If you’re using both though, you still need to adjust each one separately. You can use the tilt feature or the shift feature by themselves, or you can tilt and shift. In the same way, you can shift the lens left and right or up and down. You can tilt the lens up and down, and if you rotate it, you can tilt it left and right. And if you just want to try one out for fun, you can always rent a tilt-shift lens for a day.Ī tilt-shift lens has different camera movements that are impossible to do with a normal lens. Plus, they’re used by a very specific niche of photographers, so they can’t benefit from the price reduction that comes from mass-production.ĭon’t get discouraged though: some brands like Rokinon and Samyang offer more accessible prices. They cost this much because they require a lot of design and engineering to move the optics. Tilt-shift lenses can range from $2,000 to over $5,000.

Preventing the parallax effect when shooting panoramasīy now you’re probably sold on the benefits of this kind of lens, so if you’re wondering, just how much is a tilt-shift lens? Prepare to be disappointed!.

Changing the position of the camera without altering the resulting image.

Making some creative selective focus choices.Keeping the entire scene in focus even with a wide aperture.You can use a tilt-shift lens for many things, such as: Tilt-Shift lenses are popular in wedding photography for creative effect.

You should also keep in mind that they don’t have auto-focus features, which can be a downside. It’s worth mentioning that tilt-shift lenses can be found in wide-angle, standard, and telephoto focal lengths. The effect that has become most popular for shift-tilt lenses in the creative field is the illusion of miniaturizing your subjects as if they were part of a diorama.įilmmakers have also taken advantage of this power of changing perspective, and you can make use of this too since most modern cameras also capture video. Profiting from the opposite effect, wedding photographers have found tilt-shift lenses useful for creating a dreamy atmosphere while having a very selective depth of field. You can also apply this to product photography.

This is extremely useful for landscape photographers who need to keep the entire scene sharp. Using the same principle, you can also photograph a mirror as if the camera were directly in front of it but avoiding its reflection because the camera will actually be a little bit to the side.Īnother thing that you can do when you tilt the focus plane is to use an infinite depth of field. In other words, it prevents the vertical lines from pinching in. If it sounds quite complicated, allow me to explain it with some examples.Ī tilt-shift lens allows you to photograph a tall building without perspective distortion. It’s a specific type of perspective control lens. This way you can move the focus plane independently from the sensor plane either by shifting it or tilting it. A tilt-shift lens allows you to change the orientation or the position of the lens.

Choosing a tiltshift lens