Create Landscape Panoramas with Tilt & Shift Lenses by Mason Marsh

Mason Marsh is a Portland, Oregon-based photographer. In this video he shares his techniques for combining multiple images taken with a tilt & shift lens into a single high-resolution panorama. For galleries of Mason's work, his blog, and information on his photography workshops check out his page at www.masonmarsh.com

[@SharifAbdou]

Mason, terrific explanation of the purpose of a tilt/shift lens, the best I've seen. And a nice brief tutorial of the 'merge' feature of Photoshop. Thanks for posting this, loving the channel.

[@ryanjosephdaley6723]

Thanks for posting this information. It's very interesting. You're a very talented photographer and a good instructor.

[@Essyton85]

Great video. Nice to see someone focus on what is the main reason I chose to buy this lens...which is to be able to do distortion-free panoramas. I appreciate the time you took to make this.

[@roushphotography8091]

Did you get one? Would love to see samples

[@horrgakx]

Thanks for posting this, it's adding to my temptation to go with a tilt-shift.

[@DENISENKOTiME]

Tomorow in my Chanell a New video about tilt shift for video pamorama and photo

[@SMELLTHEBULL]

Very well explained. Thanks.

[@smaakjeks]

Very informative. This isn't why I bought my TS lens, but it's good to know about this technique and its benefits.

[@fkrtna]

thanks for the tutorial, I just found out the benefit of tilt-shift lens today and I think I wouldn't need it as I could use my 360 head and take multiple pictures with normal 16mm lens as you mentioned @14:30

[@jeffreypoulin9085]

Very nice explanation... thank you very much.

[@MasonMarsh]

Thanks, Eamonn! If I were you, I'd stick with Sony. I am loving where they are headed with their mirrorless cameras. The A7r is amazing.

[@bjornvansteenbergen5055]

Cool video and it's really nice to see the 17-40 and the tilt shift compared (as a 17-40mm owner!). I personally prefer the 17mm's white balance and lighting but that's besides the point of this video!

[@nemethmik]

This video of yours is still excellent and relevant, one of the best about TS photography. I use A9 with TS-E17mm. Thank you so much.

[@roushphotography8091]

Do you ever use the tse 17mm with astro images?

[@nemethmik]

No. I am not in for astro, I am sorry.

[@_rhapsodist]

it's the projected image circle what's bigger on these lenses, not the front lens element..

[@jrober42]

I enjoyed your Video. I have just purchased the Samyang T-S 24 mm lens and your detailed explanation will help de-mystify the process of stitching images in Photoshop. I am very fortunate to have both Photoshop and Lightroom. I can't wait to get out and take a Panorama of my Golf Course.

[@ricardoferreira2811]

3 years later, what,'s your thoughts on the Samyang TS 24mm?

[@lucyunsworth9108]

Hi Mason, I have that lens and am excited to use it for panos. I don't recall if you mentioned the final print size. Thanks for the video!

[@shootermcgavin4999]

Thanks Mason :)

[@DLMlive]

A tip for all of you interested in getting even more data with your original 4:3 ratio. There are two detentes dividing each 45 degree rotation of the lens. Put the lens in the lower 22 degree detente and shift the lens diagonally from corner to corner with the camera in landscape orientation. The upper detente will give you a 3:2 ratio. Take 5 shots total, one for the center only, that eliminates two center images when you merge in Photoshop. with something like the Canon 1DX MK3 with a 5472x 3648 pixel image, you will get a shifted image of 10696x 6789... With a Rogeti mount cage, you can shift the body instead of the lens. This is considered the best way to shift, but shifting the lens will work fine... 😎

[@michaelmcphee2930]

Hi Mason nicely done and explained thank you. I always shoot my panos in portrait mode to get more foreground in my landscapes. You have merged three shots with the T&S essentially by shifting right and left into one. I was wondering how you would merge your images if your shots were like a tic tac toe scenario so there would be an upper row across the vista, then another row through the middle area and lastly one across the bottom. So as well as shooting west and east (or right and left) you shot north and south by shifting the lens downand upwards. I hope you understand that? What order would you do them in do you think? Regards Mike

[@badnews9312]

just bought a 24mm shift tilt lens and i wonder how i worked without it for so many years...I would always to lens aberration correction in lightroom but it was never perfect and you often lost much of the image. I am from Toronto Canada but I was out at Smith Rock on a climbing trip some years back. Love your image of the area and the tips you provided in this video....cheers

[@jackmellon379]

Another great video from the one and only Mason Marsh,your videos have helped me so much as a Photographer. I am in really bad need of a good quality tripod,do you have any you could recommend for me that are under $300? Thanks Jack.m

[@1001Reddy]

Nice work, Mason. This looks like something I can do with a Canon 6D + TS-E 24mm f/3.5L lens (the predecessor to your lens). This lens was good enough for architectural work over a long time span but does have mild chromatic aberration. However, the body removes aberration and distortion, so I'm thinking it would be a good combination. I like your technique of combining three verticals that collapse like an accordion into an aspect ratio more like 67 format. I have a few thoughts to run by you. I imagine you file size is increasing by 2.3X or somewhere in that neighborhood. What if I try to skin the same cat with a 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, allowing the camera body to correct for distortion/aberration. Then using Photoshop's latest bicubic resampling (equivalent to Alien Skin Blow Up 3) I double the image size. This is Canon's sharpest zoom lens; I think it might be the same without the added image height of your method. I notice you're using a Lee filter or something similar. I just picked up the same item, and wondered what strength grad you're putting in front of the lens. 0.6? 0.9? Good video, by the way. You are obviously well organized.

[@stevelink21]

Nice work, Mason! As I posted earlier, I use the Fujifilm X-System for my landscape and product photography. I have obtained pretty nice results by using the very sharp Fujinon XF lenses, combined with a good tripod, good post processing, and image stiching. However, Fujifilm doesn't have a T/S lens, and I'm at the point where I wanted to see how much better (sharper) my panos could be with that type of lens, especially as I have large format view camera experience decades back. My question is, which system (Canon or Nikon) do you think would best serve my needs for very sharp, high-quality images for printing large? Thank you sir!

[@Heath_Herring]

Mason, Great tutorial! I have one question. Is 3 the limit to how many frames can be captured when shifting the lens from side to side?

[@chirag4]

EXCELLENT EXPLANATION

[@EamonnDoylePhotoFilm]

I love your videos. Not all smaller youtubers take the time to make a really high quality video. You deserve way more subscribers than you have man. Also quick question. Trying to decide between the Sony A77 and the Canon 6D (I already have Sony glass) and am having a pretty tough time. Do you think I should switch or stick with the Sony?

[@MegaPhotocam]

What kind of bracket are you using to mount the camera in portrait position?

[@stabthejudge1]

The foreground looks tack sharp where did you focus on this shot

[@joenewbie4793]

Do you guy splay broke back mountain when you are out there, alone under the stars?

[@SocyQueen2012]

Thank you for a very clearly explained tutorial! I was wondering if one could do some bracketing in case of sharp contrast situations. In that case, one would have nine instead of three vertical shots. What do you think about that?

[@MasonMarsh]

+Olga Celle Certainly! Bracketing is great, as long as your subject matter will allow for it.

[@MasonMarsh]

Heath... Three frames gives a nice amount of overlap so Photoshop can stitch the panorama. You could do more and give more overlap, but it's overkill. If you are asking if you could go wider, the answer is yes, but that would involve panning the camera as well as shifting the lens. It works, but there is some paralax distortion. At that point, it's time for a nodal rail and more fancy pano gear. Check out Really Right Stuff's website for guidance on pano gear.

[@Heath_Herring]

Thanks for the info, Mason. I normally use a nodal rail, but this system seems more efficient to me. Thanks for the posting the video!

[@AffinityPhoto]

a decade late, but shifting your lens like you do in this video would shift the parallax point. You need to mount the lens to the tripod and shift the *body*. Else, you will have alignment issues with foreground elements.

[@MasonMarsh]

@@AffinityPhoto very true. In cases where there are elements close to the camera, I use a pano rig to compensate for the parallax.

[@AffinityPhoto]

@@MasonMarsh I'm currently using the piXplorer which is nice but very heavy and a bit rough to set up and use due to clunky menu and slow interface response.

[@hannibalcosta]

What one can do with a lens that just shift and not tilt? Nikkor pc 28mm f4. :(

[@stevelink21]

Nice work, Mason! As I'm using an APS-C camera (Fuji X-Pro2), and I don't have the luxury of a nice T/S lens like this Canon, I actually made a pretty darn sharp stitched panorama with the 24MP Fuji file and 3 carefully aligned exposures, using a Fujinon XF23mm f/2 lens at f11. After some minor post-processing, I sent a 90MB tif file to create a 9"x36" panorama that looks quite sharp and detailed! If interested, you can see it at totalqualityphoto.com, under Landscapes - City. Just an example to show that a decent pano "can" be made without a T/S lens. Thank you.

[@MYTRB]

Can you rotate the lens once it has been shifted? i.e.. you shift up to the max then rotate the lens orientation so you can shift left and right. Also what about AutoExposureBracketing. How does this lens handle this and is exposure consistent when shifting?

[@mythos14]

thanks for the video! i really like the way your smiling when you are shifting! :) would u tell me the name of your filtersystem? it looks really good best regards, daniel

[@MasonMarsh]

I use the Lee foundation system and 100mm square filters. The 24mm TSE also requires the 82mm wide angle adapter ring.

[@MrCROBosanceros]

This is kind of photography that I'm interested.Canon came first with tilt and shift lenses,back in the late 1080's or early 1990's. Looking this video,for the probably tenth times now,i'm imagining same shot with 5D Sr body. Thank you for the excellent video.

[@MasonMarsh]

+Broj 1 Thank you! It looks like Canon is working on a tilt and shift adapter for all of their EF lenses. I will be curious to see it in action.

[@triton576]

Hi Mason. Thank you for this video. Would you recommend this lens or a canon fisheye ? Thank you for your time.

[@MasonMarsh]

If money isn't a big issue, I would consider the Canon 11-24 lens. It's amazing. Otherwise, I would choose the 24mm or 17mm TSE lenses.

[@KBee795]

For those who can afford such a wonderful lens it's a blessing but has a limit of pretty much only three shots to create your pano. I would suggest to others to rent one first to see if it's what you really want before dropping enough money down to get a new D850! If it doesn't full fill all your dreams you can create a Nodal rig to do very similar work costing far less but has to be setup prior to use to determine nodal points on all zoom ranges you might use. I do like Nikon's 19mm PC lens very much but I'd also like to have a D850! Of course having both would be icing on the cake! LOL I use a 16 to 80mm zoom with a nodal rig to full fill my needs and for now it will have to do.

[@Jeffsingleton100]

Great instructional video! May I ask who you use for your metallic prints?

[@MasonMarsh]

I buy my metal prints from Bay Photos.

[@compasspropertiesnow]

Hi Mason, Thanks for another informative and well done video. I seem to recall a 3rd party T/S lens being released earlier this year but the brand name escapes me. I remember it being quite reasonable too, as T/S lenses go. Do you happen to remember hearing anything like this? It might be a good option and if you know what I'm talking about, I would like to know your opinion. Thanks.

[@MasonMarsh]

Yes... Samyang (also known as Rokinon) released a 24mm T&S last year. I have read a little about the lens and it seems solid, but not as sharp as the Canon lens. I have a 14mm Rokinon that I use for video work and I like it, but they are definitely not as clear as the Canon L glass. For the money, they are a great deal though.

[@derekwong1063]

What's the difference between tilt-shifting the lens and something like a Samyang 24 1.4 and then a Nodal Ninja to fix the parallax.

[@lylestavast7652]

nodal ninja properly setup for the lens/body pairing on a tripod will minimize most of the issues you'd get if you simply rotated the camera hand-held or on a tripod. You'll do pretty well but quite a bit more correction will happen in software. Shooting with the T/S you can control the plane of focus to match the subject plane and be that much ahead of the game in that aspect. The software will still have to align for frame overlaps and mask for best image quality...

[@MikeAldercreative]

Hello from Hillsboro. Great video. I want a TS lens for miniature effect and for combining images like this. And for real estate/landscape city stuff. The Samyang for Nikon one is around 630 dollars. It is worth it in my opinion. Thanks for tutorial.

[@WMedl]

Very informative and well made. One remark: maybe this could have also been achieved using a camera sled. And if using more than three images one can profit from the center sharpness....

[@allanaitken5375]

Thanks Mason, What filter did you use and What if any exposure compensation ?

[@MasonMarsh]

At the time of this video I was using the LEE filter system and I almost always shoot in manual mode so I never have to worry about exposure compensation.

[@farouk6564]

I was just curious are you still using that lens like you intended? I am thinking of getting one as well, thanks for sharing, great video!

[@MasonMarsh]

I am. I just used it last weekend to capture images at our local Japanese Garden.

[@fkrtna]

Q: if I use this technique to capture buildings, will I be able to shift left to right (to get the pano image) plus shifting "up" to straighten the vertical lines of the building? I'm thinking of getting this kind of lens if it does this job!

[@mandurahchess]

The shift is only one direction, vertical, horizontally and 30° increments between. You can, of course, rotate the camera on the tripod as with any other lens and correct in software later.

[@hi9313]

Hey, I like the tilt-shit a lot but you can see when you compare the final product versus the 17-40 final product (after lens correction), that there is vinyetting in the 17mm- it doesn't have a lens correction profile in lightroom so that's a downside to shooting with it, you would have to do it manually to correct it.

[@1001Reddy]

Find yourself a wall of shame, aka the side of brick building. Take a photo with any lens, and then correct in photoshop so all the verticals are vertical, and all horizontal lines are horizontal. Make sure your camera is level and you're shooting straight ahead--if you're not sure, count the bricks from center to edge in the UNCORRECTED photo. Also, make sure you 12+ feet from the wall. After you make the corrections, write down the results and use them to create a custom profile. Give the profile the name of your lens.

[@xxxItchyxxx]

Hi, Mason, pretty good video! Could you, pls, answer a question? I have a TS-E 24 v1, and when I set it to max shift positions, I get serious exposure issues (in general pics become way too bright as compared to the center position), which I must correct. You don't talk about this problem, so, is this no more an issue with the newer version of the lens? Thx a lot!

[@MasonMarsh]

With the version 2 of the lens, I see some slight darkening on the extreme edges of the max shift. As you move the image area off the center of the glass, it's expected to get some falloff, but not brightening. I'm stumped!

[@pauldaly4020]

Mason Marsh Hi Mason, Nice Video, I'm using exactly the same gear and techniques and like you agree that it's great for creating exceptional sharp images. Anyway I'm wondering if Mr Fantasy is using an Auto Exposure mode (including either Aperture or Shutter Priority) This would explain why it's over exposing. As you can only take an exposure reading when the lens is in the zeroed off neutral position (i.e. No Shift or Tilt dialled in). If you try, the camera would recommend (and give) more exposure than is actually required, because of the fall off in the edges when maximum shift is dialled in. (The v1 is defiantly worse than the v2 in this regard) The only solution of course, is to use manual exposure. And take you light reading when the lens is zeroed off. And then apply that same exposure to the Shifted frames. Just a thought.

[@xxxItchyxxx]

Paul Daly Mason Marsh Hi, folks, wasn't here for some time, sorry for the delay. Yes, Paul is right, that was my problem. The overexposure in automatic mode (with a tilted or shifted lens) can be extreme. So I had to take several shots to find out the correct value.

[@mandurahchess]

The lens does vignette at the extremities of the shift movement. I have one, I use no filters on it. I still get some vignetting.

[@pulikunta]

Thanks for sharing.

[@QuyenNguyen-cp4eq]

Looks great. What T/S Lens did you use???

[@QuyenNguyen-cp4eq]

If you use a wide angle T/S lens doesn't each shot have a bulge distortion inherent? Photoshop's lens correction software does a great job but doesn't completely eliminate the bulge. So there will be somewhat 3 bulges optically when you merge the 3 photos together. right? With landscape it's not as noticeable but if you shoot architectural photos this will be more noticeable, right?

[@MasonMarsh]

Quyen Nguyen With the TSE lenses, you will see the distortion on the outer frames of your shifted panorama. The 24 has very little barrel distortion, so I've never had any issues with it.

[@QuyenNguyen-cp4eq]

I just tried this method today. The new Photoshop CC can do a panoramic combined in raw and saves it as one dng file which saves me a step. It came out better than anticipated and little distortion. I'd have to run another test tomorrow outdoors with lots of alignment to see how well things line up. Thanks.

[@lr5867]

Why aren't you mounting the lens directly on the tripod? I guess this depends on how much coverage are you getting from that lens, but shifting the lens barrel changes the scene. That's why I've gone with using 645 lenses.

[@MasonMarsh]

With the T&S lenses, there's no way to mount the lens to the tripod head. Now that I shoot Sony, I use a gimbal to shoot panoramas, which does what you suggest, places the lens over the point of rotation.

[@lr5867]

FWIW, Hartblei makes a super-rotator T/S lens w/ a proper tripod mount. Dang, even my el-cheapo "Fotga" tilt adapter has a tripod mount, never mind it's obvious enough for other adapters like Metabones, etc. At the prices they charge for these gizmos IDK what's wrong w/ the product mgr's that they price-point that feature away, there's a glaring need for it. See also KZbin vid 7_DT8JM0cYc, Schneider-Kreuznach the Makro-Symmar 90/4.5 lens, nice piece of kit. Might set you back a few. :)

[@huetuber1204]

Unless you make a living selling your images, it's hard to justify the cost of this lens. I think the image made by the 17-40L is already stunning.

[@MasonMarsh]

+HueTubeR I found the 17-40 to be pretty soft much of the time, but the 16-35 F4 is excellent. You are right that the cost of the 24 TSE is prohibitive, but if you can afford it, it is amazing.

[@huetuber1204]

@@MasonMarsh It's been a while and I've since acquired this 24mm TSE. I came across a killer deal and couldn't pass it up. If you still have this lens, I would suggest getting the Rogeti TSE frame mk III. It works by shifting the body instead of the lens to practically erase any parallax issues which makes it that much easier to align in post. Check it out!

[@danmackey7574]

I enjoyed your video a lot. You did not state what F-stop you used to take the panoramic picture in your video. Since you were not using the "Tilt" aspect of this lense which gives you a great deal of added depth of field, I assume you were using a fairly small aperture and using the hyperfocal distance to focus your camera. When you use small apertures, you get diffraction issues which lead to a lack of sharpness which you obviously did not have as you demonstrated the sharpness of the brush in the foreground. How do you explain this amount of sharpness at a small aperture. Also, why couldn't you use the tilt concept along with the shift concept so that you could use an F-stop like F-11 and still get great depth of field. I am assuming that you don't do it because it would probably be difficult to stitch the image together in Photoshop.

[@danielmarkoya]

***** I would also like an answer to this question Mason Marsh

[@MasonMarsh]

Daniel Markoya and Dan Mackey... I shot the images at F16 and used the hyperfocal distance for the scene. The TSE lenses, (like some of Canon's L lenses) have very little diffraction at F16. Even at F22 it's still pretty darn sharp. As for the tilt function, there are times I use it, but when I am stitching panoramas, the lens and camera need to be level to keep the horizon level (not bulged), so tilting is usually not going to be an option in the pano situations.

[@danielmarkoya]

Mason Marsh Thanks for the response. I just received my TS-E 24 a few days ago and I'm still working through the learning curve. And thanks for taking the time to post the video.

[@sergiogruzdoff2299]

well explained. Though you need to buy a faster computer or fast forward the process as it takes quite a time for your hardware to process the images.

[@MasonMarsh]

+sergio gruzdoff True. I have a faster computer now. Thanks for watching!

[@igorjilek2573]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@amanlehal7131]

What are your views on Canon tilt shift lens 24 mm Vs 17 mm? I am going to use it only for landscape photography, which one of these would be better? Thanks.

[@cl3826]

Can’t you just get a head that shifts the camera? That way you could use any lens for the shift.

[@fernanddurler4709]

Why not just correct in post ?…or use a medium telephoto lens …

[@MasonMarsh]

Jack Mellon... Thanks for the kindness. For a $300 tripod, your solid and reliable options are few. I would point you toward the 3 Legged Thing Adrian. It's not very big, but it is well made. Here's the best place to get one: kzbin.info_redirector/109751780558012105014

[@theedgecreativeperth]

I have to say I had to watch for about 4000 hours before you actually mentioned what advantage the tilt shift lens gives you.

[@pepsico815]

The 17-40 shot looks over processed!

[@MasonMarsh]

Austin Texas Thanks. I aim to please.

[@PaanJr]

He never replied any of comments here lol

[@photobobo]

Stacking? You mean stitching.

[@branislavjesic100]

maaaaan normal is 2x3, this IS 3x4

[@fernanddurler4709]

The image looks artificial …hi res not true colours

[@chazM6116]

you do NOT get parallex problem if you find the entrance pupil of the camera lens it about this point that you want to rotate the camera it is also referred to as the no-parallax point [often missed called the node point] of the lens. Stop giving out WRONG INFO..... you can do this with a normal lens and get the same results..........

[@joshhyyym]

Not quite, if you used a regular lens you'd have several images all with (say) barrel distortion. Stitching each one of these together (if you did it by hand by lining up prints) would give you areas where they don't line up. The tilt-shift lens gives you less distortion because all of the images captured by the sensor are from the same projected image from the lens, as the image circle is larger. If you used a lens from a large format camera ( or any lens that gives a very large image circle) and you placed a number of strips of film in the focal plane you would achieve the same effect. The technique does have advantages, it falls between, using a high quality wide angle lens, and stitching multiple images from wide angle lens together. Marsh was of course wrong about the parallax error (along with any number of other things).

[@chazM6116]

shoot in RAW and Photoshop has all the lens profiles to remove any known distortion. so I think with such good software you can

[@fkrtna]

Here I did a test with PC-E 24mm on D7000 shooting a close object: drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2eWRqLKJ-kldDk3VVBGZjdoeW8 Results seems ok with very tiny stitching error

[@mandurahchess]

Chaz Madge you lose a lot of pixels removing distortion though. I use a TS lens extensively for single-image captures. Since I can avoid pointing the camera up or down, I don't have to correct perspective in software and lose a lot of pixels.

[@lr5867]

I bet that error would go away if the lens were directly mounted on the tripod. A simple lens collar would solve that problem.

[@kfotoprm]

At 1.10, What utter NONSENSE! You clearly, do not understand, the use, and reason, of why the lens, has a large, "Image circle". Far larger, than a lens, that is not designed to allow "Tilts, Swings, and Shifts". As the previous writer says, "Stop giving out WRONG, info, you FOOL!.