Quick, when I say ’tilt-shift’, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
If you thought ‘miniature effect’, or ‘selective focusing plane’, or ‘giant blurred city with very tiny people’, or ‘that rowing boat effect from the Facebook movie’, you’re not wrong.
But that’s generally the ’tilt’ part of the lens.
It is a cool effect, but it seems like a fad.
I mean, it pretty much comes installed on your camera phones nowadays.
So paying 2.5 grand for a lens just to have some little toy soldiers doesn’t seem to make business sense, really.
And not many talk about the ‘shift’ side of the lens either.
It has always bothered me.
So when an architect friend asked if I could help take some shots of his project, I rented a TS-E 24mm and took it for a ride around Carlton.
Man, now we’re talking.
You get to manipulate the character of a building without moving your camera.
Whether you want it to look more rigid or playful; intimidating or flattered.
It’s simply a portrait lens, for buildings.
And I never thought I could approach buildings like human beings.
That’s the power of ‘shift’.
And it’s so underrated.
