Learning how to use a tilt+shift lense

Introduction

This guide teaches photographers the basics on how to correctly use a tilt+shift lense (TS lense). It is not a technical article but a practical one. It is based on a Canon tilt shift lense, so slight variations may apply to other brands.

It took me some time to properly use a TS lense and I stumbled around along the way, but knowing the basics will help you avoid those mistakes. Lense makers do a terrible job of explaining how their lenses work in the field.

The general rule is that when the camera is in the landscape position the shift function will move the lens left or right of the centre or zero position. The tilt function will move the lenses up or down. Put another way you shift the lense left or right and tilt it up or down. Basic movements explanation in this video here. Another simple video showing mostly the shift function in operation here.

Some tilt shift lenses allow you to rotate the shift or tilt function independently of each other, so the general rule does not always apply. For present purposes lets keep it simple, once you know the basics these other options will be easy to understand. (The Advanced Techniques at the end of the guide link a video which shows the full variations of tilt and shift.)

Uses of a tilt+shift lense

If you type “tilt shift” into Google and look at the images you will find the images are miniature effects.

A tilt+shift lense is far more versatile than this gimmick. Common uses of a TS lense include:

  • Architecture;
  • Landscapes;
  • Product photography; and
  • Miniature effect;
  • Sharpness, as TS lenses have a large sweet spot. A TS lense has a larger sweet spot than a standard prime lense, so they are very sharp lenses when used as a prime lense, without engaging the tilt or shift function. Explanation here.

Architecture

TS lenses are used frequently for indoor or outdoor architectural photos. In non-technical terms, the more you point your camera upwards the more a tall building or tree begins to “lean”, by shifting the lense to control perspective you can prevent this, video here. A similar problem arises when you point the camera down. Again shifting a TS lense fixes the problem.

Using a TS lense for perspective control is discussed here.

Tip: keep the camera parallel to the object you wish to remain vertical, for example tall buildings, trees, etc.

Landscapes

There are many landscape uses of a TS lense, including:

  1. Creating panoramas using the shift function. You can than stitch seamlessly the images together (most often between 2 and 5 images for simple panoramas). Shifting minimises perspective errors when stitching images without the need for a panoramic head.
  2. Stitching multi images allows you to create a megapixel image bigger than your camera can create with one photo.
  3. By using the tilt function you can have both the foreground and background in focus, without stacking multi images (aka focus stacking).
  4. You use tilt and shift to create a megapixel panorama which has both the foreground and background in focus.

Product photography

TS lenses are used in a studios for product shots, for example the tilt function allows all the product to be in focus, even using large apertures like F2.8 or F3.5. In fact a landscape shot at F2.8 can be in focus, example here – the far right image.

A TS lense opens up many depth of field options in the studio and in the field, beyond the scope of this guide, a short video here.

Miniature effect

You can use a TS lense to create the miniature effect. Tip: to get the best miniature effect you need to be above the subject and tilt the lenses up away from the subject.

Lets learn the basics of using a TS lense.

Preliminary Steps

You need to know how to manually focus a TS lense and how to engage the shift and tilt functions on your lense.

Learning manual focus

All tilt shift lenses are manual focus. So if you are not using manual focus lens you need to learn. The steps are:

  1. Ensure that both the shift and tilt function are not engaged. The phrase I prefer to describe this is setting tilt and shift to zero or the zero position.
  2. Using the viewfinder begin to manually focus the lense and shoot. Note: Most, but not all, modern cameras will either beep or flash to indict the camera has been focused, even when using a manual focus lense. Check your Camera’s Manual if in doubt.
  3. Practice until you this becomes second nature. An hour or two should do. Tip: Check your photos on a computer to make sure you are focussing correctly and you images are sharp. If they are not in focus, go back and refine your technique.
  4. Once you can manual focus through the viewfinder, start to use live-view. If your camera has live-view engage it and begin to focus using live-view. Tip: many modern cameras allow you to display a grid pattern in live view, engage it and use it.
  5. In live-view use your camera toggle switch to move the focus point. The most useful focal zones are 1/3 up from the bottom of the screen and 1/3 down from the top. This will make sense later. Once at the focus zone, zoom in 5x or 10x and manually focus the lense on an area of contrast – you will get better focus performance. Video example here. Take practice shots until this becomes second nature. Tip: Check you photos on a computer to make sure you are focussing correctly and your images are sharp.

Engaging tilt or shift

You may need to read the lense manual on to properly use the tilt and shift function.

On most Canon TSE lenses there are 2 knobs for the shift function and 2 for the tilt function. The larger knob adjusts the tilt (or shift) and the second smaller knob locks the tilt (or shift) position. Play around until you understand how this works. Video here, from the 2 minute mark will help. In this video the TS Lense is in Portrait mode, not Landscape mode.

When the tilt and shift are not engaged various terms are used such as centered, the “0” position or the zero position. I prefer the zero postilion.

Lets start.

Detailed steps – shift only

The exercise will be to take a 3 shot landscape panorama using the shift function. We will assume no knowledge.

Attach the TS lense to your camera, then to your tripod, set camera to raw, make sure the battery is charged and the memory card is in the camera. Note: you can use jpeg but it limits your post processing options and you cannot change white balance.

The steps are:

  1. Zero the shift and tilt on your lense.
  2. Remove the lense cover.
  3. Set the camera to its base ISO, most often around ISO100 (Nikon ISO64). You can use base ISO when the camera is mounted on a tripod.
  4. Level the camera, using the camera’s inbuilt level or a third party one.
  5. Compose your photo.
  6. Manually focus the lense (no tilt just yet). Tip: for landscape shots when your are not using tilt, focus on something in the foreground.
  7. Meter the scene. The sweet spot for landscapes on a Canon 24mmTSE lense is F8 (F11 on the Canon 45mm TSE), so I mostly use that aperture. Find out what the sweet spot is on your TS lense, but some are listed at the end of this guide.
  8. Set the aperture to F8 in Aperture mode to determine the shutter speed needed.
  9. Take a test shot and look at the histogram. If everything is exposed correctly, delete the photo.
  10. Switch your camera to Manual Mode and enter an aperture of F8 and the enter the metered shutter speed, lets say 1/100 of a second. Note: in camera metering will not always work accurately once you engage shift or tilt, so meter before engaging tilt or shift.
  11. Set your white balance. In my case using AWB has never caused an issue, but that may change between cameras, so manually set WB.
  12. Take all photos in a set using the same manual settings, otherwise they will not stitch seamlessly.
  13. Take a photo in the zero position, remember the tilt and shift are set to zero.
  14. Shift the lense to the left all the way, by using the knob on the lense. Take your second photo. Note: you make get some vignetting or softness in the corners by shifting all the way. So only shift all the way if the image requires it, once you have learnt the technique.
  15. Shift the lense to the right all the way. Take your third photo. Note: you can shift whatever way you want just keep it consistent. You can shift twice to the left and right if you wish giving you 5 photos to stitch, but we will keep it simple here.
  16. I often take a forth shot with my hand in front of the lense to tell me that set was a panorama.
  17. The photo set is complete. You only need to post process your images and stitch them together. See Stitching Software below.

Practice this without tilting the lense. Once you feel comfortable then engage tilt.

Detailed steps – tilt and shift

In this guide the TS lense is in the landscape position, so when you engage tilt the lense will tilt up or down. Tilting away from the subject is what creates the miniature effect. Tilting towards the focal plane is what allows you to achieve focus on the foreground (by focusing) and background (by tilting) giving great depth of field even at large apertures like f2.8 or f3.5.

When using tilt 3 more things come into play:

  1. do you tilt up or down (down for landscape, up for miniatures);
  2. how much do you tilt (less than what most people think);
  3. ensure you focus on the foreground and use tilt to focus on the background.

The No 1 Tilt Rule is: focus on the foreground, but use tilt to bring the background into focus. In short, focus foreground, tilt background. Focus foreground, tilt background. Focus foreground, tilt background…

The detailed steps for shift and tilt are:

  1. Zero the shift and tilt on your lense.
  2. Remove the lense cover.
  3. Set the camera to its base ISO, most often around ISO100 (Nikon ISO64). You can use a low ISO when the camera is mounted on a tripod.
  4. Level the camera, using the camera’s inbuilt level or a third party one.
  5. Compose your photo.
  6. Manually focus the lense. Do not engage tilt yet, as you must meter exposure first.
  7. Meter the scene.
  8. Set the aperture to f8 in Aperture mode to determine the shutter speed needed.
  9. Take a test shot and look at the histogram. If everything is exposed correctly, delete the photo.
  10. Switch your camera to Manual Mode and enter an aperture of f8 and the enter the metered shutter speed, lest say 1/100 of a second. Note: in camera metering will not always work accurately once you engage shift or tilt, so meter before engaging tilt or shift.
  11. Set your white balance. In my case using AWB has never caused an issue, but that may change between cameras, so manually set WB.
  12. Take all photos in a set using the same manual settings, otherwise they will not stitch seamlessly.
  13. Turn on live-view. Note: I nearly always use live-view when engaging tilt. Toggle the focus zone to the foreground. Focus, use 5x or 10 magnification if needed. Toggle to background and tilt the lenses down to bring the background into focus. Toggle back to foreground to ensure it is in focus, adjust if necessary. You may need to play with focus and tilt 3 times to bring both the foreground and background into focus. If you are happy…
  14. Take a photo.
  15. Shift the lense to the left, by using the knob on the lense. Take your second photo. Note: you make get some vignetting or softness in the corners by shifting all the way. So only shift all the way if the image requires it, once you have learnt the technique.
  16. Shift the lense to the right. Take your third photo.
  17. I often take a forth shot with my hand in front of the lense to tell me that set was a panorama.
  18. The photo set is complete. You only need to post process your images and stitch them together. See Stitching Software below.

Landscape Techniques

Building on what is said above, I use some simple techniques for landscape shots when using a T+S lense:

  • I try to be parallel to the main subject in my photo. That way you can maximise the depth of field across the photo by the f stop used and also the tilt function. So know the sweet spot of the lens you are using and set tilt correctly;
  • If possible I like to be in front of the main subject and then tilt right or left (or both) to the main subject;
  • All T+S lens I have used are a bit soft on the extreme edges when fully shifted. So don’t fully shift the lense or compose your photo so you can crop this out.

Stitching software

Several choices are available including free options like

I found in the early stages of learning how to use a TS lense that Photoshop would not automatically stitch my tilt shift images. That set me back as I thought the error was in taking the photos, it wasn’t. So I now mostly use Microsoft ICE which does an excellent job. LR6 can also stitch panoramas.

Take the 3 images you took in either exercise. Convert them from RAW, ARW, NEF, etc using your normal RAW processor like Lightroom or Capture One. Only make basic adjustments at this stage. Sync the settings between the 3 images so they are processed the same way. Once converted, stitch the images together using your selected program. Save as a TIF or PSD file.

Check the image has stitched seamlessly. Now you can start doing further post processing on the stitched image in your graphics program of choice.

Tip: Most T+S lenses are a bit soft on the edge of the image when fully shifted. When composing the image bear this in mind and try and crop the extreme edge out. Not really an issue if you use a vignette on a given image.

Class is ended

You now the basics about using a TS lense. You can move onto more advanced techniques, like using filters, rotating tilt and shift independently of each other, playing with depth of field, off tripod use, etc.

Advanced techniques

Advanced techniques are beyond the scope of this guide. There is some great information on the web.

Tilt and shift movements, by WGGT

How to Take A Tilt+Shift Photograph, by Peter Hill, plenty of links at the end on this article

The Essential Tilt-Shift Lens Guide, Topaz Labs

Perceptive Control, by Cambridge Colour

Depth of Field, by Cambridge Colour

The Tilt Shift Lens Advantage, by oopoomoo

A Tilt and Shift lens on your digital SLR, a good article for new users.

Tilt-shift photography, 6 effects

I highly recommend the ebook by oopoomoo, which has several worked examples concerning landscapes. US$10 well spent.

Tilting – there must be a quicker way

When focusing a TS lense is there a quicker way to get the foreground and background into focus, than all that toggling? Yes is the short answer.

The technical explanation is “The angle of tilt is simply the inverse sine (arcsine) of the focal length of the lens divided by the distance from the object plane to the principal point (axis) of the lens.” Whatever!

Or you can just use the Tables prepared by David Summerhayes, here. The Tables set out how much tilt to use for any given focal length, and varies depending on the perpendicular distance from the lense to the plane of focus (most often the ground for landscapes).

There is a Table for 24mm, 45mm, 90mm and 150mm TS lenses. Print the tables out or carry a copy in your mobile phone or tablet. Tip: use live-view to make sure the foreground and background are in focus when using the Tables. The Tables only set out the tilt angle required to get the background in focus, you still need to focus on the foreground.

If you have an iPhone get the Tilt Calculator app. Tutorial on the app can be found here.

Sweet spots for Tilt Shift Lenses

Hardly a technical term, but “sweet spot” is used to describe the f stop where the lens is sharpest.

  • Canon  17mm TS-E, f8 (front element on this lense means special filters must be fitted)
  • Canon 24mm TS-E, f8
  • Canon 45mm TS-E, f5.6 to f13
  • HARTBLEI Digital 45mm Super-Rotator (new version), Pentax 645 Mount (Medium Format), f8 to f16. For tips on using this lens, read here.

Specialist T+S Lenses

There are specialist makers of tilt+shift lens like HARTBLEI and Schneider.

The Doc has used a HARTBLEI Digital 45mm Super-Rotator Tilt Shift Lens (Medium Format – Pentax Mount). Two changes from the above steps is needed; first, manually set the Aperture by using the Aperture Ring on the lense. You must do this before setting exposure in the zero position.

Secondly, the HARTBLEI Super-Rotator can only shift left from the zero position. A Canon T+S lense can shift left or right. Once the HARTBLEI Super-Rotator has been shifted left, you must use the rotator function to rotate the lens 180 degrees, so it is now “shifted” to the right. So the normal order to take 3 shots would be: zero position, shift to left, rotate to right.

Rotating the lenses does not change tilt settings.

Detailed instructions on using the Schneider 50mm PCTS (Perspective control, Tilt Shift) can be found here.

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