What is the miniature effect
Do you know those images, usually urban landscapes but not only, in which the subjects of the photo are seen as “small little” as if they were toys inside a plastic reconstruction? Who knows how many times it has already happened to you, and you have probably wondered if they are real shots or computer reconstructions. Well the answer is yes, they are real images that frame real facts and things. Simply (so to speak) the image was manipulated at the time of shooting in order to obtain the famous “miniature effect”. It is an effect that is obtained by using the tilt within the tilt shift function I mentioned here. Physically, everything arises from tilting the lens so that its angle changes with respect to the parallel. In this way we arrive at an image almost devoid of any depth (which normally in photography would be a mistake, but here it is not). The lens is pointed straight ahead (or as close to the level as possible) and then “moved” with the knobs up or down to achieve the desired angle
Practical tips for getting a good miniature effect
Here are 5 tips that, in my experience, have proved very useful for obtaining an optimal miniature effect:
1) Always take photos from a good height so that the subjects framed by your photo (cars, buildings, trees) are actually small in the overall picture of the photo itself, even regardless of the effect you are going to recreate
2) Extend the focal length set on your camera as much as possible so that the various subjects in the image are eventually compressed
3) Better to use moving subjects than still ones, leaving the still ones in the outline more blurred. It is no coincidence that 90% of the miniature effect photos you see on the internet frame cars
4) The shutter speed must not reach the levels of high-speed photography I mentioned here, but it must still be sustained, at least 1/60.
5) If you frame colored subjects (cars or people in motion) it is good that you make the most of the saturation, and this can be done in pre or post processing, in order to accentuate them as much as possible and thus obtain the “toy-like” chromatic effect ”Of the miniature
