Faux Tilt Shift

Recently I've been playing around with a technique that makes photos look like little miniature scenes. The original and real technique is called tilt shift photography, but those lenses are really expensive and you can make your own regular photos resemble the real style with a few simple tricks. It works best if you have a picture that has been taken from a high vantage point, as it will make the final product look like you were actually looking down into a mini landscape. Let's just go straight to the pictures before I begin rambling on about this stuff.

I took this picture Tuesday afternoon right before the snow started to fall. And yes I climbed onto my roof to get this shot.

This one was taken this past summer while down at Emerald Isle, our top balcony looking across the street. The shutter was also open for about 45 seconds on this one. It made for an interesting transition to 'tilt shift'.

And this one was taken last March when some friends came to visit DC for the day. Again, you can see how a higher vantage point makes for better results.