Building a Tilt/Shift Lens

I like to experiment with photography and I also like the idea of being able to take tilt/shift style photos. I decide to combine those two things and experiment with creating my own budget tilt/shift lens.

There are a few guides online features the various ways in which such a lens can be assembled but I went with the simple bicycle inner tube ‘free-lens’ type. It is cheap, effective and does not require a degree in engineering to build.

Parts required:

• ·       A section of bicycle inner tube
• ·       Some long cable ties
• ·       A lens body cap
• ·       A suitable donor lens

That’s everything required. You’ll also need some fairly standard tools like scissors, a sharp knife and screwdrivers then you’re good to go. So far, so cheap!

Step 1 – The Body Cap

In order to mount the lens to your camera body you’re going to need to obtain a body cap in the correct mount for your brand of camera. Being a Pentax user I purchased a generic hard plastic ‘K’ mount cap from eBay for the grand sum of £1.99.

Once you have your lens cap you need to carve out the centre hole leaving just the outer ring mount. I found the easiest way to do this was to melt/cut it with a soldering iron but a heated sharp knife should have the same effect. Once the hole was made I used a sharp craft knife to cut away any sharp pointy bits.

Step 2 – The Inner Tube

You need a wide inner tube to act as the flexible part of the lens. A typical 26” MTB inner tube should suffice with a minimum width of 1.95” but ideally the wider the better. Once you have your tube cut approximately 5cm of length from it stretch it around the modified body cap. Once in place secure with a cable tie.

Step 3 – The Lens

Lens choice is going to be important here. On an APS-C sized sensor camera you’re going to need at least a 35mm full-frame lens. To allow an even greater freedom of movement when you tilt and shift the lens bigger is also going to be better. I used an old full-frame 28mm f2.8 lens simply because I already had it at home but a lens designed for medium format would be even better and not all that expensive from eBay.

To begin with start from the rear of the lens and strip away the mount and any superfluous body parts. The idea is to strip enough of the lens away that you can freely move the lens around without being restricted by the lens coming into contact with the camera body.

The next image shows how much of the lens I stripped away but in hindsight I wish I’d have taken it even further to allow more movement. Also with the focus ring still attached be sure to set (and then leave) the focus at infinity.

With the lens stripped down and the aperture ring removed I had to use some fixing putty to hold the aperture blades open at their widest setting. Without this the aperture would close down. This behaviour can vary depending on lens manufacturer so this step may be optional for some.

With the lens stripped and the aperture open you can now stretch the inner tube from step 2 over the body and secure it with a cable tie or two. The end result should look something like the lens I made in the next image and is ready for use.

Demonstration

To demonstrate the lens working I mounted the camera on a tripod, set aperture priority and took the first image with the focal point as close to 'normal' as I could reasonably get it of the rug in my lounge. The resulting image looked like this:

Then without moving the camera or tripod I moved the lens to the left and right and took more images to show how the focal point moves along with some changes in perspective. This is further exaggerated the more you are able to move the lens.

As stated earlier in the post if you are able to use a lens with a bigger image circle then greater movements will be allowed so on a typical APS-C camera a full-frame lens is useable but a medium format lens would be preferable. If, like me, you use a full-frame lens on an APS-C camera then keeping movements small is key as you will quickly find none of the image in focus otherwise.

Overall it's a fun lens to use and due to it being flexible and imprecise no two images will likely be the same. Have fun experimenting!

Revision

I made a slight revision to my version of the lens as when moving it around I found the focus ring of the lens would hit the body of the camera and restrict movements too much. I made a quick modification by removing the focus ring and reattaching the inner tube and now have a greater freedom of movement.

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When Film and Digital Collide

I’m split between two camps at the moment. Photography camps that is. In truth I tend not to be a hardcore fanboy of any one particular brand, movement, product or system which enables me to experience the best of what each has to offer. For that reason my camera bags are full of both digital and film photography equipment.

Although I’m a fan of both mediums I use them for different purposes and almost never together. Digital for example tends to be used when I’ve planned a specific visit to a location to take photographs or have a specific photo in mind. Film on the other hand (following the principles of Lomography) is used more spontaneously and is brought along on the basis I might see something interesting that catches my eye without worrying about perfect exposure and pin sharp focus.

Also whereas my digital workflow is likely to include at least some post processing, when using film the images are simply scanned and saved to disk. I wouldn’t be against editing the photos captured on film outright but in keeping with the principles of Lomography they have up to now remained untouched.

Just recently though after returning from a trip to Warwick Castle I came across one of my 35mm black and white photos and immediately saw potential for it to be edited in the digital realm. I have nothing against the original photo and was very pleased with the performance of the little Fujifilm Silvi F2.8 and Neopan 1600 but it looked perfect for some tilt/shift trickery.

For those who don’t know, a specialist tilt/shift lens (specifically the tilt aspect) can allow selective focus to simulate a miniature scene. It’s a photography technique I have a fondness for but could never afford the prohibitive cost of the lenses required. Fortunately you can replicate the effect in the digital darkroom using tools such as onOne’s FocalPoint 2 software.

Wanting to preserve the “analogue” aspect of the photo as much as possible I made the decision to do no further alterations than the selective focus required to produce the effect. It felt important to keep as much of the original image as possible as it came from the camera. This might seem trivial as once it is altered significantly in my opinion it would no longer qualify as lomography. Yet if i’m to marry the two mediums to produce an image it feels important to me to retain as much of the original as I can.

Here is the original:

Warwick Castle, April '11 (Fujifilm Silvi F2.8 & Neopan 1600)
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And with the selective focus applied here is the edit:

Warwick Castle (edit), April '11 (Fujifilm Silvi F2.8 & Neopan 1600)
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Overall I’m very, very pleased with the result. It’s my first attempt at creating the effect and as the photo originally came from my fondness for film/lomography it means that little bit more to me. I still concede that with such an edit the resultant photo can no longer be considered true lomography but as an interesting photo that combines the best of two mediums I think it works brilliantly!

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