Hi everyone, it's Andy. Today we're going to talk about tilt shift lenses. So this is a Canon 24 millimeter tilt shift lens. This is the second edition brand new goes for about $1,800 US dollars. It's not cheap by any means. This is a very technical lens. It is manual focus only. And it's just gorgeous. This is one of the nicest lenses that I own and it's one of my favorite ones. I've had a hard time taking it off. Now it is mounted on my Sony via this photo diox adapter. Anyways, so whenever you're talking about a tilt shift lens, it has two functions that you have available to you. You have a shift function and a tilt function. So it's very accurately titled. So the shift function, if you'll notice right now, my camera is basically parallel to the ground, meaning the sensor is perpendicular to the ground. So you'll have to remember the sensor of the camera runs up and down like this. And right now the focal plane, the front lens element is also perpendicular. They're parallel to each other. So what that means is that if I'm looking straight at a building, the building is going to be vertical right now. It's not going to have any converging lines or anything like that. Now it's a problem. This is a 24 millimeter lens. And if I'm on a tripod and I want to take a picture of a building, well, sometimes you have to tilt the camera up. Well, whenever you do that, you end up with converging lines. It looks like the building's falling over. But what you can do with a tilt shift lens is watch the lens right here compared to the sensor right here. So the lens can shift upward while the sensor stays in the same place. So the camera is still perpendicular, still parallel to the ground. But now I can see much higher. The perspective has been controlled. The perspective stays the same. But I'm bringing more of the image into the image circle. So this means that instead of me having to tilt the camera up like this, now I can keep the camera here and I can elevate this front side of the lens. And my vertical lines are going to stay vertical. Or what you can do is if we go back to the neutral position here, you have a little switch that you can toggle. And you can actually rotate the front lens element from side to side. And then you can shift left and you can shift right as well. So that's the perspective control element of a tilt shift lens. And it's very interesting what you can do with this. But now let's talk about the tilt. So right now you see that the front lens is parallel to the sensor. Now this is normally how most cameras work. Because this is always going to be parallel to this. Well, I have this little tilt knob here. And let me do this vertically so you can see the difference. So what I can do is actually tilt the front part of the lens. So now my sensor right here and the front of my lens, they're no longer parallel. This means that by adjusting my focus here, I can bring certain parts of the images or of the image into focus where they normally wouldn't be. Now you probably see this on Instagram. It's called the tilt shift effect. It's really just a tilt effect where you'll have like a line running through the frame that's in focus. That's exactly what this does, but it does it in the camera itself. And that's simply because I'm adjusting where this line is, which line is in focus as it runs down the sensor. So if I go back to my neutral position here, there's a lot of flexibility that this gives me. I use it most of the time for architectural photography. You can even go diagonal if you want. So you can tilt shift or you can tilt and you can shift at the same time. So if I wanted to shift up to the left and then tilt downward, you can do that to get all sorts of cool effects. But instead of me just kind of telling you how this thing works, let's go out and see how it works in the field. OK, so I'm out here at Trinity Groves in Dallas, Texas, overlooking, of course, downtown Dallas and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Iconic, sight in Dallas. I've actually shot out here a ton of times, including on this YouTube channel and on Andy's travel blog. But anyways, I wanted to use this as an example of this tilt shift camera. OK, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn this on. I'm going to put this in video mode so you can see exactly what I'm seeing through the viewfinder. OK, so I have the tilt shift lens on here and I'm pointing it towards the bridge. And what you'll notice is that at the bottom left side of the frame, you're seeing a lot of the stuff that's on this pedestrian bridge. So it's a pedestrian bridge. That's a Sony A6300. That's my reflection down there. So anyways, you see that I have a lot of stuff just generally in the shot right now. Now what I can do is I can angle the video camera or the A7R2, I can angle it upwards, and then I can even angle it to the side. But you see when I do that, you'll notice how the bridge no longer, the arch is no longer straight up and down and these light poles and these flag poles are no longer straight up and down either. They're kind of leaning inward. They're converging towards the center point of the frame. And even the buildings downtown are converging as well. So what a tilt shift. Now, to be fair, I could take this picture. I could go back into light room or Photoshop and adjust each line to make sure it is completely vertical. That takes a lot of time and sacrifice us some resolution in some cases. So what I'm going to do is make my lens completely parallel. And this is my original composition. Now what I can do with my shift function now, now watch this side of the lens right here. So if I shift this lens upward, you see that I'm looking, I'm getting more of the top side of the image in the frame, but it's not distorting any of my lines. They're still vertical. They're still ready to go. And so what I can do is shift and then I can turn the lens to get some of that stuff on the left side of the image out. Or what I can do is if I take the shift out, I can rotate this around and I can shift up and to the right to get a great, great shot like this. And you can customize this as well. So there we go. And I could also even go completely just to the right. I can go all the way to the left. And yeah, so I think for this shot, what I would do is do this composition right here. Make sure my camera is in focus and I would take a still shot. And so that is a quick example of how the shift can really help when you're shooting cityscapes or landscapes. Now another function that you might want to use this for, let's say I want to look down this line right here. I want this line of the bridge to be, I want to be looking straight down the bridge. Okay. Now if I want to do that, but I want to get more of the left side of the frame in the shot, well it's really hard to do because if I do that, all of a sudden this angle to the right isn't the same. So if I want to keep the center of the bridge in the middle of the shot, I can put that in the middle of the shot. And then all I have to do is just shift to the left. So you'll notice my perspective hasn't changed. The center of the bridge still heads in. I'm still looking down at the center of the bridge, but I'm getting a lot more on the left side of the image circle. So and then if I wanted to keep this line right here and then go to the right and include more of that, I can do that so I can get more of downtown in. But you'll see my perspective is still as if I'm looking straight down that side rail of the bridge. So those are two quick examples of how the shift is used in landscape photography and architectural photography and cityscape photography. Okay, so now we're going to do an example of a tilt. So I have my composition set up the way I like it. I might want to shift upward a little bit more. But then what I'll do here is you'll see I'm using my tilt knob. As I do this, you'll see the image. It kind of looks the same, but it's slightly not the same. And then as I adjust my focus, you'll see the plane of focus. So right now everything is out of focus and then watch the right side of the image. So as I turn this, you're going to see the right vertical line go right to left across the image. Okay, so let's just say, for example, I wanted to get this shot right here. So I wanted to get everything on the right side of the frame in focus, but not on the left side of the frame. Now if I'm not using this in the tilt mode, you know, it's either going to be in focus or it's going to be out of focus depending on my aperture settings and things like that. But with the tilt, I can selectively focus, let's say, only on the bridge and get a shot that way. And so that's just a quick example of how you could use the tilt function to help determine where the viewer's eye is going to go. And then I could even, like I said, I could apply this with a shift as well. But this is, it's an artistic effect. Definitely, it's not for everybody. This is one example of how you would use a tilt function. Now there is something called miniaturization that this lens is good for as well. I don't really do that much of it. There are better tutorials out there. Vincent LaFore is a very good proponent of the tilt shift method. But I'm going to go ahead and get the shot right now. And I think that's a pretty good explanation of why a tilt shift lens, even though you can do a lot of this in Photoshop, it's amazing to be able to do this in camera. So I hope you've enjoyed this quick tutorial. And yeah, we will talk to you soon. Everybody take care. Leave me any questions in the comments below.