a while back i wrote a post about tilt shift photography and how easy it was to create the tilt shift look in photoshop by simply using a couple of filters and masks. of course you can go out and buy a tilt shift lens and every photo can have that look, but they are kind of expensive. since a few friends asked me to show them, i’ll outline the technique right here.

step 1: choose the right photograph
even though you can do this to every photo, not all photographs work the same way. find a photo that you can isolate a specific object in the foreground or middle ground. this will greatly accentuate the effect. i chose a shot i took in athens of the temple of hephaestus from the areopagus.

temple of hephaestus

step 2: duplicate the background: self explanatory

tilt shift 2

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we were in athens on the day the fires started. we took this panoramic shot from the areopagus, the hill opposite the acropolis (right side). in the center of the photo is the hill of lycavitos (literally, hill of wolves, although the wolves were killed to extinction ages ago). the view is facing northeast and you can see the plume of smoke rising from behind the hill and the sprawl of athens. in the bottom left of the photograph is the ancient agora. remains have been found there dating to 2800 BC. the large building of the stoa was rebuilt by the rockefeller foundation and is now a museum of antiquities.

the fires spread quickly, due to the high winds of the following two days, burning thousands of acres. one of the many areas that were affected was the city of Marathon, historic home of the famous race. unfortunately, the fire has been attributed to arson. truly sad.

you can view a high-rez version of the photo here
©2009 visualmerc.com. the image AthensFire_2009_sm2.jpg may be reproduced with permission. please let us know if you use it.

since i’ll be away on hiatus for the next month and may not be able to post as much as i would like, i though i’d leave you all with some of the photos i shot in greece the last time we were there. will miss you guys, but i’ll be back soon. be sure to view in full screen mode.