Sparkography

Time to rave about another app which improves the iPhone’s jurassic camera function beyond belief!

Introducing TiltShift Generator. TiltWho What you say? Ok, think of those really cool, fun shots of cities, stadiums and cars where they’ve been manipulated to look like miniatures, like in these examples:

This effect is called “shifting” and works by applying selective focus to a particular part of the image and throwing the rest of it into a blur causing an extremely shallow depth of field. In other words your eyes and brain overload and you think JetStar have dropped you off in Lilliput instead of Brisbane.

Shifting has actually been around for a long time and is  traditionally produced straight from the camera by using a special tilt-shift lens such as the beautiful TS-E 17mm below from Canon. These very technical lenses can be adjusted to “tilt” or, yes, “shift” to varying degrees, thus manipulating the focal planes and causing outrageous results. The tilt function of the lens is mainly used by architectural photographers to relieve the common problem of sloping building syndrome. It does this by correcting the converging verticals of the building, making it look straight. Just as your eyes would see it. Anyway, back to that lens!

The Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L

If you’ve read my post on Objects Of Desire #1 then you’ll know how much I’d love to have one of these red-ringed charms. But as I don’t have $3,000 spare, imagine how overjoyed I was to find an iPhone app which produced the shift effect for just $1.19! That’s only 0.04% of the cost of the Canon lens!

That app is TiltShiftGenerator and I implore you to buy it as it is guaranteed to make taking photos with your iPhone more fun than you can imagine!

It’s really simple to use and self-contained from start to finish. The camera can be launched from within the app and when you take a photo the selective focus is automatically applied to it. The focal point can be dragged around on the screen and resized with your fingers, and then you also have the option to apply saturation, brightness, contrast and vignetting. Once you’re happy, save the finished shot to your iPhone album or export it to email or Twitter. Simple! Personally, I like to save to my iPhone then frame it in BestCamera.

If you’re doing a photo Project 365 as I am then this app is essential! When you’ve challenged yourself to take a photo every day for a year there will inevitably be days when there isn’t much around to excite you. But this handy app opens up a whole world of possibilities. Try it – you won’t be disappointed! Just to inspire you, here are some of my results from TiltShift Generator from my daily walk to work which are featured in my Project 365:

14th Jan: King Street Wharf Jnr

18th Jan: ferry cross the bathtub

And as a special treat, check out these awesome tilt-shift time-lapse videos!

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.