Tilt and Shift

Archived Article - March 2003

Page 4

Users of large-format cameras and those old enough to have used folding 'pocket' cameras will be familiar with the term 'camera movements'. No camera worth its salt (and before about 1930) would have been without a 'rising front', others may also have had swing on the front as well. Such niceties were possible, in part, because of the lack of sophistication of the cameras; the lens was sittingt on a flat bed, with a flexible bellows. With no need for electronic integration of metering, aperture and focus it was far easier to move the lens around and vertical 'verticals' were expected, as a matter of course (no possibility of truing things up in Photoshop in those days and correcting for converging verticals in the darkroom was always difficult).

ABOVE: The present line-up of PC lenses from both Nikon and Canon.

In the digital world of today the only way to approach the flexibility of the cameras that our grandfather's used is to employ a 'Perspective Control' lens (PC Lens) otherwise know as a tilt and shift lens. The main makers have recently introduced additional or brand new PC lenses so that we are blessed with four from Canon and three from Nikon. They cater for the vast majority of imaging situations in architectural photography and, combined with a DSLR, they can provide superlative image quality that is indistinguishable from work off a 5x4 camera. The most flattering thing that happened recently was a well-respected large-format cityscape photographer assuming that images in my exhibition was made using 5x4, when all the images came from a Nikon D3!

On the opposite and following pages, Paul Gallagher is concentrating on the use of tilt so your editor asked me to concentrate on shift, even though I routinely use both; indeed the 24mm shift lens has become the most-used lens in my kit bag for interior work. Other than the advice Paul is giving, do not forget that shift and tilt are relative to the camera axis, you can turn the camera on its side or even upside down to achieve a 'falling front', 'cross front' or a 'swing front' effect. It will never be quite as versatile as a fully articulated largeformat camera but will still do 90% of the jobs. The values of movement seem quite small to the uninitiated, but remember a small amount of tilt or shift goes a long way!

ABOVE: The exposure ring-around for the Princes Raod Synagogue at two shift positions.

The images shown here are part of an upcoming book project and were taken using the rising front of a Nikkor 24mm PC lens to effectively double the pixel count of the image, as well as to increase the vertical field of view to take in the ceilings. The agility of modern digital imaging is such that five bracketed exposures were made in the famous Princes Road Synagogue to take in the huge tonal range between the interior and the wonderful rose windows. This gave 10 exposures in all, five without shift and five with upward shift. The best bits of each exposure were then composited together for the final image. A number of options were tried as part of the stitching including RealViz Stitcher, RealViz HDR, Photoshop HDR, Photoshop Photomerge and using Photoshop to Auto Align then Auto Blend layers for manual masking. In the end the final image was made using Stitcher with a limited amount of masking, dodging and burning, retrieving highlights and shadows in Adobe RAW.

ABOVE: The adjusted image after manipulation in Photoshop.

ABOVE: Shift has been used to extend the field of view upwards to the roof, while keeping Ken Dodd and Bessie Braddock in frame.