Faking Tilt-Shift Photography in Photoshop

Most of the time, I try to stick with topics that will apply to most people, but I'm afraid I'll have to break that little rule by talking about Photoshop.  I know not everyone has Photoshop, but it may be possible to do tilt-shift editing on other online or cheaper programs.  I invite you to research similar photo editing and manipulating programs on your own to see if you can find a more affordable Photoshop alternative.  I'm not familiar with any alternatives personally, but if you do find any, feel free to comment and inform me of your discoveries.

Now, back to the main event: tilt-shift photography. If you've never heard of tilt-shift before, don't feel bad.  I was only introduced to the term a couple week ago myself.  Basically, tilt-shift an effect that leaves some of the photo in focus and blurs the rest.  It sounds unremarkable, but it creates the illusion of "minatures."  I know that description is pretty vague, so here are a few great examples of tilt-shift photography that better illustrate the effect:

Pretty sweet, huh?  

It seems like it would be an extremely difficult effect to achieve, but as I looked up online tutorials, I found that there weren't as near as many steps as I was expecting.  Rather than typing out all of the steps I followed, I'll just give you a link to the tutorial that I used when first trying out this effect a few days ago:  http://www.tiltshiftphotography.net/photoshop-tutorial.php

I would like to point out, however, that although there aren't many steps, it does take a great deal of trial and error to get the effect to work correctly.  First, it can be tricky finding a photo that actually works for tilt-shifting.  Ideally, you'd want a wide shot that was taken from a slightly elevated perspective.  Second, getting the area of focus where you want it can be frustrating.  I would suggest getting a lot of use out of the "step backward" command if you find you don't like the area you selected.  Even for people much more experienced than myself at tilt-shifting in Photoshop, experimentation is key.  You can't do exactly the same thing for each photograph.  It simply won't work.

As I mentioned earlier, I am still a total hack at tilt-shifting.  I had to dig pretty deep into my personal photo archives to find suitable shots to edit, and it took me awhile to achieve that miniature effect.  My edits still don't look quite as much like a miniature-scale model as I had hoped, but I still think it adds a lot of interest.  Here are a couple examples of my tilt-shift attempts:

A wide shot of Sioux Fall Park that I took back in 2006 or 2007.  It worked really well for tilt-shift editing.

The Husker marching band.

Another shot of the band.  I think this photo was actually my first attempt at tilt-shift.  Not quite mini enough, but it still looks cool.

This is not my photo, but it is my photo editing.  I think I was able to achieve more of a "mini" look in this particular shot.

I still have some work to do with this effect, but it was so cool that I had to bring it up.  If you have Photoshop, I would definitely suggest trying this effect out.  Even if you don't have any photos that work for this kind of editing, you can still experiment with it.  Do what I did, and surf the internet for the right kind of photo, and try to improve your editing skills.  That way, you'll be prepared when one of your shots does meet the requirements for tilt-shift!


UPDATE:

I finally managed a tilt-shift photo that makes me proud.  I went to a Husker game earlier this season and took a good shot of the marching band.  The photo was better suited to tilt-shift (it was not zoomed in as far), so I took it into Photoshop and got a much better result than the marching band tilt-shift attempt above.  Here it is:

UPDATE #2: I haven't edited this post for a couple years, but I thought of a tilt-shift-esque effect that is incredibly simple.  On Instagram, if you select the "teardrop" button and choose the rectangle option, it will allow you to have a rectangular, horizontal section of your picture in focus.  The parts of the photo above and below will be blurred.  This is essentially the same thing you do in the tutorial linked above.  You can enhance the effect by also selecting a filter that provides greater saturation and contrast.  It may not be quite as startling as an edit done in Photoshop, but it is basically a two-step, super easy alternative.