MAKING OUR BIG WORLD LOOK MINIATURE WITH LENSBABY
“I believe that virtually anyone who has the ambition to create beautiful and unique art can use Lensbaby products to produce visually stunning pictures with relative ease. One of the many unique looks you can achieve with Lensbabys is making miniature style images. Here are six simple tips that I would like to share with you to create a tilt-shift miniature look.”
1. Choosing the right location and subject is key to get the sought after miniature effect. You will want to be higher or lower than your subject. This means you will also need to be on a different plane of field from your subject.
2. Before you shoot you will want to do a light check. If you are used to using your in camera light meter you will now need to use you histogram. Your light meter will not be able to give you an accurate reading when you begin tilt your composure because the tilt mechanism moves the light around on your sensor.
3. To create this look you will need to use Lensbabys Edge 35, 50 or 80. These are Lensbaby optics that are housed in the composer lens. What sets the Edge Series apart from other Lensbaby lenses is its slice of focus. This slice of focus, combined with tilting, is what we use to create a miniature effect.
4. As you frame your subject, think about where to position the slice of focus. To achieve a miniature effect, ideally you will want to place your subject in the center of your frame with equal amount of blur above and below. At the very least, you do not want your slice of focus to be along an edge as this will reduce the miniature effect. Remember that your slice of focus is what brings the viewer's eye straight to your subject, and what falls outside of the slice of focus is used to provide context, the distortion of which, in this case is what will make your frame look miniature.
5. When working with the Lensbaby Edge, remember that aperture controls the size of the slice that will be in focus. To achieve a miniature look, you will want the greatest amount of blur and a narrow slice of focus, so you are going to want to shoot wide open (the smallest number on your aperture settings).
6. Now you're ready to bring in the real magic by tilting. Your composer tilts in all directions which allows you to define the line of focus you want to appear miniature. All you need to do now is tilt until your edge is oriented in the direction you want, capturing the subject(s) you want in the line of focus.
Are you inspired to get out and discover how to see the world around you through a slice of focus? Yes? Great!
Let me leave you with a few sets of images to demonstrate a few more ways to think about how you can use a slice of focus creatively.
When I say discover (and re-discover) the world around you, I'm not kidding. Using the same hill and sky behind my home, I've told four different stories by tilting my composer to create a differently oriented slice of focus to draw the viewer's eye in to what I want you to see.
We were in the military for 20 years and we moved a lot. I took these images to tell the story of our summer in Tennessee. Are you beginning to see how I'm consciously using my slice of focus to pull you in? The images are different, and the slice varies, but I am consistently using the slice to draw attention to the part of the picture I want the viewer to see first.
I'm going to leave you with a few more images to study. Nothing fancy, just my everyday life through my slice of focus.
Now it is your turn. Go out and see your world in a new way.
Want to learn more about the creative doors opened by Lensbaby lenses? Registration is now open for our Lensbaby workshop, Learn To Bend Your Vision.
