I got my next lens, recently. The quite affordable Tilt lens from TTArtisan.
I’ve been interested in trying out Tilt photography for quite a while now. Both for miniature effect, but even more for selective focus and adding even more diffusion in portraits. So since this lens is quite affordable, I got my hands on one to try it out. If it does not suit my style, I can sell it with an acceptable loss and if I come to the conclusion that I need something better, I can always upgrade.
The lens is quite practical to handle, it is not overly sharp and I noticed some light bleed, when tilted to the max of 8 degrees. First I try it out in the classic way and shot a number of picture with the well known miniature effect.
I like the way both images play out. I tried a combination of several tilts and rotations to see how the lens behaves. It is quite fun to use and geek out over how small changes in the angles affect the result. That is of course much easier to do on a tri-pod. Also the focus peaking in the viewfinder alone was not sufficient to get the focus exactly where I want it to be. I combine it with the zoom function in the viewfinder. This has been excellently described by JimK.
When I was on my way to a park to try out the tilt with flowers, and play with the effect on the depth of field, I came across a group of students, so I took a number of shots that would probably qualify as street photography. Street photography with a fully manual tilt lens?
I cheese to crop this image to a square. The 135 degree rotation gives a vertical line from corner to corner. Leaving the image in the original aspect ration ended with the vertical line of sharpness somewhere in the middle. This way the line of focus follows the line of objects in the composition. On my next run, I will make some trials with 120 or 105 degrees to see, if it could enhance the line of the golden triangle.
I liked the way the lens can be used with flowers, where you can combine the bokeh of the f/2 with additional effects. This image turned out quite eerie or dreamlike. No digital enhancements except for saturation was used.
Interesting and a bit unsettling effect (for my eye) on this one. The line of focus intersects with the line of composition. In hindsight, I should have composed this a bit differently with a different angle, but I like the effect and it give me some ideas for future shots
Restarting Photography 