How to use a Tilt-Shift lens

Tilt-shift lenses are gaining popularity again. Below is a unprocessed example of a tilt-shift I did last year when borrowing a friends lens. It isn't a great picture, but you get the idea. The lighting difference isn't the lens but rather the timing between the two shots (a cloud moved):

While there might be some better articles out there (feel free to tell me in the form of a URL in the comments), but I thought this was a decent (and visual) article about how to use a tilt-shift lens.

For those who don't have one of these lenses but want to create the "toy model" effect using a tilt shift, then you can check out http://tiltshiftmaker.com/ for a fun on-line way to get this effect.

There's also a decent blog article by Martin Pot on the subject, and some kick ass videos on viemo that are mentioned in this gizmodo article. Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D90 users should be able to have some fun creating videos like that with their tilt-shift lenses.

Picture above is courtesy of DPReview.com

There's also some new tilt shifts coming from Canon, but until they hit the market here are the offerings that exist today:

Canon

• Wide Angle Tilt Shift TS-E 24mm f/3.5L Manual Focus Lens for EOS (used for my photo)
• Normal Tilt Shift TS-E 45mm f/2.8 Manual Focus Lens for EOS
• Telephoto Tilt Shift TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Manual Focus Lens for EOS

Nikon

• Wide Angle PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED Manual Focus Lens
• PC-E Micro Nikkor 45mm f/2.8D ED Manual Focus Lens
• PC-E Micro Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D Manual Focus Lens

I hope to pick up one of these lenses at some point in the future as my short time with one proved to be a ton of fun. They are great for architecture work as well!