These are just two from this weekend. The 2nd is a snapshot, but would like some critique on the first. My initial reaction after getting home is my foreground is not as interesting to me as it was when I was standing there. This was a HDR of three sets of 3 photos and then merge to a pano using a 24mm tilt shift. I understand the reason for doing this is for sharp focus through out depth of field, but wind defeats the purpose a little when you merge and blend 9 different photos.
Those flowers in #2 were not there week before last, which supports my hopeful conclusion that we'll be able to chase this year's amazing wildflower display uphill for the next few weeks at least. Yay!
As for technique on #1, at 24mm there's really nothing in this scene that tells me you'd need any tilt at all. The compositional elements are such that a single shot at f11 or f16 probably would've provided all the dof you needed. Keep in mind that tilt is not increasing dof, it's only altering its plane. If your plane was from the foreground flowers to the distant mountain summits, the f-stop required to have everything below that plane in focus wouldn't be much different than the f-stop required with no tilt. Just a thought.
What kind of compositional elements would you use the tilt shift for? Something in the immeadiate foreground? I haven't processed a few others yet, but for those I would tilt down, dial in the focus on say a clump of columbines, and then tilt normal and up with focus set to infinity. Set to infiinity the for the mountains in the back I would lose focus on the immdeadiate foreground flowers within 3 feet of camera. Is this what you mean? I didn't test this shot above with a non-tilt lens. I thought the it was going to be a cloudless sunset and was drinking a beer and starting the pasta water when I saw the clouds move in so grabbed camera and tripod and ran into the nearest field.
Wow there are way more flowers up gothic now! Wish I could go back this weekend!
Try a higher iso next time to keep your shutter speed fast enough. I would also like to see the shadows pulled out a bit more, what software did you use for the hdr?
Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 26, 2011 at 5:37 PM
Todd,
I'm confused by your description of how you use your TS. It sounds like you dial in front tilt, focus on your foreground, then dial out the front tilt ('tilt normal') and focus on the far element. That would essentially undo anything you did before.
Here is my technique, which certainly isn't the only way to use a TS for focal plane adjustment:
1. With Zero tilt, focus on the near element (foreground)
2. Dial in tilt to bring the far element into focus. For the typical near-far landscape scene, the tilt will be downward front tilt. For other scenes the tilt might be sideways or diagonal but the concept is the same.
3. Recheck focus on the near element, it probably needs to be adjusted.
4. Recheck focus on the far element and adjust the tilt to focus (do not adjust lens focus).
5. Repeat 3 & 4 until the near and far elements are in sharp (as sharp as possible) focus.
6. Choose an aperture to ensure the DOF above and below the tilted focal plane covers your scene. This can really hose you. Even on small scenes like a clump of Columbine.
I used my 45 TS-E a lot this weekend and had a lot of fun with it. But I had to remind myself that although the TS-E lets you shoot at a wider aperture by adjusting the focal plane along your scene, if all of the elements of your scene aren't on the same plane, you'll still have to stop down to include everything. And like Todd pointed out, sometimes a tilt isn't even needed.
#1 has a lot of potential, wuth that fine, fine light.
However, I find the skies too bright and the foreground too dark. In fact, I'm surprised this was rendered by HDR software.
I did the HDR with CS5 and then played around with some of Kuyper's actions trying to bring it back to more of what I remembered. I think I have the blacks up to high as well.
I'll rework it a little tonight. I have another that I want to play with as well and submit for feedback. It was a sunrise shot and I the mountain had a very nice golden light hitting the top 1/4th and was having a tough time getting my exposures. I think I didn't go high enough. But, I'll ask the question when I can post more and give an example.
#1 is a really fine image and I like John's suggestion on balancing it more. The clouds seem almost blown out, so I'll check back on your rework as this has enormous potential.
Posted by Lance Burch on July 26, 2011 at 11:20 PM
here's the unedited hdr of the raw files so you can see what i'm working with
Posted by Lance Burch on July 26, 2011 at 11:46 PM
Discussion
12 repliesAs for technique on #1, at 24mm there's really nothing in this scene that tells me you'd need any tilt at all. The compositional elements are such that a single shot at f11 or f16 probably would've provided all the dof you needed. Keep in mind that tilt is not increasing dof, it's only altering its plane. If your plane was from the foreground flowers to the distant mountain summits, the f-stop required to have everything below that plane in focus wouldn't be much different than the f-stop required with no tilt. Just a thought.
This is a great point concerning DOF and TiltShift lens.
Joe Rogers
What kind of compositional elements would you use the tilt shift for? Something in the immeadiate foreground? I haven't processed a few others yet, but for those I would tilt down, dial in the focus on say a clump of columbines, and then tilt normal and up with focus set to infinity. Set to infiinity the for the mountains in the back I would lose focus on the immdeadiate foreground flowers within 3 feet of camera. Is this what you mean? I didn't test this shot above with a non-tilt lens. I thought the it was going to be a cloudless sunset and was drinking a beer and starting the pasta water when I saw the clouds move in so grabbed camera and tripod and ran into the nearest field.
Try a higher iso next time to keep your shutter speed fast enough. I would also like to see the shadows pulled out a bit more, what software did you use for the hdr?
I'm confused by your description of how you use your TS. It sounds like you dial in front tilt, focus on your foreground, then dial out the front tilt ('tilt normal') and focus on the far element. That would essentially undo anything you did before.
Here is my technique, which certainly isn't the only way to use a TS for focal plane adjustment:
1. With Zero tilt, focus on the near element (foreground)
2. Dial in tilt to bring the far element into focus. For the typical near-far landscape scene, the tilt will be downward front tilt. For other scenes the tilt might be sideways or diagonal but the concept is the same.
3. Recheck focus on the near element, it probably needs to be adjusted.
4. Recheck focus on the far element and adjust the tilt to focus (do not adjust lens focus).
5. Repeat 3 & 4 until the near and far elements are in sharp (as sharp as possible) focus.
6. Choose an aperture to ensure the DOF above and below the tilted focal plane covers your scene. This can really hose you. Even on small scenes like a clump of Columbine.
I used my 45 TS-E a lot this weekend and had a lot of fun with it. But I had to remind myself that although the TS-E lets you shoot at a wider aperture by adjusting the focal plane along your scene, if all of the elements of your scene aren't on the same plane, you'll still have to stop down to include everything. And like Todd pointed out, sometimes a tilt isn't even needed.
Looks like Gothic is booming!
However, I find the skies too bright and the foreground too dark. In fact, I'm surprised this was rendered by HDR software.
I'll rework it a little tonight. I have another that I want to play with as well and submit for feedback. It was a sunrise shot and I the mountain had a very nice golden light hitting the top 1/4th and was having a tough time getting my exposures. I think I didn't go high enough. But, I'll ask the question when I can post more and give an example.