Through the magic (or rather, technique) of tilt-shift photography, Canada’s largest cities can be transformed into tiny toy-like towns complete with miniature buildings, ant-sized pedestrians and cars that resemble Hot Wheels.
The unique type of trick photography involves both tilting and shifting a camera’s lens (hence its name) to create the illusion of a miniature.
Check out a collection of our favourite tilt-shift images from across Canada:
City Hall (Toronto, ON)
Nathan Phillips Square (Toronto, ON)
By physically tilting the lens up or down at various angles, different elements of an image are brought into focus and the depth of field can be exaggerated to produce a miniature effect.
Old City Hall, (Toronto, ON)
The technique of shifting the lens, either horizontally or vertically, is used when looking to minimize distortion accentuated from tilting.
Calgary, AB
Nose Creek, (Calgary, AB)
Traditionally captured with speciality lenses, tilt-shift photos can also be “faked” through Photoshop (above) and a handful of smartphone applications.
Habitat 67 (Montreal, QC)
This photo is unique in that incorporates multiple tilt-shift frames in a single shot.
Olympic Park (Montreal, QC)
A tilt-shift lens for your run-of-the-mill SLR camera costs around $2,000.
Sun Tower Building (Vancouver, BC)
Photo: Thomas Hellberg/Flickr
Vancouver, BC
Photo: Ckinbc/Imgur
Despite having been around since the early times of photography, the tilt shift technique has really only recently captured the public’s imagination, thanks in large part to the work of Olivio Barbieri. The prolific Italian photographer and filmmaker has used tilt-shift to snap awe-inspiring shots of the world’s urban environments. Check out some works in his impressive portfolio here and here!
