fake miniature trains - toy look

[blaurebell]

Hi all,
This morning I was playing around with photoshop and thought I'd share the results!

Before:


After:

miniature trains by zinnsoldat, on Flickr

I took the picture already with the idea to make it into a tilt/shift picture after I saw a few examples of the technique on a website. There are two ways of making tilt shift images. One is with a special lens which costs way too much money (there are also DIY projects, but it involves "ruining" a normal lens). The second way is photoshop and that's surprisingly easy. All it needs is a cylinder mask and the lens blur effect.

Here a link to a flickr page where it's explained and with lots of other examples:
Flickr: Discussing Tilt/Shift effect thru Photoshop? Creating the "Toy Look" in Photoshop Support Group

[-Annalise-]

Wow, that is nicely done, I'll have to try that technique sometime!

[blaurebell]

Yeah, it's cool and pretty easy. Try it on a city view from a hill where you see all the roofs. For the technique a picture is best where you see things from above. Broad daylight is also best because it comes closest to typical model train shots.

[arlon]

Cool, looks like fun to me...

[Eydos]

The most common train station looks very nice. A good angle and good choice of colors. Photo remarkable even without the changes. Good job!

[3bayjunkie]

yeh pretty good. Id like to see a more detailed explination though. you have no real information about the lens you used. what settings on the camera or where you were set up to capture this image.

[blaurebell]

Thank you guys And you're right, here the missing information:
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55mm
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/800 sec
Camera: Canon EOS 450D

The lens was the standard 18-55mm kit lens and it was taken from the bridge above the train station. I took the picture about an hour before sunset, therefore the light.

[Axnjxn]

Awesome! The color pop, the detail vibrantly shows and the effect is brilliant! Never thought about using the cylinder effect in P.S... You just helped me make this now easier to do... Cheers!

[zona5101]

nice job. I don't know that i'd ever get tired of this effect, it's just fun.