How To: Create Your Own Faux-Miniature Landscape Craft Magazine

How To: Create Your Own Faux-Miniature Landscape
Craft Magazine

click thumbnails for larger pics

The technique of tilt-shift miniature faking is a process where the photograph of a life-size location is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. Photographer Olivo Barbieri is one of the best known proponents of tilt-shift photography and has photographed Rome; Amman, Jordan; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; and Shanghai, China for his "Site Specific" project. Now you can turn your ordinary landscape photos into miniature scenes with the Tilt-shift Maker.

The process is pretty simple. Upload your photo to Tilt-Shift Maker, choose your area of focus, and you have your miniature photo. You can also point to a jpeg on the web and have that miniaturized. Behind the scenes the edges around your chosen focus point are blurred, giving the impression of a miniature scene.

• 1 Cassis by vanou
• 2 Orange Line Train by biggie_robs
• 3 Waterfront by Surducan Cosmin
• 4 Toy Boat by showbizsuperstar

Via: Craft Zine.

Comments (12)

I used a more complicated version in photoshop but didn't realllly like the final products...but hey, here's a miniature farm in new jersey:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdkaboom/2848187307/in/set-72157606056177254/

posted by kdkaboom on May 19th 2009 at 4:08pm
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Cool! I love tilt-shift but didn't realize it wasn't a special technique during shooting. Good to know.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on May 19th 2009 at 4:37pm
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Great job kdkaboom!

posted by baileyb on May 19th 2009 at 5:07pm
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Tilt shift IS a special photographic technique...typically with special lenses...

But now it's easier! ;)

posted by JenPDX on May 19th 2009 at 5:19pm
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I love the churning water in the last picture---I wish I'd thought of this idea.

posted by bcthree on May 19th 2009 at 5:22pm
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Here's the instructions for how to do it in photoshop. :)

http://recedinghairline.co.uk/tutorials/fakemodel/

posted by pikku.sukka on May 19th 2009 at 6:26pm
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These tilt-shift time-lapse videos make me smile:

http://vimeo.com/keithloutit/videos

posted by meghanmarie on May 19th 2009 at 7:49pm
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That's Boston in the second photo! :D

posted by mattster on May 19th 2009 at 10:38pm
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That's so awesome. I want to take a picture of my house like thet.

posted by atomicranch79 on May 20th 2009 at 12:03am
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Great timing! I had the unique experience of a helicopter ride over Cannes (yes, film festival Cannes!) this weekend and took a shot of trains that already looked like toys:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraise/3535947426/

With TiltShiftMaker it makes for a very convincing model train scene!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraise/3549455682/

I also like this photo of a train over a stone bridge in the French-Italian Alps after tilt-shift:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraise/3548677193/

posted by fraise on May 20th 2009 at 1:10pm
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Who doesn't love a tiny IHOP?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spins_lps/3186070756/

posted by spinsLPs on May 20th 2009 at 1:44pm
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THIS is how tilt-shift photography used to be done...by actually shifting the bellows of a large format camera. Thank god we can all just carry around our laptops and digis now instead of these beasts!!!

posted by Stephanie K on May 20th 2009 at 3:23pm
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