Seattle Tilt Shift

You have to click to see it larger!

Yesterday I shared a tilt shift image on my iphoneography blog and it seems like a lot of you are into that style based on the views I got yesterday. I thought I would share my first t/s image from Seattle back in 2009.

To create a good tilt shift image, you have to start with the right image. First, you should shoot the subject from an angle that makes you feel like you’re looking down at a model train set. Don’t shoot from directly above, it won’t come out right. In my image above, I was up on the observation deck of the space needle. You can’t get a much better angle for a cityscape.

If you’d like to try creating a tilt shift image in photoshop, this is the tutorial that I learned from. I modified the workflow a bit so that I could make fine adjustments to a layer mask:

After making my selection, I saved my selection (from the menu above, select>save selection) and deselected. Then, I applied the lens blur to a duplicate layer. Next, I loaded my selection and applied it to a layer mask. This allows me to mask in or out any areas that need fine tuning. I also opted to use an adjustment layer of hue/saturation because its non destructive and allows me to fine tune it later if I want. I finished this image off with Pro Contrast in ColorEfexPro4 because its far superior to the contrast tool in photoshop.

For more tilt shift inspiration, check these images out.

Tags: architecture, art, arts, buildings, cityscape, hue saturation, layer mask, northwest, observation deck, pacific northwest, photography, photos, photoshop, seattle, sky, space needle, tilt shift, tutorial, washington

• April 9, 2012
• Photography
• 4 Comments