Tilt/shift lenses & how to use them [50 mins.] Live webinar recording from Keith Cooper

An edited [~50 mins.] recording of Keith Cooper's live webinar about how to use tilt/shift lenses and what they can do, given by Keith Cooper. [See chapter list below]
The original Feb. 2022 recording has been tidied up and has had dozens of additional photographs and annotations included to clarify the tilt/shift topics discussed.
Keith has many more articles, videos and reviews covering the use of tilt and shift lenses: www.northlight-images.co.uk/ph...
Keith's book about how to use such lenses is widely available from book stores.
PHOTOGRAPHY WITH TILT AND SHIFT LENSES
Publisher info: ISBN: 9781785007712
www.crowood.com/products/phot...
Keith is available for interviews, live events and photography training
www.northlight-images.co.uk/c...
WEBINAR CONTENTS
00:00 Start
00:06 Introduction and guide to the webinar recording
01:06 Start of webinar (poor video for ~15 secs)
01:30 Why there is no maths or Scheimpflug discussion here
02:50 A tilted miniature world view - but only a part of what these lenses can do
03:10 Not the tilt-shift effect
04:18 Tilt and shift are two different functions
04:56 Some tilt/shift lenses
08:02 Looking out for used tilt/shift lenses
08:39 An example, the Canon TS-E 50mm
10:17 Using shift to fix converging verticals
11:27 The lens shifted upwards
12:13 The effect of lens shift
13:15 Why not fix verticals in Photoshop
14:38 Removing the foreground in wide shots
15:37 Camera settings
16:34 Lens aberrations and image quality
18:28 A view inside Wells cathedral
19:57 Hand held can work just fine
20:50 Shifting the lens sideways
21:35 Diagonal shift
24:15 Diagonal shift, clouds and landscape
25:45 Combining stitched images
27:44 Lens distortions and lack of EXIF data
29:12 Looking at Tilt
29:14 An adapted medium format lens
30:09 The plane of focus
35:57 How focus and tilt moves the plane of focus
38:43 Placing the plane of focus where you need it
40:26 My BenQ monitor (BenQ organised the webinar)
41:48 Tilt/Shift webinar Q&A session
42:02 Can you use extension tubes?
42:38 What focal lengths are most versatile?
43:24 Focus aids for setting tilt?
44:52 Image stabilisation
45:55 Lack of EXIF and taking notes?
47:28 Does mirrorless make it easier to use tilt/shift lenses?
47:57 Using the lenses for landscape photography
48:40 Use for macro
49:19 Rotating the lens mount
49:42 Tilt/shift vs wide angle lens use for panoramic
51:16 Wrapping up, and more resources
Thanks to BenQ for setting up the session and Park Cameras (UK) for their assistance
www.benq.eu/en-uk/index.html
www.parkcameras.com
The monitor shown in the recording is the BenQ SW321C
Keith's review (and links to videos)
www.northlight-images.co.uk/b...
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"Buy me a coffee" ko-fi.com/keithcooper
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Any help with running this channel is gratefully received.
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[@AR-vf7vg]

Invaluable and most underrated : His casual, unrestrained, natural sharing without any bluff. And no bashing, no exagerations, no evangelismes of any kind. So rare, so good. Thank You!!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - that's appreciated!

[@johnbianchi6430]

Excellent discussion of tilt-shift. You explained many of the questions I had and introduced me to diagonal shift. I plan on ordering your book.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - much appreciated!

[@AJ-yw5zy]

Well done Keith, missed this one, knew it was a couple of weeks ago, great to catch up on.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - I tried to reduce (a bit) the 'live - making it up as I go along' aspect of webinars ;-)

[@dunnymonster]

Very informative Keith, thanks 👍

[@KeithCooper]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@killpop8255]

The degree to which the plane of focus changed angle when focus was taken to infinity on the table top cars was insane!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it looked effective. Tilt is often the hardest aspect of such lenses to get the idea across. I've just had a 50mm f/1.4 tilt lens turn up to test, so I'm hoping to include it in some new videos

[@KeithCooper]

Email me at Northlight? posts with links get deleted - that and the videos don't seem to work on my browser

[@killpop8255]

@@KeithCooper Very kind of you Keith. Think my post is on another video or deleted. Maybe the vids were too short - I didn't even get a play bar showing. I hope I can email one or all tonight.

[@jorgknosels9407]

Thanks a lot for the effort. i Am shooting with an old Canon FD TS 35mm 2.8 on a F1 since 1982 and got me a Laowa 15mm 4.5 lately for my Sony 7M3. I have learned a lot in your Videos. Well done.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad they have been of help

[@henri.witteveen]

How is that Laowa lens working out for you?

[@jorgknosels9407]

@@henri.witteveen I am quite happy with it. Being an Architect and not a professional Photographer, the Imagequality is plenty good for me. Sometimes I am missing the tilt function (pictures of architectual models) but i still got my old FD TS 35mm 2.8 for that. The 15mm focallength is a bit too wide for my taste and a apsc-crop in camera with my 24mp Sony A73 suites me better compositionwise. The resulting resolution of 10 mp works for me, but might be too low for client work. Handling, builtquality and price are excellent and being available in e-mount made my buying decision an easy one. Can't compare it to the 17mm ore the 24mm Canon EF though but there some videos out there. I like setting my aperture at the lens (still using a lot of old fd lenses from my film days) so the laowa fits me perfectly.

[@rorylisbon4723]

Thank you for the interesting video. I have never used these sort of lens, so it was a very nice beginners tutorial and applications overview.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - if you get a chance try one. Shift is generally more useful for lots of people - tilt can be fun but needs a lot more thought about why you are using it. BTW I have an index page for all my tilt/shift related reviews/articles/videos at www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/

[@rorylisbon4723]

@@KeithCooper I will take a look, thank you! Looking forward to your pragmatic viewpoint on the R7 and R10 once the are delivered. I really like your no hype and nonsense style, watched a few yesterday.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - I'll have to see what I can get Canon to lend me ;-)

[@JamieBulloch1]

did a catch up, thanks Keith..

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it was of interest

[@filetdelumiere5037]

Thank you for these very good video and explanations about tilt and shift lens. At last we can see the features allowed by this lenses on a DSLR. When I was young, I used to love landscape photography (and only that kind of photography) and I was considering buying a very large format view-camera with tilt and shift built in (sorry not sure about the right name in english, "chambre grand format" in french), and your explanations remind me a book that I bought about using these very large format cameras. Sadly, due to the very high price to get one of these things, I gave up definitively. In this book, there was very good schematics about how to understand the depth of field and how to use the tilt of the lens plate and the tilt of the film plate. I 'm not sure if the tilt and shift lenses for DSLR could do the exact same corrections of pespective as a very large format view-camera (since no way to tilt the sensor on a DSLR) but your examples give very good examples of what we can achieve with a DSLR.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - you're right that the movement with a large format offers far more options. I tend to write my articles aimed at a 'small camera' audience often unfamiliar with any camera/lens movements and larger formats, and much more concentrated on simple techniques. I assume that anyone really wanting to take it further will find resources like Merklinger's books of use: www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/index.html#FVC

[@jean-claudemuller3199]

The secret to accurate tilting is to learn and train visualizing mentally without table: - The position of the hinge line (J value) depending on tilt - The hinge rotation position of the sharp wedge depending on focus - The angular opening of the sharp wedge depending on aperture

[@KeithCooper]

Maybe for you... but in direct teaching experience, I've found that many people appreciate the tilt tables as an initial starting point. They are but a guide for some to get to grips with the principles. There are many ways of approaching this... Tilt is the hardest concept for many photographers to grasp, so what I mention here is but one technique - it becomes difficult from a practical point of view at closer distances, where with the type of lens I'm considering, estimation of the hinge line becomes problematic (hence the iterative technique I describe elsewhere) The webinar was by it's nature limited in what I could cover in the time available (hence my suggestion to BUY MY BOOK ;-) )

[@LM-wz9xv]

This is a very informative video. Thank you. I have a question regarding to the difference between a tilt at the front and shift at the back lens design vs a tilt at the back and shift at the front lens design. Which design is better? Was there any different in the result between the two designs. If you look at the early Hartblei 35mm f2.8 TS Super-rotator or the newer Hartblei 40mm f4 IF TS Super-rotator, they have shift function at the front and tilt function at the back. On the other hand, if you look at Canon and Nikon they have the tilt function at the front and shift function at the back. Another question I have is what is your opinion about putting shift only or non-shift lens to a tilt adapter? How is the image quality and results compare with tilt and shift lens? There are many different tilt adapters with very good price and some even can do both for a higher price. They can be tilted at all directions. Take Nikon lens as an example, there are F to Z, F to Canon RF, F to Fujifilm X, F to Sony E and F to OM/Panasonic micro four thirds adapters. You might lose automatic aperture, however you will gain flexibility and it will also allow you to put some high quality lenses with various focal lengths into many different cameras with minimal investment. If you put a full frame 35mm lens to an APS-C sensor camera (1.5x), your image circle should be large enough to cover any tilt and/or shift with those adaptors. Thanks for your advice.

[@KeithCooper]

The difference is purely one of internal mechanics and optical design - there is no 'better' Tilting lenses not designed for tilt will generally be worse than one designed for tilt -results depend on the lens design Auto exposure often fails, even with proper T/S lenses, especially with DSLRs [I usually avoid 'auto-anything' when using T/S lenses] See here for adapter info: www.northlight-images.co.uk/fotodiox-tilt-shift-lens-adapter/

[@irenedp4947]

Thank you very much for your excellent review. I use a Mamiya 645 shift lens for my Leica S2 and was wondering if you could recommend a full t/s for a Phase One XF camera. I am aware that there is a Schneider lens but haven’t been unable to find it.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks. I'm afraid my knowledge of such lenses is pretty thin. Mainly limited by budgetary constraints or not being able to get someone to lend me one to look at...

[@irenedp4947]

@@KeithCooper Everything is rather expensive in MF but it has been quite a while since I bought a brand new piece of equipment. Second hand works fine if it’s well kept.

[@messylaura]

nice video, i've ordered a m42 to eos-m tilt shift adapter i saw on ebay, pretty cheap compared to the dedicated lenses but it could prove useful, if nothing else abstract, i'll let you know how it goes either way, or should i say quad ways. i do like messing with peoples brains with incamera trickery, i managed to get an incamera image in one exposure with three plains of different depths of field

[@KeithCooper]

M42 to EOS-M ...not seen that combination.

[@johndwilliams]

That was a great help in understanding the whole tilt/shift scenario. I think for what I want, a shift lens would be fine. Maybe a tilt/shift further down the road. You mentioned on another of your videos that a medium format lens works well on an adapter. Am I correct in thinking that a MF lens of say, 50mm, would be the equivalent of 30(ish)mm on a FF Sony a7rii? Even the older film camera lenses are getting pricey at the wider focal lengths.

[@KeithCooper]

Glad it was helpful! However I'm afraid a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens no matter what camera you fit it on...

[@Narsuitus]

Does your book cover back standard tilting and shifting movements?

[@KeithCooper]

No - purely devoted to tilt/shift lenses and their typical use. I took the deliberate approach of writing it for people coming from a 35mm DSLR/mirrorless background, rather than a view camera one. It's also why there's no significant maths... ;-)

[@AR-vf7vg]

(A word of caution ; Some Ts-e (copies or models) can "now" dissapoint sharpness-fall-off wise, witch is not 'expected' for decentering meant use. (Nevr mind for 'creative stuff'.) Otherwise : Test/choose (know) your copy, and use at f 11 ( +- 1 depending if local sharpness or even-ness). Because otherwise(!) other lenses can outperform easily in any respect (micro-contrast, ..., ...) except t&s ability) That are my experiences/convictions with the 45, current 17 and 24. I did not use 90 enough, and I hope the new 50, 85 and 135 to be easally having catched up.)

[@KeithCooper]

The 45 is definitely weak in some respects - the new 50/90/135 are superb optically All my reviews of these lenses pre-date me making videos. The 17 and 24 are good fro my work, but testing them on a GFX100S shows their age a bit [but they are fine]

[@AR-vf7vg]

@@KeithCooper Yes I follow you totally on all that.

[@AR-vf7vg]

@@KeithCooper I periodically feel I should look into selling the ts-e 24 (and find a "used" ts-e 50 for "creqtive" portraits - as the tse 24 I really should think about using it for) since i suspect that my DG DN 14-24mm (for Sony and L platform) should be able to give me technicaly better results (I got really competent at stitching and related proportion manipulations). But I'm lazy to do such comparisons - however passionate I am about that testing it out :-( ! Sure, it is always best one can access any material that simply exploits best the creative urge of the very moment lol

[@KeithCooper]

Ah, for me the ability to see the final composition when shifting and the ability to do two-shot stitches outweighs any slight improvement from another lens. The 24 I have is good enough for my architectural work and it would take something special to replace it. The 50 is great, but I simply can't afford one...

[@AR-vf7vg]

@@KeithCooperYes 🤧😊