Tilt-Shift Another Perspective
Not so specialized as one would think.
Forgive me, I just couldn’t help myself with the title. Get it? Perspective, chuckle. Okay, enough of that. By far wide lenses make up the vast majority of discussion of how useful tilt-shift lenses are. In many ways the normal and especially tele tilt-shift lenses are kind of a mystery to many photographers. There are a couple of reasons for this. First is many people look at these lenses as a way to photograph landscapes and achieve sharpness from foreground to background. The discussion assumes the notion of achieving sharp focus of the whole scene… you know foreground to background, corner-to-corner.
I’ve made reference to this when discussing regular lenses many times when considering corner sharpness and why that’s not my top priority for most of what I make pictures of. I’ve also mentioned that most photographers that really think corner sharpness is an obstacle in their work wold be better off getting a tilt-shift lens instead of “the best” lens available for landscape and scenic work. Corner sharpness matters a lot when shooting flat things. Corner sharpness on flat things doesn’t even come close to perfect focus on less good lenses.
The other reason wide tilt-shift lenses are more pervasive is architectural work where strait verticals and horizontals are king. Sure, that shift control can be used in landscape and scenic work to fine-tune framing after shifting but that’s a convenience feature that’s totally unnecessary. Heck, I’ve not scene a “scenic” that’s not cropped a bit anyway. Let’s call the shift a bonus for most scenic work.
Headline: Normal And Tele Tilt-shift Lenses Are More Useful!!!
For what you may ask? Portraits, still-life, product, macro, actually for everything else. Maybe even a lot of landscape photography, just not the entire scene in sharp focus kind. If you look at the used market you’ll probably find far, far more wide tilt-shift lenses on the market. No, not that medium format 30mm Fujinon but a bunch for full-frame. That’s really a shame given I think just about everyone, no matter what they make pictures of but especially portrait, still-life, and macro enthusiasts should have. A normal or maybe a short tele tilt-shift quite possibly is the best lens investment you can make to open up a new world of composition and creativity in your work.