While we are still reminiscing last year, why not bring up a cool trick that you really shouldn’t have missed: Tilt Shift photography. And especially the one of the fake kind.
Originally, the lenses of the tilt-shift variety where constructed to avoid distortion and to highlight specific areas or objects by changing the depth of field.
Currently it is almost uniquely used to create the impression of a miniature world. Take a look at the image on the right or any of the ones you’ll find on Flickr. It appears to be a very detailed miniature model, but it isn’t. It is the real world, but photographed in this very unique way.
Because those lenses tend to be expensive and only are useful in a very limited number of cases, most people fake this effect. It is pretty easy to do this in PhotoShop, however it isn’t always easy to do it right. You do need a good picture to start from and a little experience in selecting what to blur and what not.
If you combine this with another neat little trick, called time lapse photography and put some nice electro music on top of it, you get one cool little video. Don’t forget to watch the following video in high definition on Vimeo:
Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.