Tilt-Shift Tutorial

Tilt-shift photography (miniature faking) has been doing the heavy rounds for a while now. If you're a designer like me, you only have to go on Behance where shrinking Shetland ponies and Eiffel Towers dosn't seem to be wearing thin yet.

So, how you achieve the effect? I've put together these steps to guide you through the technique.

Step 1: Photo Selection
When choosing a photograph for the tilt-shift effect, keep in mind that you want to give the impression of a miniature model. For this tilt-shift Photoshop tutorial, the image I've chosen is Blackcomb mountain in Whistler:

Step 2. Enter Quick Mask Mode
Open the image in Photoshop and enter Quick Mask Mode by pressing Q on the keyboard, or select the Quick Mask icon as shown in the Tool Palette below:

Step 3. Choose Gradient Tool
Choose the Gradient Tool by pressing G on the keyboard, or select the Gradient Tool icon. Be sure to choose the Reflected Gradient option (the fourth icon along before the Mode drop-down).

Step 4. Draw A Line
Draw a vertical line; the start point will be the centre of the in-focus area, and the end will be where the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus is completed. This step, and the subsequent two steps, will need a fair degree of trial and error.

Step 5. View Mask Area
The middle of the mask is where the in-focus area will be, gradually losing focus towards the edges. Note the out-of-focus effect is yet to be applied.

Step 6. Return To Standard Mode
Press Q on the keyboard to exit Quick Mask Mode and return to Standard Mode, or press the icon on the Tool Palette as shown below. The area to apply the focus effect to will be surrounded by the "marching ants" selection lines:

Step 7. Open Lens Blur Interface
Choose Filter > Blur > Lens Blur:

Step 8. Review Effect And Tweak Settings
Hopefully, you will start to see a pleasing focus effect. The Photoshop default settings for Lens Blur are a good place to start, but experiment with them to improve the effect. If you are unhappy with the position of the focus area, go back to Step 4 and try drawing a line in a different place or with a different centre of focus.

Step 9. Exit Lens Blur Interface
Assuming you were happy with the image preview in Step 8, click OK to accept the settings.

Step 10. Remove Selection Boundary

Press CTRL-D on the keyboard to remove the "marching ants" selection boundary.

Step 11. Open Hue/Saturation Adjustment Interface
You may want to boost the colour saturation, to improve the effect. Remember that model scenery is often brightly painted so enhancing the saturation helps trick the eye. Press CTRL-U on the keyboard or select Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation:

Step 12. Boost Saturation
In this example, we boost the Master saturation to +40.

Step 13. Open Curves Adjustment Interface

Help to increase the contrast of the image slightly by using the Curves adjustment. Press CTRL-M on the keyboard or select Image > Adjustments > Curves:

Step 14. Adjust Curves

In this example we use a very small S-shaped curve to increase contrast. Take care not to over-do this step; sometimes it's not necessary at all.

Here's the finished image:

Miniature models are usually viewed from above so try and choose a photo with an elevated viewpoint. Buildings, roads, traffic and railways are excellent choices but make sure there is a reasonable wide angle of view. 

Tilt-shift doing the rounds

Daniel Espirito Santo

Keith Loutit
http://vimeo.com/1785993
www.keithloutit.com 

Inception - Fortress Level

“Couldn't somebody have dreamt up a 
goddamn beach?” - Fischer

People can be hard to please, really really hard to please. Apparently a number of viewers felt the fortress level in Inception was one of the weakest scenes of an otherwise engaging and intelligent film. To them, it heavily references a level in a computer game, to Chris Nolan, it was his opportunity to play homage to On her Majesty's Secret Service, a bond film he has admitted he was very much inspired by. You can't help but suspect that some viewers just want to find a chink in the armour. But a film, no matter how amazing it is, isn't without it's flaws. Even if the fortress scene looks like it's straight out of a computer game, and that's the worst thing about Inception, I can live with that. 



Filming for the fortress level took place in a ski resort in Alberta, Canada. Once the huge task of constructing the set was complete, film crew waited eagerly for the finishing touch: the snow. With just two days before filming the white stuff finally arrived, and masses of it. This made for some very challenging and intense conditions for the cast.

“I don't think I've ever shot in any climate 

that’s more extreme. There was altitude 
sickness.” 
- Ellen Page

But before cameras even captured explosions and anti-freeze paint was applied to the set, potential actors had to read the script in Nolan's office or have it hand-delivered to their homes, where someone stood guard while they perused it. Despite Nolan's secrecy and his hush-hush nature with the press (and even to actors in the initial stages of his films), he's able to bring back the element of surprise and anticipation to the cinema.

Fortress level in a nutshell:
Level: 3
The dreamer: Eames (Tom Hardy)
The kick: The blowing up of the snow fortress (medical facility)
Location: Fortress Mountain, Kananaskis Country, Calgary, Canada

Entering the geek level...

The first letter of each of the main character’s first names - Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur/Ariadne, Mal, Sato - spell the word DREAMS.

Prints of the movie were shipped to theaters under the name Hour Glass.

The slow, gloomy, blaring trombones in the main theme of the film score are actually based on an extremely slowed down version of the fast, high pitched trumpets in the beginning of the Édith Piaf song Non, je ne regrette rien.

Ariadne’s hair is in a tight bun in the hotel sequence so filmmakers didn’t have to figure out how her hair should move in zero-gravity.

The third Christopher Nolan movie in which Cillian Murphy’s character spends a significant portion of his on-screen time with a cloth bag over his head.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt went to his audition after a brief character summary, wearing a full suit just in case, unknowingly matching his character’s wardrobe perfectly.

Not counting flashbacks, Cobb’s wedding ring only appears in scenes where he is dreaming.


* Update * 

Oscar wins for Inception:

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in Sound
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Best Achievement in Visual Effects

New Zealand

Huge thumbs up for this one. Impressive and stunning work from photographer Tom Blachford.

Elf Christmas card

Recently, as a personal project, I created a one-off set of gold foil printed Christmas cards that play on dialogue from the well-loved 
film Elf. One satisfying way to spread the Christmas cheer!

007 shaken and stirred in a snowglobe

Would you see Daniel Craig wearing a bobble hat in a bond film today? Not even likely. Looking back, even though Roger Moore was edging dangerously close to swapping his ski poles for a zimmer frame, it didn't really seem to matter to audiences. The activity of skiing was exciting and glamourous. And seeing Bond skiing, in an exotic location, even in a bobble hat and shiny flared sellopetes, looked cool as he escaped the goons dispatched on him.

Snow scenes in the bond films are usually teamed with a heavy dose of action to propel the story along. Here, the pace is really rammed up and you could say there are certain formulas evident; Bahamas for the bikinis, Austria for the sellopetes. The audience is swiftly transported from one place and introduced to another location, bringing a grander scale to the picture. It it this aspect that is a key signature of the bond films, and one that Chris Nolan has admitted he was inspired by for Inception (check out the post here).

But for now, here's a round-up of the iconic Brit spy, being chased, giving, ahem, chase and generally handling tricky situations (garish wardrobes included) in the white stuff as easily as kicking back with a vodka martini.


“He’s branched off”
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
1969
Bond: George Lazenby
Snow scene: Piz Gloria, Switzerland

Bobsleds, trees and St Bernards. Blofeld (Telly Savalas) and Bond engage in a furious bobsled chase down Piz Gloria, culminating with Blofeld becoming snared in a tree branch and injuring his neck. Bond leaps from the out-of-control bobsled just before it crashes; he's rescued by a St. Bernard.


“But James I need you...” “So does England ”
The Spy Who Loved Me
1977
Bond: Roger Moore
Snow scene: Austria

Fur rugs, dodgy yellow skiwear and Union Jack Flags. Roger Moore
(a bond about as cool as your dad skiing and thinking “the mission’s in the bag”) is ambushed by Soviet agents, kills one during a downhill ski chase and escapes via a Union Flag parachute.


“I took the scenic route”
For Your Eyes Only
1981
Bond: Roger Moore
Snow scene: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Northern Italy

Ski jumps, chalet lunches interrupted, slightly better ski outfits. Another scene with Roger’s James (fromage) Bond. Kriegler attempts to kill Bond with his biathlon rifle, and pursues him on a machine gun armed motorcycle, over a chalet balcony, down a bobsleigh track, and into a farm where Bond escapes. Three other men also attempt to kill Bond on an indoor ice rink, but he manages to fend them off.


“We’ve nothing to declare”
The Living Daylights
1987
Bond: Timothy Dalton
Snow scene: Austria

Exploding sheds, Aston Martins and cellos. Bond and Kara (Maryam d'Abo) sledge down a mountain using a cello case as their sled and speed through the border customs kiosk.


“Morning Q. Sorry about the leg. Skiing?”
Goldeneye
1995
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Snow scene: Severnaya Zemlya, Russia

Helicopters, huskies and IT geeks. Ourumov and Xenia steal a prototype Eurocopter Tiger helicopter fly it to a bunker in Severnaya, where they massacre the staff and steal the control disk for the dual GoldenEye satellite weapons. Natalya (Izabella Scorupco), is caught in the devastation and is the lone survivor.


“See you back at the lodge”
The World is Not Enough
1999
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Snow scene: Azerbaijan

Snowmobiles, bug-faced henchmen and avalanche airbags. During a tour of the pipeline's proposed route in the mountains, Bond and Elektra (Sophie Marceau) are attacked by a hit squad in armed, paraglider-equipped snowmobiles.



“I have been known to keep my tip up”
Die Another Day
2002
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Snow scene: Iceland

Satellites, ice palaces and spikey tyres. Bond attempts to rescue Jinx (Halle Berry), where he is discovered and chased by Zao. Zao dies after Bond tricks him into crashing his car into a flooded portion of the facility and causing a chandelier to fall on him.

Let Me In

This week Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) brings us his version of Let Me In, the drama/horror film based on the 2004 vampire fiction novel by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist and the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In, directed by Tomas Alfredson. It tells the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who develops a friendship with a vampire child (Chloë Moretzin - Kick Ass) in a New Mexico town in the early 1980s.

Alfredson was against Reeves' version. Concerned that his touching and haunting film has evolved into something mainstream he has stated "If one should remake a film, it's because the original is bad. And I don't think mine is. Remakes should be made of movies that aren't very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong. I'm very proud of my movie and I think it's great, but the Americans might have another opinion."

The comparison between the films is perhaps playing on Alfredson's mind more than critics, as both films have/are being received well.

Let The Right One In had less of a commercial push and hype prior to it's release, however it's worth checking out. Brilliantly adapted from the novel with a chilling atmosphere; its good to see some originality in a story that steers away from the usual vampire-flick clichés. A decent time-filler whilst you wait for the Let Me In DVD to drop on your doormat.

Let Me In is released in UK cinemas 5 November
Tell me more about Let The Right One In
Check out the book

Simon's Cat 'Snow Business'

This cute fella of the furry kind needs little introduction, as he's been doing some hefty viewing rounds on YouTube lately. Like a low-fi (more funny) Garfield without the colour, the animation makes for a humble series of stories, with bags of charm.

Like this? You can find more on Simon's Cat's website.