Hong Kong 2013 - In Tilt/Shift

[Raymond Lin]

This year I thought I do something different, shoot the entire trip with my 45/TS. I come here a lot, used 16-35, 50mm & 35L twice so why not try something else. I always say there is no better way to get to know a lens than to use it all the time so this is it. So there will be tilt shift effects galore here before people say the effect is over used . It is a learning exercise to see what works and what doesn't and it will be interesting to see for myself as well since I have not shot with it exclusively for any length of time yet. The other challenge is to get good at manual focus in a moving environment.

I will update at the end of each day. Today just landed and walked around near the shopping mall near the hotel so only did a few shots.

Lets begin.

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[Raymond Lin]

Rojin - I don't plan to do any videos, or at least I didn't. I am trying to get the grasp of stills first before moving on.


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[Raymond Lin]

Or just use this http://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-editing.php

That only simulate one aspect of Tilt/Shift.

You can't fake No.7 for example.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Love 1 and 2, they work for me as you used the effect well to isolate the subjects and give the miniature world feel. The effect does not stand as much with shot 3 and the subject is not as obvious. I think its a great idea to just stick to the one lens to get to know it. I find it hard enough nailing the exposure and focus in manual for quick shots let alone judging the tilt and shift. Do you pre set for a shot Ray and the wait for a moment or are you adjusting as you go?

Bit of both, more the latter with MF.

Looks like these were taken in sha tin?

yup, some of these are.

 

[Raymond Lin]

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Just a shot of Mountain Dew

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[Raymond Lin]

lol, is that a dare? no landscapes or architecture.....seriously, i did not buy the T/S for that. I have no intention to do that here either. It has never crossed my mind, and the thought of it bores me a little to be honest. What you want my to use is the Shift feature for perspective correction, and in reality, they are very subtle, like 32 & 33. I don't have a tripod here to set up so I can take a photo shifting up and then down and turn to the side and repeat a few times either so practically speaking it is not going to happen i am afraid.

But is that really want you want to see? perspective correction?

I may have 1 panoramic (regular) but this laptop is too slow to stitch anything together so none will be done while i am here.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Maybe

The T&S stuff that has impressed me the most from other photographers is where the focal plane stretches from within reach to infinity.

Andrew

Challenge accepted !

It has only been 2 days though so I am still getting the hang of this lens.

Manual focus aside, the thinking behind taking a photograph when using a TS lens is on a different level or to be more accurate, a different dimension compare to a normal lens.

With a normal lens you just pick the subject, and compose. It is in a way a 2D exercise. The AF does the focus for you and you only worry about X & Y mostly.

With a TS, soon as you tilt, you can "visually" see the DoF pane (as long as the focal pane lands on something then you can see how thin or thick it is). Focusing is no longer trying to focus, it is more like moving that focal pane from left to right or top to bottom until it lands on what you want to focus on. Depends which way you tilt, the focal pane (along with distance to the side of that) is either near or further away from you. So if you tilt right and there is a person on the left side of the frame you may not be able to land the focal pane on it, it just doesn't go that far, depending on how far that person is away from the camera.

Now in a real world situation it means you might have to tilt the lens to the other side instead.

Then comes to exposure, because you are bending the light. Tilting the lens to the side can either cause more or less light in to the value of 2 to 2 and a half stop. So it can be a total of 5 stop from tilting from top to bottom. This is in Av mode even. The metering just goes out of wack totally. So that is something to think about. I am slowly learning which way to nudge that exposure compensation dial on the fly by the direction of tilt I am using. I still get it wrong more times than i'd like.

The miniature effect isn't really what i bought the lens for, it is however a side effect that i am playing with and when you are high up, that is the obvious thing to do I guess. The thing I am learning to do is get that focal pane to land on the subject i want when i want it at F/2.8. I am not sure who has or hasn't use a TS lens and imagine using just the viewfinder to see if something is in focus, it is not easy so that's what i've been trying to do mostly. Using the focal pane to show you what i want you to see, the miniature effect is a side effect of it really, albeit a fun one. Like I said from the start, this is a learning exercise to see what works and what doesn't. Shooting the entire trip this way will give me more idea than doing it now and again.

Now to your challenge of using the focal pane and infinity, if I get what you mean, that is like shooting in not 3D but almost 4D. Not only you have to compose (2D), then focus (3D), and do it in a way that the focal pane goes in a direction so in the infinity of it, it also has something in the distance as that is also a point of focus. So you need to line up the focal pane, something that you can't see, unless an object cuts it. The hardest part come with knowing the angle of direction it goes and actually seeing both in focus, not easy doing it in a viewfinder, much easier with the LCD (don't get a chance to do that on the street, been told off twice in 2 days for taking photos in shopping malls! )

I don't like them. I can see the use of a TS lens for fixing verticals etc., but I'm not a fan of the 'toy town' look.

I really do think you missed some good shots here Raymond if you had taken them with a normal lens. As someone has already said, the colours are great and quite clearly some of the subjects are out of the ordinary, but the TS effect just doesn't look good in most of them.

I have 4 years' worth of photos with other lenses so I am not missing out, at least I don't think so. I will try something different again next time so this is an experiment that i want to do for a while.

 

[Raymond Lin]

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[Raymond Lin]

I think I'll join you in the exploration. I have a TS-E 24L that I have hardly used.

To me, the architypical T&S shot is an interesting rock formation at your feet, dominating the foreground, with a magnificent mountain behind it. I may have stumbled across a nice location this evening, with the rocks on the shore near West Kilbride and the mountains of Arran in the distance. I'll see what I can do.

Getting the focus right is >very< difficult. I use live view at maximum pixel-peeping setting and wander round the image checking the focus. As you say, there are three dimension to play with - the tilt, the which varies the angle of the focal plane, the shift, which moves the focal plane away from the centre and the focus ring, which moves the plane further away or closer. Move one and you need to adjust the other two to compensate...

To start with, budget an hour for setting up a shot. And if you haven't got a tripod, and time in HK, it isn't the place to start

Once you have the hang of the technology, I am very interested to see how you use it an apply it.

Of course, it is something that won't be appreciated in small images on the 'net. But it will really come into it's own, when you can print out all that detail on your lovely large format printers...

An hour? lol I get like 5 seconds per shot before someone spot me.

Set up camera at waist height, guess all the settings, turn focus ring to judge distance. Visualise what I want, where focal pane is going to cut it, tilt or shift. Then when i am ready, lift to my head and shoot and move on. If no one tells me no then I can do it again. That's how I do it in doors, there is no other way without being told off. They don't let you shoot inside malls.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Here you go Gaffer, how's this

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[Raymond Lin]

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[Raymond Lin]

Man... 115 is powerful...

Amazing photos.

Thanks

Here is another one Gaffer

 

[Raymond Lin]

It does I guess, but not very applicable in street or portraits, which I guess is what i am doing most of the time. I have learn a lot after a week now and much better with it than before and the thought of using a regular lens seems almost restrictive.

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[Raymond Lin]

What i like is picking 2 subjects in the frame and focus on it, regardless of whether they are in the same focal pane or not.

ala Apple and Starbucks



or Photo 135.

I noticed a lot of fashion stores here are named after food for some reason, Moussy, Bread n Butter and Egg?

Although I have shot quite a few with no TS effect at all, just plain old 45mm. The ones that is shot with shift are subtle, to the point where I can't remember myself.

 

[Raymond Lin]

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Cracking shots of an amazing city. I really want to spend some more time over there.

Grazie!

Btw, I have never had so much attention from my gear. I've been stopped at least 3 times by other photographers asking about it.

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[Raymond Lin]

Thanks all , GSX and Mp4.

Throttle, it is an eye opener for me too, I have had the lens for over 9 months but never used it extensively, I have achieved what i set out to do at the start, which is to get to know this lens. How it works, what works, the manual focus and can I can almost get the settings i want without looking through the viewfinder now.

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[Raymond Lin]

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[Raymond Lin]

Thanks all. Much appreciated, only a small few left to finish.

I know some of you are not keen with some of the effects from this lens but I found this exercise extremely useful in many ways. More than just learning how to use this 45mm. The TS lens also taught me a few things in return, it taught me how to see a scene in more than 2 dimension. It taught me the 45mm focal length. It taught me how to shoot manual. It confirmed to me keeping the 5Dii was the correct decision.

With the 45 I can now get something different than all my other lenses, it offers something different and different is always good. The TS effect does not need to be used all the time but the choice is there if the scene works and I want to learn all the time and this is learning by doing.

115 is powerful, what happened there did the person fall over or was he sleeping, begging etc?

Those are beggars. Unlike the UK, the people that are on the streets begging in HK are often amputees or with massive disfigurement. The beggars would get into a position and just lay there for hours. Rumours are that these people own the local triads money and they cannot pay them back and that is their punishment and subsequently continue to work for them by begging not he street.

Some good shots.

Im guessing you are back from holiday there or are you still there and using a laptop to PP and post them?

I am back now but have a few to finish. I did most of them whilst on location.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Yup, my old C2D Macbook pro.

It edits 5D2 files fine, even on LR4 but I do have a SSD in it and maxed out the RAM.