How to get the "Everything Looks Miniature" effect???

G

Gene Sung

Veteran
I was looking at this video on vimeo shot at Jackson Hole and they did the "Everything is Miniature" effect.

http://www.vimeo.com/21864555

How do they get that look? It looks like it was shot with a tilt-shift lens, but that probably would give you the super miniature look.

What's the secret? Is there a "how to" on-line anywhere to get this look?
 
You could use a tilt shift lens, or you could replicate the effect by following a few tips:
1. Shoot from a high angle
2. Don't shoot tall subjects (how tall will relate to how high an angle you are shooting from. As an example, you might notice that the effect is less convincing on the shot of the cable car at the platform at about 1:15)
3. The effect works better as a time lapse or when sped up (think about how insects move - fast, jittery)
4. In post, add a mask , blur and feather to put your disired sections in 'focus'.
 
You can fake the tilt shift DOF and the frame rates in After Effects, but the "Everything is really Miniature" look, seems like it was done in-camera, as if they shot it with a certain lens at a certain focal length. You can change a lot in After Effects, but you can't take an image and shrink everything down.

I'm trying to figure out how to do the in-camera part. which lens to use (Was it a long lens? Wide angel??)? Which focal length??? Etc...
 
Focal length doesn´t mater soooo much, but 50 and shorter helps the trick.
You can give it a stop motion look by messing with the frame rates.
Also turn up the saturation.

The lens you want (if you don´t want to do it in post) is called a tilt shift lens.
But I prefer the control you have, if you do it in post.

Frank
 
Real tilt shift lens gives a more convincing look out of the camera but yeah this is easily faked in AFX or any number of plugins.

Noah
 
Yeah NoahK is right, its a Tilt Shift Lens
http://lensbaby.com/lenses.php
Lens baby lenses are cool if this is something you are just playing with. The lenses are originally for architecture photography to shoot buildings without letting the lens distort the top of the building and such
Canon makes some very nice ones but the price goes up dramatically over the Lens baby
http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/ef_lens_lineup/ts_e_24mm_f_3_5l_ii

Keep in mind however that the lens baby is not REALLY a professional lens. That being said i have sold portraits shot on a plastic lens. its all how you know how to use it
I have the Control freak and i have shot on the Muse. For video work you are going to need the control freak or composer where you can set the angle and leave it without holding it. The muse will have to be held in place by hand and wont make good video for what your doing. I have however made some cool free-lens style stuff with it before.
 
Again, in this video it was all done in post. The person states in the description what lenses he used: "Lenses: 17-40 f/4L, 50 f/1.4, 70-200 f/4L". Those are not Tilt Shift lenses.
 
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