perpendicular run from the camera’s sensor.

Take the shot on this post, for example. As noted, the shot is from a stream just about a mile or so up the road from Humphrey’s Station. I like Humphrey’s because it’s a nice short ride from my house up Tollhouse Road on the bike. Just enough winding to be fun; not so much as to require attention to the road, making me miss photo opportunities like this one.

If you look closely at the foreground grass — at the very bottom of the image and around about the middle — you’ll see that the grass is perfectly in focus at one point. But moving towards the edges, the grass is out of focus.

Now look from that point up through the water, towards the rock above the stream.

Notice that all of that area is in focus?

That’s the beauty of the tilt-shift.

After that, it’s just a matter of learning how to size and move that plane — what I’ve called a “swath” of focus — to point it where you want in the image.

I can’t wait to experiment with it more on people!

Related posts:

• Tilt-Shift Lens

I have, however, been fairly active in my photographic hobby. Some of the images I’ve posted have been to a new website I joined which is NSFW — for those who insist they are interested, the website is SuicideGirls. Most images that I post there will probably not end up here any time soon, unless I figure out a way and decide to add a “restricted” area for people over 18 who are not offended by non-pornographic nudity.

In the meantime, I’ve made another lens purchase: a Canon TS-E 90 mm f2.8 Tilt-Shift lens.

If you want to know more about what a tilt-shift lens can do, you might like to see this website, or this video.

The lady on this page is my law office manager, Serena Maldonado. I snuck up on her with the new tilt-shift lens and snapped this image of her reading. If you look closely, you may realize that the plane of focus does not run parallel to the camera, the way it will with an ordinary lens.

Comments

• April 22, 2012, Tilt-Shiftin' Away | So Shoot Me! writes: [...] couple of days ago, I posted an image of my office manager made with my new tilt-shift [...]

Related posts:

• Tilt-Shiftin’ Away
• A Question of Depth
• The Crane

The lens is a Canon 85 mm f1.2 L-series USM II.

The reason I wanted it is the ability to shoot in incredibly low light with natural light — my preferred mode — and get an incredibly shallow depth of field.

The fountain here was photographed on the patio of a restaurant, at night, without any additional lighting. The span between water spouts is approximately 2 inches. Notice also the blurring of the highlights on the water.

Beautiful!

Can’t wait to try it on people!

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• Tilt-Shiftin’ Away

Now that Bunny Chafowitz has learned how to make them, she’s going at it like a woman mad with love. Well, for cakepops. And her friends.

I might be able to get something out of this, too.

As for all of you? Enjoy the images, because that’s all I’m sharing!

Here’s the place to drool over more images of the Valentine’s Day Cakepops.

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• Playing in the Yard

Today, I sat out in the backyard for awhile, playing “Hummingbird Hunter (Extraordinaire).” The only thing I regret is that I couldn’t focus fast enough for the hummer that flew right up to the camera to check it out!

More hummers can be found in this album.

Related posts:

• The Crane

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• Erin Before & After
• A Question of Depth
• Tilt-Shiftin’ Away

I’ve unfortunately forgotten the name of this singer, but her voice — well, let’s say that this image doesn’t come anywhere near doing her justice, and not just because the acoustics are missing.

I’m posting this older shot because my court schedule (in my “real” job, I’m a criminal defense attorney) has kept me too busy to play with my camera lately. I hope to resolve that soon, as I’ve borrowed a really nice Canon 300 mm f2.8/L series lens and I recently bought the Canon 5D Mark II body to replace my old Canon 5D (which is now for sale, if anyone is looking for one).

No flash, 1/80 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 3200, 400 mm (EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM).

Enjoy.

I did.

Bunny Chafowitz — a.k.a., the LOML — has a hobby of her own. Hers involves making our yard look absolutely beautiful.

Although the yard itself is large, playing with a 300 mm lens in it makes it appear small.

The Crane was shot against the backdrop of our “back 40,” so to speak, near an area Bunny has appropriately named “Idlewyld.” Opened up to the full 2.8 aperture, the trees and shrubs a mere 10-15 feet behind it fade into a beautifully-amorphous green.

For more miscellaneous shots, including more shot with the 300 mm 2.8/L lens, take a gander here.

This photo was done in 2009 when my friend, anthropology professor Hank Delcore, invited me to a day at the races at the Fresno Fairgrounds.

I’m going through the shots taken that day and when I post the full-album, you’ll be able to find it on the Albums page.

Hell, they damn-near ran me down!

But I’m sure you’ll agree it was well worth it for the shots I got.

For more, check out the practice session here and one of the actual battles here.