Tilt-Shift Photography – Miniature Optical Illusion

I was out shooting in Malibu the other day with my long lost friend Justin Bettman and he mentioned a technique called Tilt-Shift Photography.  Essentially Tilt-Shift Photography is the process of taking a regular scale photo and tricking the eye to make the scene appear as if it were a miniature toy set by altering the depth of field.  I did some reasearch and came across Tilt-Shift Photography and decided to take on a project of my own, so here are the steps for how I did it.

Step 1 – Photo Selection: In order to get the most out of this effect it’s best to use a high-angle shot to give the appearance as if we are looking down upon this miniature set.  I chose a shot I found online of a football stadium fireworks show.

Step 2 - Quick Mask: This next step is fairly quick and easy.  What we want to do is create an area of focus and blur out the rest to create a shallow depth of field.  First, hit the “Q” key to create a quick mask and using the radial gradient tool, draw a new gradient centered on the point you want in focus.

Step 3 – Lense Blur: Next, hit Q to return to your original image view and go to Filter > Blur > Lense Blur.  Your image should look something like the one below.

*Note, you can also use a large soft brush and draw in the blurred layer yourself using the blur tool.

Step 4 – Adding Vibrance: At this point the image looks alright but we want to really emphasize the miniature model aspect by making it appear as if it has been coated with vibrant model paint.  To do this, simply go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.  I upped the saturation levels to achieve the desired effect without going over the top.

Step 5 – Lighting: The image was almost complete, however I wanted to increase the lighting a bit by adjusting the contrast.  To do this go to Image > Adjustments > Curves and play around with it a bit until you reach the desired effect.

The high-res can be seen in my “Photoshop” section by clicking the image below: