This video is by Keith Loutit; and is a compilation of scenes of the Sydney Harbour surrounds. Keith combines a variety of techniques including tilt-shift for narrowing depth of field to make things look like miniatures, and time-lapse photography.
"Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras, often tilting the lens relative to the image plane to achieve a very shallow depth of field. “Tilt-shift” actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus, and hence the part of an image that appears sharp. Shift is used to control perspective, usually involving the convergence of parallel lines."
Tilt/shift miniature faking is a technique for making regular scenes look like miniatures. By artificially making the depth of field of a picture extremely shallow using a special lens, you can duplicate the effect of a macro lens, making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is, resulting in a really cool effect.
Keith shoots his footage with a Nikon D60 and although one can purchase the tilt shift lens from Nikon, anyone can affect the fake miniature by using Photoshop CS (tutorial).
Inspiring music by the Headless Heroes.
Reference
Olivo Barbieri is recognized as the first photographer to have discovered the technique of tilt-shift lens photography. Barbieri's technique does not capture true shallow depth of field based on the distance of the subject from the lens, but instead simulates the effect by tilting the lens's angle to the back plane of the camera, which creates a gradual blurring at the top and bottom edges, or left and right edges of the filmed image.
Barbieri says.
“After 9/11 the world had become a little bit blurred because things that seemed impossible happened. My desire was to look at the city again.”
