farwest Loc: Utah

For the people that have this lens what are your thoughts? I've watched some video's on it but I wondering if I could do the same thing in LR?

User ID

No editor has a digital version of lens tilt. If you needed to be told that, you have no use of a tilt lens right now.

IOW don’t buy it. You can get used shift-only lenses pretty reasonably. I don’t recall a 45 shift-only, but the 35 is not too hard to find. Even a green noob can manage shift-only, right outa the box.

RLSprouse Loc: Encinitas CA (near Sandy Eggo)

Tilt-shift lenses have a few very different applications. The purpose for which they are designed is to provide smaller cameras (e.g. “35mm cameras”) some of the flexibility that view cameras have, in independently positioning the film plane and the lens. IOW, the lens can be shifted up and down relative to the film, and can be tilted as well.

The shift function is most often used to allow the camera to capture images of buildings and other architecture that are relatively tall, without having to tilt the film plane upward. This prevents the familiar converging lines you see when you point your camera upward at a tall building.

The tilt function allows the plane of focus of the lens to be rotated or tilted relative to the film plane. The rotation may be either forward and back (i.e. tilting the lens up or down), or side to side (i.e. rotating the lens left or right).

Tilting the lens forward (down) is most often used to increase the sharpness of an image from near to far. This works because tilting the lens forward tilts the plane of focus. So if the plane of focus matches the "plane" of the subject matter, everything will be in focus from near to far.

Tilting the lens from side to side is similarly used to adjust the plane of focus to "match" the subject matter. A good example is again architectural. Say you have a long building and you want to shoot the corner of the building at an angle, with the wall of the building receding into the distance. Rotating the lens horizontally allows you to adjust the plane of focus so that both the near corner of the building and the entire wall receding in the distance will be in focus.

None of this stuff can be done in post-processing. Yes, I know you can “fix” the converging lines in Photoshop, but you lose a large part of your image because of the cropping that is required after the converging lines are straightened out.

Now we come to a completely different application of tilt-shift. When you take pictures of miniature things, for example model train layouts, you are confronted with some of the technical issues we encounter with other close-up, and even macro, shooting. The main issue is depth-of-field (DoF). The closer you are to your subject, the shallower the DoF becomes. Over time, we have become accustomed to photos of miniature things having very shallow DoF.

So, if we want to create a “miniature effect” in the normal, full-size world, we can take advantage of the behavior of a tilt shift lens to do exactly the opposite of the purpose for which it is designed. Instead of tilting the lens forward to achieve greater DoF, we can tilt the lens backward to achieve a very shallow DoF. Violá! The so-called “tilt-shift effect”!

I really dislike this terminology because it ignores and demeans what tilt-shift lenses are really all about. This effect is “cute” and “fun”, and while it can be striking and visually arresting, I think it is overdone and has become cliché IMO. But I am sure there are situations where it could be useful in more serious work.

This effect can be easily approximated in post-processing, using graduated filters and blur functions. So if this is the only reason you are interested in a tilt shift lens, your money might be better invested in other ways.

Over the years, I have collected five tilt-shift (aka PC or perspective control) lenses:
Nikon PC NIKKOR 19mm f/4E ED Tilt-Shift Lens
Nikon Wide Angle PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED
Nikon 28mm f/3.5 PC lens
Canon 35mm f/2.8 TS (tilt-shift) lens, converted to Nikon F mount
Nikon PC (Perspective Control) Micro Nikkor 85mm f/2.8 D (tilt-shift) Lens

My favorite of these lenses is the 19mm NIKKOR. I find that the wider the better, for architectural work. The 85mm Micro Nikkor is also a wonderful, and wonderfully sharp lens, for close-up and macro applications.

I also have a collection of LensBaby lenses, some of which can do tilt-shift kinds of things. This would be an inexpensive way to get into tilt-shift for fun stuff.

~ Russ

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

I rent TS lenses frequently for special projects.
The shift feature can be digitally mimicked but the actual lens is far better for maximum quality (I use the digital frequently for minor adjustments).
The tilt feature cannot be duplicated that I know of. Not as easy to do as the shift but can result in some unique shots not otherwise available.
If you have the money the TS lenses are excellent and can be used as a regular lens also.
One final thought, you do NOT have to use a tripod to use the shift feature contrary to what many erroneously say.
I would prefer a wider one than 45mm because I use it on larger buildings and such where the shift really comes in handy for me.
Perhaps rent the lens first and see how you like it and compare it to the digital manipulation method.

BurghByrd Loc: Pittsburgh

You can use LR to correct keystoning problems but at the expense of loosing some of the image size. A PC lens takes care of that with the shift function but the lens is capable of much more than that. It is in every sence of the word a special purpose lens. It has it's drawbacks but is capable of effects that no other lens is capable of.

farwest Loc: Utah

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I currently have and use Canon's TS-E 24mm and 45mm. I've also used their 90mm in the past, just don't currently have one. Today they also offer a 17mm and a 135mm. And if the rumors are right, there is Canon TS-R 14mm coming sometime this year, for use on their R-series mirrorless cameras (along with an RF mount version of the 24mm... supposedly these will be the world's first autofocus Tilt-Shift lenses... I'll believe that when I see it).

I don't disagree with any of the above points... There's lots of good info in those previous responses.

I didn't see mention of one reason I use Tilt-Shift lenses.... to "dodge" reflections. I do some table-top studio work with small products and often use the TS-E 45mm. Sometimes when they are reflective objects, if I were using a standard lens I would see myself reflected in the object. A Tilt-Shift lens allows you to "side step" that.

These lenses also can be used to make some multi-shot panoramas. Shift the lens to one side for the first shot, then shift it to the other side for a second shot. This leaves enough overlap that compositing the two images into one is quite easy.

Years ago I used large format cameras that have more types of movements and much greater range of movement than any TS-E or PC lens could ever hope to provide. That brings me to my final point:These lenses for DSLRs are pretty limited in their movements. Yes, they are "better" than overdoing perspective correction with Photoshop. But the lens alone also can often not be "enough". It may be necessary to both use the lens to its fullest extent and then do a bit more correction in post-processing software. That's still a lot better than trying to do it all with the software.

Tilt-Shift and Perspective Control lenses are quite specialized and very expensive. Unless they really need one for some reason, such as doing a lot of architectural or product photography for paying customers, I wouldn't recommend them to everyone. Architect1776 might have the right idea for a lot of people: rent the lens when needed for a particular job or if you just want to try it out and learn to use one. There's also a very active used marketplace for these lenses. A lot of pros buy them, use them for a job or two, then sell it off because it's just not a lens that sees a lot of use and it ties up a lot of money.

oregonfrank Loc: Astoria, Oregon

User ID, if you had sent this reply to me I would feel condescended to. Obviously, not all members of UHH have your level of knowledge about photography, but to point that out as part of your reply is a put down. Frank

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind