Tilt-Shift and Time Lapse Films

[RPMiller]

Ok RobA, I figured out how to do it in PhotoShop, but I have a question for you. How are you making the greyscale depth of field map? Are you painting it in or does the plugin do it or what? Can you post a screen cap of the map you used for the above?

Once I have that piece resolved, I think I'll have the technique down pat.

[ravells]

Wow, what a cool effect! Can't wait to give it a try when I get home!

[RobA]

A tutorial is now off site and can be found here:
http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog/arc...-the-Gimp.html

-Rob A>

[RPMiller]

Sure do! Thanks! For those wishing to do this in PhotoShop the colors need to be reversed. I'll give this a try as well in PS and post my matching screen caps. Thanks RobA! Have some rep for your hard work.

[Steel General]

Ok RobA, I figured out how to do it in PhotoShop, but I have a question for you. How are you making the greyscale depth of field map? Are you painting it in or does the plugin do it or what? Can you post a screen cap of the map you used for the above?

Once I have that piece resolved, I think I'll have the technique down pat.

Ooops! Never mind, I posted this without refreshing the page. I've several interested co-workers regarding the method in Photoshop.

[RPMiller]

Ok, here is how it is done in PhotoShop CS2.

I'm only going to post instructions where they differ from yours.

Start with the same image. Add Guides at the bottoms of vertical surfaces same as yours.

guides.jpg

First difference: Instead of a white to black gradient you'll need to use the mirrored gradient and black will be the in focus area.

gradient.jpg

Block off the different focal depth areas same as yours. I'm doing this fast and messy as a proof of concept so I'm not being as thorough with blocking out areas, and you'll be able to tell in the final version, but just bare with me.

blocking.jpg
combined.jpg

Then blur as you did, but I chose Gaussian Blur and went with only 3 pixels. I'll experiment with this more later.

blurred.jpg

[RPMiller]

Here's where things get a bit different. You'll need to create an Alpha channel to be your Depth of Field. So combine your gradient layer and your painted layer. Then select all and copy it.

Now move to the Channels panel. Create a new Alpha Channel and paste your DoF into it. Make sure to reselect the RGB channel when you are done.

alpha.jpg

Switch back to the layers panel. Hide the gradient layer. Make sure your background is selected and go to Filter-->Blur-->Lens Blur...

lensblur.jpg

Load the Alpha1 channel as your source. Make whatever tweaks you want to the settings and click Ok. I used the attached settings again for the sake of speed, but will likely play with these a bit more in the future. I would suggest a low level blur to start with. That way if you discover some areas that need better DoF, you can open the Alpha Channel and paint in the needed changes. I would use the Smudge tool in most instances. As you can see in mine, I missed a few areas so using the smudge tool with a big soft brush should be able to fix those areas. Then another run through the lens blur will blur the whole area again so the smaller blur amount will get doubled. Once you have the "blocking" perfected that wouldn't be needed anymore and you can jump right to the final lens blur settings.

ts1 copy.jpg

[RPMiller]

I didn't do the saturation or contrast changes, but I would do those with adjustment layers so that I could easily tweak and change.

[RPMiller]

Hey RobA, how do you get those inline thumbnails to work like that? I know I read how to do it somewhere, but could not remember.

[RPMiller]

@RobA - Thanks! I went back and fixed those.

Good tips on the blur and the modifications. I'm going to look for some good images to play with and see what I can produce.

Also, I've been trying to think of a horizontal layout example. Do you have a picture that would be laid out horizontally instead of vertically to give me an idea?