Life in miniature

[greatbear]

It's about time someone does this. I've always been a fan of tilt-shift photography, the method of using a special lens or a bellows on a still camera to either impart a very narrow depth of focus to a scene or used to "correct" a scene taken from an oblique angle in order to ensure parallel lines in a scene remain so (useful for taking photos of tall buildings from street level, for instance). Such a technique was easily accomplished with the big medium and large format cameras in the earliest days of photography by shifting or tilting the front part of those cameras that held the lens. In later years, special lenses were developed (heh) for 35mm cameras. It seems in recent years the art of tilt-shift photography has exploded with the availability of the special lenses and digital SLRs, and people are trying their hand at the craft. I'm one of them, and I hope to pick up a T-S lens once my finances are back in order (read: I'm back to work). But I digress a bit.

Something I can never recall seeing was any sort of motion photography using the T-S technique. It might have been done in years past for special effects in movies, but it was not widely known outside of that industry. In the last couple years, some digital SLR cameras have picked up the ability to shoot high-definition video. A lot of people poo-pooed the the feature, saying it was not needed, or that it was more suited to entry-level "consumer" point-and-shoot cameras. Well, someone has finally wedded the tilt-shift lens to video and has come up with this little ditty below. It's a very simple process, but seems to only have been easily doable with the convergence of the new lenses and HD capable SLRs. Speed things up a bit, and you have the most amazing flea circus you'll ever see. In the case of this particular movie, it was not even shot in video mode, instead the camera was set to take successive stills as fast as was possible, then combining the stills to make a HD movie. Quite a bit more involved, but with simply remarkable results.

I'm so doing this one day.

(Hat tip to wrascalbc!)

Comments

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I was wondering how the special cam effects were done in this video - thank you for explaining this.

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

This is completely fascinating! Thanks for sharing.

[wander.livejournal.com]

My D300s will shoot HD video with stereo sound and will also shoot about 7 frames per second in continuous shooting mode but I've never thought about doing something like this. This is soooo cool! Thanks for posting this.

W

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

I LOVED IT! Thank you for sharing.

[wrascalism.livejournal.com]

When you do the T-S, what will be your subject(s)?

Wow!

[huxbear.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post -- along with your *supreme* depth of understanding...of the field... (see what I did there? "depth of field" get it? See? Okay...I'll move on ;o) )

I found the video mesmerizing in addition to being compelled to share it with as many people as I knew via IM'ing my little fingers off... ;o) Thanks again, stud! :o)

[msclwolf.livejournal.com]

whooo hooo, that was fab, made all the better by you explaining it as doofus folk like me would be clueless. Is it wrong to have been thinking 'Gerry Anderson Was Here' while viewing?!?

Especially like the helicopters n boats :)

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

I know. I kept expecting to jump to Thunderbird 5 or Lady Penelope.

[kspsibear.livejournal.com]

Completely fascinating. I will have to watch that a couple of more times to really understand what I'm feeling. I've never seen a movie like that. Thanks for posting, Phil.

Hope you're feeling well today.

[beastbriskett.livejournal.com]

I've been enjoying these films since discovering them on Boing Boing a while back. I love how the technique makes everything look like models or toys.