Tilt Shift Lens Depth of Field Calculator

[jfzander]

Hi,
thanks again for the great TS tutorial.

Does anybody know the formula for the published "Tilt Shift Lens Depth of field" and "Using Shift to Rotate the Focus Plane" calculator?

TIA

Jan

[andrewbatson]

I'd like to know the same thing. I'm doing a presentation on tilt shift in a math class and one of the requirements is to give the class an activity. Figured if I had this formula that could be a good option. Not sure how to work it out myself. Something in simplest form would be nice.
Thanks to anyone who might reply with this or any other ideas.

[William W]

This will probably give you all the maths you want - and more.


WW

[drjuice]

I'd like to know the same thing. I'm doing a presentation on tilt shift in a math class and one of the requirements is to give the class an activity. ... Thanks to anyone who might reply with this or any other ideas.

You might want to try something quite simple so the people won't go nuts looking for their subject. I'd think something like a kid's wooden block, or small doll's head, or a small wooden horse (painted or not) might do it. For some other simple things, you might look at the objects used in Themed Challenge #29 which was voted on recently. The winner of the challenge is Kris (aka Andrea) who used wine corks which could also work for you.

Hope this helps.

virginia

[Inkanyezi]

I often use tilt for stretching the image plane in another direction, and in some of the images, the shallow DOF close to the camera is very evident, while you actually don't see any gain in distant focus, depending on a couple of factors. One should remember that most lenses do their best only in the centre, and tilting often puts the best performance a bit off centre, at least when you cannot shift and decide where to land it. In theory, the Scheimpflug effect should provide better focus over a larger area, but in practise, we might prefer the soft bokeh that makes distant objects less sharp. For small sensor sizes, little actually is gained. On large format cameras, 4"x5" and such, it's another story.

As a math problem, it might be intriguing.

[William W]

How did you go with the mathematics, Jan?

WW

[Glenn NK]

When I first acquired my TS lens, I printed out tables but soon found that they were a nuisance in the field. Then I discovered a method of shifting that doesn't use tables or any math at all. It's a method used by many on the Naturescapes forum where I learned it.

1) Frame the image,

2) Focus on most distant object using the focus ring,

3) Zoom in with LV, and achieve sharp focus using Tilt - do NOT touch the focus ring,

4) Zoom out with LV, and adjust distance focus with focus ring if required,

5) Zoom in with LV, and adjust close focus with Tilt if required,

Repeat procedure as required - I usually find that no further iterations are required.

I have often used my TSE24 lens wide open (f/3.5); if there are areas that aren't quite sharp enough, I stop down to f/5.6 or f/8.

Some people suggest/recommend levelling the camera - I haven't done this.

Sometimes I will use a bit of Shift, but shifting uses more of the edge of the lens where sharpness is less.

Glenn