The Phoblographer

“There are countries that are still dominated by traditional and fanatical patriarchal views,” states Ershad Fatahian about what inspired him to make his series of images titled Unseen. Photographed entirely in his home country, Iran, he hopes to bring about an awareness of the struggles women face with this set of photos.

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

Without making any obvious political references, Ershad Fatahian’s Unseen creates a reasonably bold statement about the imbalanced rights of women everywhere. Despite strides in the right direction to improve this, he maintains there is a strong need for quick betterment of the situation. Using carefully selected locations not far from his town, he’s portrayed his thoughts about the current issues women face worldwide.

The Essential Photo Gear Used by Ershad Fatahian

Ershad told us:

Canon 5D Mark ll

Canon 6D

Sony Cybershot DSC-F828

Canon 40D

Canon 30D

Manfrotto Befree GT XPRO Tripod

Sandisk memory cards

I believe that it’s not about the camera, it’s about the camera man. For this reason, I usually do not feel the need to change the camera as technology advances and new models come on the market, and I can almost say that I have been working with each camera for 4 or 5 years.

The Phoblographer: Please tell us about yourself and how you got into photography.

Ershad Fatahian: It all started like this: with the encouragement of a friend, I sent my photos for the first time to participate in the 8th Iranian Photography Biennale, the result was interesting! I came first in the field of architecture in 2006. I had entered a new world; now it was time for new experiences in this world. I am Ershad Fatahian, born in 1982 in Tehran, a graduate of painting from the University of Art and Architecture in Tehran.

I started my career in photography and graphic design in 2006. I have participated in three international Photo exhibitions in Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and 15 domestic exhibitions. I have been working as an art director since 2011 in my advertising studio called Deep Creative Solution.

The Phoblographer: In your opinion, what is this series expressing to the viewer?

Ershad Fatahian: In the Middle East and some other parts of the world, women are mixed with the pattern of tradition and religion and in some countries are discriminated against. And the identity of women in general in the world, during some periods of history, even in developed countries, has not been accepted independently and freely. But there are countries that are still dominated by traditional and fanatical patriarchal views. Of course, over time, this view has changed a lot in many countries, as we see powerful women with important, influential jobs even in the decision-making position for a country. But there are countries that are still dominated by traditional and fanatical patriarchal views.

The subject of the collection I portrayed is women in such lands who have always been shrouded in traditional and patriarchal fanatics and have not been able to show their potential, ability and talent, but still, always look to the future and hope, And try to change their situation. I have tried to capture the naked reality of the thoughts in which women in some countries are imprisoned by removing the filter of optimism and beauty of the image.

The Phoblographer: How easy was it to photograph this series? What challenges did you encounter?

Ershad Fatahian: To find such spaces, I enlisted the help of my friends so that with their help, we could find the most suitable space for photography. Or, where appropriate, the owner would not have allowed us to do so. So we decided to explore the gardens outside the city as well, the gardens that have an old building, and fortunately, after two weeks of research, we found the right space when we were looking for it.

About 60 km outside of Tehran, there is a pleasant and cold area with many gardens, ...

Instant film is the perfect combination of attitudes new and old. It has the classic film vibe while offering the instant gratification today’s society demands. Instant film cameras are awesome ice breakers too. They’re cool for parties, and everyone wants to hang with the person who owns one. However, one shouldn’t confuse them as being merely a gimmick. Photographers have been known to make remarkable work with instants. Don’t believe us? Take a look.

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

Instant Film Wedding Photography

In 2016, Nick Collingwood came to our attention with his instant film wedding photography. It’s certainly an unorthodox way of creating photographs for newlyweds. We were curious to learn how couples reacted to the idea of having their big day documented with instant film. Collingwood told us, “people loved the nostalgic quality and texture that the instant film had plus the couples loved that it was a photo memento they could hold almost immediately.” He did a solid job. Take a look here.

The Female Gaze Through Instant Film

“.I started reading up on the history of Polaroid and buying vintage cameras on auction sites,” Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde told us in a 2019 interview. She continued, “I organized a nude shoot just to see how it would look on Polaroid and fell in love with how the pictures came out.” Her nude portraits fit perfectly with the misty aesthetic of instant film. Beyond that, her work is gentle and celebrates the female form through the female eye. Take a look here.

Landscapes on Expired Instant Film

Some photographers turn their noses up to expired film. We’re unsure why. It can make for some fascinating results when making photographs. Paul Hoi does the opposite. He jumps at the idea of playing around with expired film. He describes himself as an experimental landscape photographer. A few years ago, he shot some cool landscapes with a polaroid camera. The results remind us of a 70s cult classic science fiction movie. Enjoy them for yourself here.

Stunning Astrophotography Shot on Instant

When people think of the best gear for astrophotography, they may think of a high-quality wide-angle lens, like the Canon RF 15-35mm f2.8. But trends are breakable, and that’s certainly what astrophotographer Daniel Stein did. He used his polaroid camera to show you can do just as well (sometimes better) with your astrophotography with a basic Polaroid. And you can enjoy some of his work right here.

A Love Story with Polaroid

Earlier this year, EIC Chris Gampat talked about dating with a twist. Instead of the traditional “sit in a coffee shop and ask about childhood,” Gampat poised the idea of going on a photo walk with an instant camera. It’s a nice way to document what may be the beginning of a happy ever after. And it can bring some spark back to your dating life. Read the full story here.

Andy Willis Used Bleached Polaroids

Andy Willis used kitchen-grade bleach to recover Fuji FP100C negatives. “Between shooting, bleaching and scanning, it’s quite a lengthy and intensive process, but I feel the unique results are worth it,” he said in a 2017 interview with The Phoblographer. He’s not wrong. The results he achieved bring a new twist to instant film photography. You can check out his full development process and the results right here.

Shoot Polaroid?

Send us your best stuff if you shoot with a polaroid and instant film. We’re particularly interested in projects that are different from the norm. You can use the form below to make contact. Thanks for reading.

Want to get your work featured? Here’s how to do it!

All images used with permission.

“Very few people have ever been as close as I have,” explains Monterey Bay Aquarium’s photographer Tyson Rininger when asked how incredible his job is. He’s had some fascinating encounters with underwater creatures big and small and has a job many photographers would envy. How many photographers can actually say they’ve spent time in an elevator with a shark?

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

The one thing I’ve always struggled with when photographing fish at a public aquarium is the distortion from the thick glass that separates us from them. If I were brave enough, I’d probably go into the designated visitors’ tanks to dive with them. But I always chicken out and blame my camera’s lack of proper underwater housing. As much as I think they’re magnificent creatures, I doubt I’d ever want to get close enough to a great white shark to photograph it. For a lot of us, the choice of whether to visit an aquarium or not depends on how enticing the advertisements are. At Monterey Bay Aquarium, Tyson and the marketing team have been doing fantastic work on this front for some years now. Scroll through some of their images on a high-resolution screen, and it’s almost like you’re in front of the display themselves. In 2014, they became the first aquarium to have a Google Street View of the inside of the facility (this virtual tour is addictive).

The Essential Photo Gear Used by Tyson Rininger

Tyson told us:

Nikon D5

Nikon D850

Nikkor 24-120mm f4

Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8

Nikon 105mm f2.8 macro

Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8

Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6

I currently use Nikon cameras with Speedotron power packs and Godox portable strobes. My predecessor was entirely Canon, so that was a fun experience working together. It did give us an opportunity to compare brands in the real world and work on compatibility solutions.

The Phoblographer: Please tell us about yourself and how you got into photography. Did you have any experience with animals before joining the Monterey Aquarium?

Tyson Rininger: Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to share how imagery is produced here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I’ve been a photographer for about 35 years and have published about a dozen books, primarily in the field of aviation. However, as with most photographers, my interests expanded to that of architecture, food, products, nature and more. I grew up in the days of film and worked with every format from 35mm, 6x6cm, 4x5in and 8x10in. As for working with animals directly, not a whole lot, but I do love animals, and I think people could tell when I first began working with the Aquarium. Though I do sometimes feel like I cheated on a test to get here since I can’t spit out the Latin names of every animal and species like our Animal Care folks can. They are truly amazing and are the heart of our institution.

The Phoblographer: Tell us how you stumbled upon this vacancy and about your first few days at the job.

Tyson Rininger: Part of my past was my involvement in working in camera stores. When I moved to Monterey, CA, in 1996, I worked for Myrick Photographic. One of our good customers was Randy Wilder, who was the current Monterey Bay Aquarium photographer at the time. We browsed his slides together following the opening of the Aquarium’s Open Sea exhibit, which features the iconic gold Sea nettle jellies on a blue background with which most people are familiar. I blurted out how I would enjoy seeing how the images were created and thus began my twenty-year adventure as a volunteer assistant photographer working with Randy. That eventually became a contract position as the workload increased and the option of hiring a second photographer was explored. Once Randy had reached his 30-year tenure, his retirement resulted in me being given the position in 2016. Randy then became my contract photographer as our roles were reversed.

The Phoblographer: How long do you think it took for the animals there ...

Our Capture One 22 review was updated recently. One of the biggest new features for Canon photographers is being able to wirelessly tether with their cameras. Previously, you needed to use EOS utility or some other method. But now, the Canon EOS R5, Canon EOS R, and others can connect to your WiFi network and they’ll be recognized by Capture One 22. It’s quite an awesome feature even if the delivery takes double the amount of time Capture One says it will wirelessly.

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

Here’s what we’re saying in our review.

The Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOS R are two cameras we’ve got in-house that can wirelessly tether with Capture One 22. Previously, you needed to use Canon EOS Utility to do this. But now, you don’t need to. Below is the tutorial on how to do it. It’s more or less the same way with the Canon EOS R as it is with the Canon EOS R5.

For the record, I’m in NYC and I have Verizon FiOS with 1GB up and down. My router is right next to my desk. I work on a 2019 iMac that’s fully tricked out. The Canon EOS R is a bit slower, but both the Canon EOS R and Canon EOS R5 do a more than good enough job with wireless transmission to my iMac. The whole process goes even faster if you have a clean catalog. Some folks just shoot using Sessions, but I’m not one of those.

This is a very awesome feature to come to Capture One 22 and with Canon overall. Personally, tethering can be incredibly annoying. There are some nice solutions from folks like Tether Tools, but more often than not, issues arise with the cable coming out or something like that. Doing it wirelessly is liberating. More importantly, not having to buy Canon’s stupid WiFi dongle is even better.

I can see a very particular type of photographer shooting tethered. If you’re in a studio in a full-production environment, you’ve got the budget for a capture specialist, and a client is in the room, then it’s a good idea. They can see the images as they come up on the screen pretty easily. This way they’re also not all up in your personal space chimping the back of the LCD screen. I’ve done shoots like this before, but I’d rather not.

I’ve taken a lot more to shooting, going through the images on the back of the camera, star-rating a photo, and then just working with the starred photos in post-production. It really, truly is a lifesaver and I don’t understand the antiquated thought-process behind just looking at all the images in post-production. With the pandemic’s end being nowhere in sight, I’d much rather spend less time at a computer slaving away. If I can make that process faster in the first place, so be it.

However, with wireless tethering, you’ll prevent it all in the first place. The entire process will be slower at times, but you’re bound to get more keeper shots. So if you’re using the Canon EOS R5 or the Canon EOS R, give wireless tethering in Capture One a shot.

At the start of December, the BBC released an article looking at the most striking images of 2021. Few of the photographs painted a positive image of the world. However, that’s something we should expect, considering how mainstream media uses photography to tell stories. That’s not to say the images were bad. They have their place, and each photographer succeeded in documenting monumental moments in 2021, no matter how negative they are.

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

BBC and Its Striking Image Selection

The selected photographs included the Capital Hill riot, a young girl standing in a destroyed home in Gaza, and the hundreds of people crammed into a plane attempting to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. These are monumental moments in 2021, but none that fill you with hope for a brighter 2022. But my problem with this round-up of images curated by the BBC has little to do with the tone of the selection. Mainstream media profits off the doom and gloom, and it’s the consumer that allows them to do so. My problem, rather, is the little regard for the photographers who made the images.

From riots to ruins, the photographers who created the images for news outlets around the world to profit from, put themselves in some challenging situations. Speak to any photojournalist; all of them have “a story” that’ll make you wonder why they put themselves in such environments.

Of course, it’s their job, and they get paid. But the main issue I had with the BBC is that the article didn’t credit the photographers. Instead, credit went to large news corporations and agencies like Reuters, Getty Images, and Alamy. The brands didn’t take those images; real humans who put their safety on the line did.

BBC, Getty and Co Disrespect Photographers

All 15 images came with a passage of text that detailed an overview of the story behind the photograph. However, the article gave mention to only one photographer. Even worse, instead of giving credit to the photographers, the author of the article took the time to mention famous artists who came to mind when looking at each photograph. Whether it’s Getty, Reuters, Alamy, or the BBC, the consistent disregard for the photographers who make them money is both alarming and disgusting.

While photography has become more accessible and popular, large establishments have begun to treat photographers as commodities, taking them for granted and showing little respect for the hard work they do. Look at Unsplash, a company that’s generated millions of dollars without paying a photographer a single penny. And Getty bought them! If people read the BBC article outside of the UK, it will have generated money through ad revenue. It will have certainly made the BBC money, and it didn’t even have the decency to tell the world who were the photographers behind the images.

Final Thought

What’s likely is that the photographers signed a contract with Getty and co that agreed to license the images to publications under the brand’s name rather than the photographer’s. If I’m correct, I have two things to say: Large brands and media outlets should not ask photographers to give up their names on an image they created. And photographers should take a portion of responsibility and not agree to be nameless when their images are licensed.

Shame on the BBC, Reuters, and the rest. Sure there are more photographers than ever, but few of them are good. If we want to protect photojournalism for decades and centuries to come, we need to ask the powers that be to show the respect it deserves. And more importantly, we, the photographers, have to show that we respect ourselves and the work we create.

What do you make of this story? Should the photographers receive credit in the BBC article? Let us know the comments below. Thanks for reading.

All images are screenshots.

Sometimes, it’s best to put your camera down and take a step back from photography.

Whether you’re a die-hard hobbyist or a consummate professional, you likely practice photography a lot. But there comes a time in every photographer’s journey when things don’t go well. It can be a lack of enthusiasm, a struggle to find identity, or a general lack of love for the craft. When we hit low points in our journey, the best solution is often to take a break. And in this piece, we look at some signs that you need to put your camera down.

The Photography Aesthetic Hasn’t Evolved

I’m a big believer in progression. No matter how successful you are, you should always strive to improve and learn new things. That could mean photographing different types of subjects. It could also mean learning new photo editing skills to give your images more life.

If you spend time with your archive and notice your images look the same, it’s time to take a step back. It’s easy to get into a routine when it comes to creation. And that routine can be difficult to break. But by stepping away from photography, you can come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes. Taking a break also gives you time to gain clarity on what direction you want to go in.

Photography Feels More Like a Chore

Even if your passion is photography, there will be phases where you just don’t feel it. You may develop resentment to the fact you feel like you must always use your camera. Instead of shooting being a joyous thing, it starts feeling more like a chore. That’s normal and it can come and go in waves. But when that chore-like feeling does arrive, take a break. It’s good to miss the feeling of making photos. It can help you realize why you enjoy doing it so much.

You’re Feeling Guilty About Your Lack of Productivity

Rather than taking a conscious break, photographers may just stop using their camera. Better known as a rut, the camera starts to live on the shelf. “I’ll make photos next week,” you may say. But next week never comes. Over time you start to feel guilty. “I should be making more photos.”

Instead of letting the guilt manifest further and ignoring the obvious, decide to take a break. But it has to be a conscious break. For example, you can tell yourself, “I won’t make photographs for four weeks.” That way, you have committed to a date, and you don’t have to feel guilty. Hopefully, by the time you pick up your camera, you’ll have a new sense of enthusiasm.

You Focus Your Attention on the Negative Elements of the Industry

Every industry has its good and bad parts. The deeper you get into photography, the more you deal with egos, time-wasters, and a whole list of other issues. It’s par for the course. But usually, people can handle all that by connecting to the positive elements of being a photographer.

If you can no longer see those positives and find that you focus your energy on the negatives, it’s time for a break. Honestly, it’s a miserable place to be in when all you see is the bad parts of something. Take a break, focus on your mental health, and come back when you feel more positive energy again.

You Want to Have the “Falling in Love” Period Again

The romance that comes with starting photography is special. Learning new things and exploring new places with your camera is awesome. But like the infatuation stage of a relationship, it can only last so long. That doesn’t mean it stops being a good thing: it’s just more of a balanced enjoyment rather than an intense thrill.

But many photographers long for that initial buzz again. If this sounds like you, walk away from photography. Find something new to do or develop another passion you have. If the connection is strong, you’ll pick up your camera again. And when you do, it will feel like the beginning of a new, exciting relationship!

Taking a Break Doesn’t Need to Mean the End

Taking breaks should certainly be a part of your process. Breaks will stop you from burning out and losing the passion for what you love. Identify wh...

On this week's episode of Inside The Photographer's Mind, we're joined by L.A. based photographer, Kristin Bedford.

Kristin joins us to talk about her photo book, Cruise Night, as well as other projects she's working on. Kristin also shares her journey into photography, what it was like being a 7-year-old street photographer, and how it all impacted her photographic identity. It's a great show, and one we're sure you'll enjoy!

Links to Kristin Bedford

Website: https://www.kristinbedford.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/kristin_bed...

To purchase Cruise Night:

USA/Los Angeles: https://www.skylightbooks.com/cruise-...

Europe/Paris: https://www.polka.paris/factory/krist...

The Phoblographer: https://www.thephoblographer.com

Backing up photos is one of the most important things you can do as a photographer. It’s poor form to have your images sat on only one hard drive. If a disaster happens and you damage your computer, or someone steals it, your work is gone forever. Thankfully, there are several ways to backup your images. Online cloud storage and external drives remain the most popular. But there’s one method of backing up your photos that people often overlook.

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

Backing up Photos With Cloud Storage

Cloud storage has become the most popular way of backing up photos in the modern era. As everything is digital nowadays, having the ability to sync photos across multiple devices is helpful for a photographer’s workflow. From Google Drive to Dropbox, all the mainstream cloud services offer robust, industry-standard encryption for your files. But they’re not perfect. The top dogs use client-side encryption, meaning they can access your photos should they wish. And they’re also not immune to middlemen cyber attacks. So, while they’re generally safe, there’s always a chance of something going wrong.

If you want total control over who can access your files, I recommend going with a cloud service that offers zero-knowledge encryption. Some of the best options are:

Sync.com

pCloud

MEGA

Also, while it’s rare, some files can become corrupt over time. I’ve used cloud storage for over five years, and I can no longer open some files. We’re talking about one or two images from a collection of thousands. But imagine if that one image was your favorite photograph? It would be heartbreaking.

Backing up Photos with an External Drive

The old-school way of backing up your photographs was to copy them from your computer’s hard drive and back them up to an external hard drive. Hard drives are small enough to travel with, but there’s one major downside to using them: they don’t last forever. Depending on how much you use it, you may need to replace your hard drive every three to five years. If you don’t keep on top of maintenance, it may fail you one day and your backups will be lost. SSDs are more reliable, perform better, and last longer, but still, not forever.

The Overlooked Method of Backing up Photographs

With cloud storage and external drives out of the way, what other method can photographers use when backing up photos? Prints. Now before you all scream, “do you know how much it would cost to print all my photographs?” that’s not what I’m suggesting.

Amongst the masses of photographs we create, every photographer has their “gold collection.” 10 or 20 images that they’re totally in love with and that highlight the peak of their photography skills. Backing up photos or not, you should print every a-star photograph you create. Digital screens will never do as much justice as a quality print with a premium matte finish. You can smell the photograph, you can feel it, and you can immerse yourself inside it; sounds deep? Try it. You won’t disagree.

But beyond that, a physical print is the perfect backup and companion to the digital version. You can hang it up on the wall if you want to bring extra life to your home. But honestly, I would frame your printed backups and store them away either in your home or, if you have the money, a vault. Because when your cloud storage provider hits a roadblock or your hard drive goes to heaven, the printed versions of your most prized photographs will remain intact for you to enjoy for as long you’re around.

We’re all fans of some photography brands. Some hold a special place in our hearts, and many among us defend them to no end. Others we can’t stand yet secretly wish our favorite brand would do better than. But this article isn’t about which brands are outshining the others. Almost all leading camera manufacturers are guilty of doing (or not doing) one or more of the points listed below. What is worrying is that some of these unhealthy trends have continued for years. And manufacturers don’t seem to want to address these points soon. Which ones do you find most annoying?

You can view this article and much more with minimal ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means. These points are ones that I’ve been discussing amongst my fellow photographers for nearly a decade now. It makes me wonder, why despite these issues being addressed in camera forums, do manufacturers pretend like they’re a non-issue. Isn’t the voice of the consumer valid to them? Isn’t it annoying when existing users reach out to brands with feature requests, only to have them ignored?

Table of Contents

Camera Manufacturers Not Providing Firmware Updates to Capable Older Cameras

Not Innovating Enough to Fill a Genuine Need

Camera Manufacturers Not Giving Prime Lenses as a Kit Lens Option

Pretending Like a Major Manufacturing Flaw Doesn’t Exist

Camera Manufacturers Not Providing Firmware Updates to Capable Older Cameras

Fuji is the most notable exception to this. I’m not a user of their cameras, but it always brings me a smile to see them releasing firmware updates to old cameras. Many of these aren’t just updates that perform bug fixes. In many cases, they’ve brought the AF performance of previous-generation cameras almost on par with their current ones.

Let’s take the example of the Fuji X-Pro2, a camera that was released to the public in early March 2016. Firmware version 5.00 made the following improvements:

The low-light limit for phase detection autofocus has been improved by approximately 1.5 stops from 0.5EV to -1.0EV, raising the precision and speed of autofocus in low-light environments.

The range at minimum aperture has been expanded from F8 to F11. For example, even when using the XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with the teleconverter XF2X TC WR, phase detection autofocus can now be used.

Major improvements have been made to the AF-C performance while operating the zoom, which provides major benefits when shooting sports and other scenarios in which the subjects moves unpredictably.

Finely-detailed surface textures of wild birds and wild animals can now be captured at high speed and with high precision as a result of improvement in phase detection autofocus.

Fuji’s firmware releases are testament to the fact that even older cameras can perform better at things like autofocus and subject tracking. Of course, they do this without having to resort to newer or dual processors. Manufacturers try to push consumers to purchase newer models to be able to get improved features. Yes, we’d all like faster AF. We’d never complain if Eye-AF was added as a feature with a firmware update. Just don’t keep spinning the annoying old tale that new features need newer processors. Fuji’s clearly proving that older processors can be improved upon if brands just took the effort to work on them. You don’t always need that latest camera; sometimes all you need is just a newer firmware for your current one. By continuing to support even first-generation models of their X-line of digital cameras, Fuji keeps their fan base loyal. We wish more camera manufacturers would do this.

In September 2020, a whole bunch of their cameras received firmware updates. These included the X-T4, X-T3, X-T2, X-T1, X-H1, X-Pro3, X-Pro2, X-Pro1, X-E3, X-T20, and X-T30. No doubt, it takes up a considerable amount of their R&D budget, but by continuing to innovate this way, they make sure their customers stick by them. Plus it frees up customers f...

If you ever experienced photography before Instagram, then you hopefully got to check out the tilt-shift lens. They were used for a variety of things: architecture, landscapes, and surreal work. It’s where the idea of miniatures comes from. And almost a decade ago, they were expensive and not used as creatively. These days, the tilt-shift lens is completely missing from various camera systems. And I think that the tilt-shift should make a return, but in a totally different way.

You can view this article and much more with minimal banner ads in our brand new app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android. And for $24.99/year, you can have a banner-ad-free experience.

Tilt-shift lenses were all about getting perspectives 100% totally what you want them to be. All of that can be done digitally via post-production these days. But a lot of photographers would rather not have to do it in post-production. After all, what’s the fun of photography if you’re spending all day behind a computer screen? Manufacturers like to talk about how some of their lenses don’t have distortion. And for the most part, a lot of distortion has been eliminated. But it’s not perfect still. A tilt-shift lens, medium format, or large format lens can still do things much better and get it right the first time around.

“The miniature effect is in essence, using the lens to drastically change the plane of focus by a tilt and/or shift to throw out the area of focus only keeping a small area IN focus.”

How a Tilt Shift Lens Works

Even so, I don’t think that that this is why the tilt-shift lens should come back. Instead, I think that the current landscape of lenses is just seriously lacking in variety. We’d know, we’ve reviewed more than any other photo publication.

Manufacturers also generally work to engineer all the character out of their lenses. These clinical experiments have removed the soul from optics. To that end, we get the perfect metaphorical tacos that still need a lime to be drizzled on them. And this means that a manufacturer doesn’t necessarily need to create a tilt-shift lens, but a tilt-shift adapter could possibly work. Even then though, the adapters don’t do as good of a job as a dedicated lens.

Years ago, we reviewed the Rokinon 24mm tilt-shift lens. And it touched on a very big and important point. Here’s a section from that review:

“Now a lens like this is built to CORRECT distortion caused by less than ideal perspectives (we can’t all shoot from a cherry-picker 20-50 feet in the air all the time). So thankfully with the shift adjustments available on this lens it is quite simple to correct the converging lines of taller buildings or even normal rooms from a higher or lower angle than eye-level.”

I’ll totally admit that this can be an annoying problem to deal with. But a tilt-shift lens would make sure that I don’t have to face it at all. And when I’m done with it for perspective correction, I’ll go play with it to create miniatures.

If you’re sitting here saying, “Chris, you can just do it in post-production,” then you’re missing the point. I don’t want to do it in post-production. A lot of us don’t. We’re still in a pandemic that isn’t over and people spend way more time in front of screens. We don’t need to anymore. We can spend time working with our cameras and getting the photos to be perfect in-camera. Photography is a skill, and we should make it so again. Yes, AI and technology has made the basics easier. But it’s up to us now to raise the higher end of skills up since the lower end has also risen up.