# TS-E for dummy



## tpatana (Dec 1, 2015)

Ok, time to educate a dummy. For some time I've been looking for the TS-E lens(es), and reading quite a bit about them too. Problem is that without one in hand, the instructions can be complicated. Now I finally snatched one from the Canon refurb deals, 24 Mark II  Waiting for the shipment to arrive...

I'm sure I'll learn plenty by just playing with the knobs, but to start with, can someone give dummy-proof setting how they usually use in certain situations. Dummy-proof as in how is the tilt (including direction), shift (including direction), rotation and focus, for following scenarios:

1: Typical landscape

2: Typical tall building when standing relatively close

3: The "mandatory" miniature shot


For 1), I was reading one recommendation about rotating 30 degrees, and then shifting each end, rotate 30 to another side and again shift. Then stitch the 4 shots.

For bonus points: Seems tripod is recommended usually. Anyone use handheld?

And should I get ND and/or CPL?


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## kaihp (Dec 1, 2015)

tpatana said:


> Ok, time to educate a dummy. For some time I've been looking for the TS-E lens(es), and reading quite a bit about them too. Problem is that without one in hand, the instructions can be complicated. Now I finally snatched one from the Canon refurb deals, 24 Mark II  Waiting for the shipment to arrive...
> 
> I'm sure I'll learn plenty by just playing with the knobs, but to start with, can someone give dummy-proof setting how they usually use in certain situations. Dummy-proof as in how is the tilt (including direction), shift (including direction), rotation and focus, for following scenarios:
> 
> ...



Congrats on the 24mm. I have a 90mm 

Turning the knobs made a few lightbulbs go off in my head:
If you don't shift, the center point/axis won't change in focus as you tilt. In the case of the pictures, I focused using 10x LiveView on the center point and then tilted to get the right focus plan (along the glass).

Shot 1: no tilt.
Shot 2: tilted to get focal plane to match the glass
Shot 3: #2 + our coffee
Shot 4: max reverse tilt of #3
(missing shot: me drinking the coffee)

Another user (sorry, I forgot who) reported that he saw a pro shoot with a T/S lens handheld, but that is pretty rare. A tripod is highly recommended as any movement on your part will be seen as a change on focus plane.


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## NorbR (Dec 1, 2015)

kaihp said:


> Another user (sorry, I forgot who) reported that he saw a pro shoot with a T/S lens handheld, but that is pretty rare. A tripod is highly recommended as any movement on your part will be seen as a change on focus plane.



Using shift hand-held is quite feasible, at least for the usual "tall buildings not falling backwards" type of correction. Using tilt hand-held, on the other hand, is certainly asking for trouble (it's hard enough on a tripod ...) 

But then again, I've only had my first TS-E (24mm, same as OP) for a couple of months, and I'm still experimenting with it, so I can't really contribute a lot to this thread (but will be following contributions from others  )


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## dcm (Dec 1, 2015)

You might start with these threads if you haven't already read them.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=24660.msg484950#msg484950
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=27551.msg544408#msg544408

I have to agree that this is a pretty good primer

https://www.schneideroptics.com/pdfs/photo/PC-TS%20Anleitung%201-12%20en.PDF

There's also some videos from Canon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmPQVvF3EPQ
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/galleries/galleries/tutorials/tiltShift_laforet_gallery.shtml

Kai even did a reasonable intro on Digital Rev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HRYlJUwzYA


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## Sabaki (Dec 1, 2015)

Took my 24mm TSE for its first spin on my new 6D Saturday past and royally screwed up the verticals on a building. 

Setting up your shot is critical with this lens or you may just use a standard 24mm. I must spend more time with it


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## surapon (Dec 1, 2015)

tpatana said:


> Ok, time to educate a dummy. For some time I've been looking for the TS-E lens(es), and reading quite a bit about them too. Problem is that without one in hand, the instructions can be complicated. Now I finally snatched one from the Canon refurb deals, 24 Mark II  Waiting for the shipment to arrive...
> 
> I'm sure I'll learn plenty by just playing with the knobs, but to start with, can someone give dummy-proof setting how they usually use in certain situations. Dummy-proof as in how is the tilt (including direction), shift (including direction), rotation and focus, for following scenarios:
> 
> ...



Dear friend, Mr. tpatana.
Welcome to the club " Tilt & Shift Lens Club " , Yes, I have this awesome Babe Canon TS-E 24 MM. F/ 3.5 L MK II about 18 months ago, and with one of my Canon Camera all the times with B+W82 KSM C-POL MRC. FILTER for all of my out door scenery/ streetscape / Landscape photos.
Yes, I use hand hold shooting, When I set Shutter Speed faster than 1/ 125 SEC. And F = 8.0 or higher number, During ISO = 100 to 400.
But I will use tripods when the Shutter speed slower than 1/80 SEC., Spacial for take the photos of the skyscaper If I use Shift Function to correct the Perspective.
Because this Babe = Manual Focus only, I set my Focus point at 1 spot Focus on the Center, And Set the Beep Sound, When I rotate the focus ring until I can see the green square( Depend on Camera Model) at the center view finder and the beep sound, = That the perfected Focus for me.
Good luck for your new Lens----Yes, If I have only 2 Lenses in this world, TS-E 24 mm L MK II and EF 85 mm. F/ 1.2 L MK II = that good enough for me.
Have a great work week, Sir, 
Surapon.


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## surapon (Dec 1, 2015)

Good luck for your new Lens----Yes, If I have only 2 Lenses in this world, TS-E 24 mm L MK II and EF 85 mm. F/ 1.2 L MK II = that good enough for me.
Have a great work week, Sir, 
Surapon.


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## surapon (Dec 1, 2015)

Good luck for your new Lens----Yes, If I have only 2 Lenses in this world, TS-E 24 mm L MK II and EF 85 mm. F/ 1.2 L MK II = that good enough for me.
Have a great work week, Sir, 
Surapon.


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## quod (Dec 1, 2015)

Tilt with the front round nob. Shift with the back round nob. There is a flat button on the lens that you push in, which enables you to rotate the body so that you can change the direction of the tilt or change the direction of the shift. 

Yes, I have shot the lens hand-held, although critical focusing is best done at 10x on Live View, so a tripod is highly advised.

The miniature look is allegedly best accomplished with the TS-E 45, but the TS-E 24 may still do it decently well.

I generally use shift (but not tilt) with my TS-E 17 and 24. One way to learn the lens is to use a tripod, level the tripod, and make sure the lens is neither tilted or shifted. The horizon should be centered in your frame. Now shift the lens with the back nob until the horizon is 1/3 up or down. Now the shot conforms with the rule of thirds (at least with the weighting of sky with land), but trees, buildings, and other objects in the composition are in a normal orientation (ie not falling backwards).

Another test is to set up a landscape on your tripod, level the lens, then do a 3-photo shift sequence. Shoot at 0, then at -11, then at +11. Take those three shots, stitch them together, and you will have a shift panorama.

A third test you can try is set up the lens on a tripod to the side of a mirror and shift it left or right until the mirror is in the center of the frame but the tripod, camera, and lens will hopefully not be evident. It's a cool trick.


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## JohanL (Dec 1, 2015)

I have the 24mm, use it mostly for shift panos as well as shift landscapes and cityscapes. For buildings I love that I could make the verticals absolutely parallel, at times I use a bit of back camera tilt just to get a touch of converging verticals which at times look more natural. Use it handheld a lot for single frames, tripod and remote control is always advisable.

The magic of tilt is awesome but takes a bit of understanding. Camera body tilt combined with lens tilt works wonders with low level landscapes with everything in focus. I found an iOS app called Snapi Tilt Calculator which is very usable and can even measure camera body tilt by holding your device against the back of the camera.

The lens is normally used with a 6D and I use an iPhone or iPad with a WiFi connection to remotely use live view on the device and to control all functions of the camera.

Enjoy the lens.


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## neuroanatomist (Dec 1, 2015)

tpatana said:


> 1: Typical landscape
> 
> 2: Typical tall building when standing relatively close
> 
> ...



1. You can certainly use shift to create a panorama, personally I find that 24mm is wide enough for most landscape shooting, and if I need a pano shot I'm better off with a longer lens (I use the 24-70 at the long end) in portrait orientation. For 'general' landscape use, ~0.5° of downward tilt will get near-to-far in focus at f/5.6-8.

2. This is my main use for TS-E lenses, and since 24mm often isn't wide enough, I also got the 17mm and I travel with both (and 17mm still isn't wide enough sometimes - in Europe, there are many big, lovely Münsters with very little space around them. For eliminating keystoning (the 'falling away' of buildings), have your camera level (the in-camera electronic level is quite handy) then apply upward shift until the verticals are straight. 




EOS 1D X, TS-E 17mm f/4L, 30 s, f/9, ISO 100

Although normally with architecture shift is used but not tilt, sometimes both can be used. For example:




EOS 1D X, TS-E 17mm f/4L, 30 s, f/11, ISO 100

For the above shot, I placed the tripod close to the building (the Rathaus in Basel, Switzerland), pointed the camera straight up and used downward shift (because that's the way the camera was facing) to effectively move the camera even closer to the building, then I used a bit of downward tilt so the entire façade was in focus.

3. I've never shot the 'mandatory' miniature.  But a bit of upward tilt is what you need.

I have done a bit of handheld shift shooting, it's certainly possible but a bit awkward. A tripod is certainly preferable in most situations. One thing to be aware of is that shift and tilt will affect viewfinder-based metering, leading to over- or under-exposure (depending on the direction of the lens movement) if you're using an automatic mode or rely on the metering for manual settings. So, you can either meter with the movements in the neutral position then apply shift or tilt, or what is usually easiest is to use live view, since image sensor-based metering is not affected.

An ND and/or CPL filter can be useful depending on when you're shooting. In particular, with architecture if it's not night time, there are usually people around. I use a 10-stop ND to blur them out. The TS-E 24 is good for that, good 82mm filters aren't cheap but at least they're smaller than the Wonderpana setup I use with the 17mm lens. The shot below was taken with the TS-E 17 and the Wonderpana 145mm 10-stop ND, and was a >3 minute exposure (during which there were many pedestrians and cyclists passing across the field of view).


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## neuroanatomist (Dec 1, 2015)

quod said:


> There is a flat button on the lens that you push in, which enables you to rotate the body so that you can change the direction of the tilt or change the direction of the shift.



On the 24mm II and the 17, there are two flat levers/buttons - one in back that allows you to rotate the whole lens (so you can shift in portrait vs. landscape orientation, for example), the other between the shift and tilt sections so you can change the relative orientation of shift vs. tilt (on the older TS-E lenses, you need to disassemble/reassemble the lens to do that).


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## StudentOfLight (Dec 1, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> tpatana said:
> 
> 
> > 1: Typical landscape
> ...


Wow, that second picture is positively delicious to my eyeballs!


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## tpatana (Dec 1, 2015)

Thanks for the tips, especially those Neuro-pics are awesome. Need to play plenty when the lens arrives.

I already have the 77mm cpl, so I guess need to buy new one for this  And/or ND, that might be more needed?


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## tpatana (Dec 24, 2015)

Ok, played some with the lens, and also spent long time reading this: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/using_tilt.html

I was happy with the text and descriptions of how things work, until I spent time studying the cheat sheets they provide at the end. That got me plenty confused.

If I read it correctly, it gives the tilt angle you need for landscape photos to basically lay flat horizontal the focal plane when focused to infinity.

Sounds great, but the confusing part: why distance from ground would affect which tilt angle is needed for horizontal focal plane?

If you look the animated pictures earlier in the article, they show how the focal plane tilts with the lens tilt. That makes sense, but from that picture, there's only one tilt amount to make the focal plane horizontal, and it doesn't depend on the distance from ground.

Obviously I'm missing something in there, I just can't figure out what.


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## StudentOfLight (Dec 24, 2015)

tpatana said:


> Ok, played some with the lens, and also spent long time reading this: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/using_tilt.html
> 
> I was happy with the text and descriptions of how things work, until I spent time studying the cheat sheets they provide at the end. That got me plenty confused.
> 
> ...


it would be nice to have a magnified split-screen in live view with two independent zones to aid in manual focus, nailing depth of field, and focusing with tilt.


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## keithcooper (Dec 24, 2015)

tpatana said:


> Ok, played some with the lens, and also spent long time reading this: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/using_tilt.html
> 
> I was happy with the text and descriptions of how things work, until I spent time studying the cheat sheets they provide at the end. That got me plenty confused.
> 
> ...



First up - they are not 'cheat sheets' - they do require an understanding of what they are for 

Try duplicating the shots in my kitchen (with the bits of wood) in the article.

I've used this to show the use of tilt when teaching, and know that it sometimes takes a few goes before the 'lightbulb moment'. 

If there is a specific part of the article that isn't clear, mail me directly or use the comment form and I'll see if I can make it clearer?


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## tpatana (Dec 25, 2015)

keithcooper said:


> First up - they are not 'cheat sheets' - they do require an understanding of what they are for
> 
> Try duplicating the shots in my kitchen (with the bits of wood) in the article.
> 
> ...



Just about to go prepare my traditional Christmas sushi, so I'll reply in longer after I've played some more with the lens.

But part of my problem is that I'm physicist by degree and engineer by trade, so I'm not satisfied with things "just" working, I must also understand why/how. I'm not doubting the behavior described in the article, but I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea that the horizontal plane requires different tilt depending on the distance from ground. So say I have camera at height X, and tilt Y degrees to make the focal plane horizontal. Now if I move the camera 30cm straight up, why would the focal plane not still be horizontal? Shouldn't it just be 30cm higher than it used to be?

And using the "cheat sheets" ( ;D ), I'm ~176cm, so say I would hand-hold the camera ~165cm or so on typical stance. From the chart, I'm reading that I'd need only ~0.8 degree tilt to get the focal plane horizontal. At 0 degree, the focal plane is vertical (butterfly-example), so sounds interesting that only 0.8 degree would already have it horizontal.

So yes, need to go play with the lens to get used to those tilts and all, but one day I'd love to also understand _why_ it behaves like that.

Now, those fish ain't gonna fry themselves...


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## NorbR (Dec 25, 2015)

tpatana said:


> So say I have camera at height X, and tilt Y degrees to make the focal plane horizontal. Now if I move the camera 30cm straight up, why would the focal plane not still be horizontal? Shouldn't it just be 30cm higher than it used to be?



Yes, in that scenario, the focal plane will still be horizontal, and 30cm higher than it used to be. If that's what you want, great, but often it's not what you would be looking for. Assuming that the focal plane was at ground level in the first place, and that you want to put it back on the ground after raising your camera 30cm, that's where you'll have to adjust tilt. You can't just move the focus ring, because your plane of focus will not remain horizontal. You'll have to adjust focus AND tilt (in your example, lower the amount of tilt).


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## tpatana (Dec 25, 2015)

NorbR said:


> tpatana said:
> 
> 
> > So say I have camera at height X, and tilt Y degrees to make the focal plane horizontal. Now if I move the camera 30cm straight up, why would the focal plane not still be horizontal? Shouldn't it just be 30cm higher than it used to be?
> ...



If that were completely true, the focal plane is always horizontal no matter what, since that chart covers basically every tilt angle. It'd be just question of how high from ground the plane is, or how much below ground.

So what I'm saying, there's some missing piece on the puzzle that I haven't figured out yet.


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## NorbR (Dec 25, 2015)

tpatana said:


> If that were completely true, the focal plane is always horizontal no matter what, since that chart covers basically every tilt angle. It'd be just question of how high from ground the plane is, or how much below ground.
> 
> So what I'm saying, there's some missing piece on the puzzle that I haven't figured out yet.



I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, I may have misunderstood what exactly it is that you're missing (or I'm missing something myself; also very possible).

I would reformulate what you wrote to say :

"The focal plane *can* always be set to a horizontal position (*at a certain, specific focus distance*), for any tilt angle, it's just a question of how high from the ground the plane is, or how much below ground".

I believe that statement is true (ignoring petty constraints such as limited tilt angles, close focusing ability of the lens or the existence of 100 meter high tripods). 

But remember, once your tilt value is set, if you move your focus ring, your plane of focus tilts, and therefore does not remain horizontal. For a given tilt value, the plane of focus can only be horizontal *at one specific focus distance*. Consequently, at a given tilt value, you can only have a horizontal plane of focus* at one specific height* above or below ground.

Hence, if you want it to be horizontal AND on the ground (so at a given vertical distance from your camera), you need a specific tilt value, so that once you find the focus distance that gives you a horizontal plane, it happens to fall on the ground. At any other tilt value this wouldn't work. You could still create a horizontal plane of focus, but it would fall above or below ground level.

Hopefully I'm making things a bit clearer, apologies if I'm just confusing things even further


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## tpatana (Dec 25, 2015)

NorbR said:


> tpatana said:
> 
> 
> > If that were completely true, the focal plane is always horizontal no matter what, since that chart covers basically every tilt angle. It'd be just question of how high from ground the plane is, or how much below ground.
> ...



This starts to make sense, to some degree. There's just some interesting items, see my graph below (original picture stolen from Northlight, plus added some of my mad paint skills to it)

So top picture. You're at 10m from ground. Based on the chart, you set the focus at 0.1°.

Second picture, you move down 5m without changing anything else. Now you're 5m from ground, and your focal plane just went 5m underground. From this, if you tilt 0.2° more (bottom picture), the focal plane moves up by 5m. If you tilt 0.1° less (to make it no tilt, picture on right), it suddenly flips to vertical.

The tilt movement either flips it up, or moves it up, depending on which direction you tilt. In my mind, tilt change effect should be always same, regardless of which direction you tilt.


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## JMZawodny (Dec 25, 2015)

tpatana said:


> NorbR said:
> 
> 
> > tpatana said:
> ...



Being a physicist myself, I understand both your need to fully understand the physics and the issue at hand. The image cube is not rectilinear. While left/right and up/down (on a non-fisheye lens) are reasonably rectilinear, the mapping of source distance to focal plane distance is not. Just review the equation for image and focal distances for a simple thin lens and you will see the strong 1/r like non-linearity. What the tilt-shift lens allows is for the sensor plane to slice through the "image cube" at arbitrary orientations. If all 3 coordinates were rectilinear, then you would be right and height would not make a difference. However, given the curvature in the focus coordinate, for a fixed tilt the image plane effectively rotates as the focal distance is changed (e.g., the camera height is changed). Changing focus moves you to a different place on the curved focal plane coordinate and it has a different local slope there.

Joe


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## keithcooper (Dec 25, 2015)

*Re: TS-E for physicist*

OK - I see the problem (I originally read astrophysics at uni and worked as an engineer amongst many other things )

What you want is all the stuff I work so hard to leave out of my articles!
What I've written is for photographers ;-)

The details I suspect you want are the sort of things that would drive off 96% of photographers (and 96% is being generous ;-)

Read Harold Merklinger's book

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/index.html#FVC

Then you will see why I leave so much out and make some approximations to explain the use of tilted lenses ;-)


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## Busted Knuckles (Dec 25, 2015)

I have the ts 90 and use it for pano's - not the way you think. I really like the sharpness and DOF(f) control.

The number one thing I suggest all who get a T/S is to..... TAKE A MOVIE.

Of your backyard, living room, or something where you can move through all the adjustements and talk your way through. Slowly - slower than you think and you will see how each adjustment changes the DOF(f).

Even some of the experienced T/S folks tell me they have an "aha" moment.

So put on a tripod, start with the max aperture, something close, mid distance, etc. 

Watch the leading edge of focus, trailing, the leading edge of the image (shifting) and trailing.

Helped me ALOT.

Cause I am a dummy.


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## tpatana (Dec 26, 2015)

*Re: TS-E for physicist*



keithcooper said:


> OK - I see the problem (I originally read astrophysics at uni and worked as an engineer amongst many other things )
> 
> What you want is all the stuff I work so hard to leave out of my articles!
> What I've written is for photographers ;-)
> ...



Lol, yes. First I do want to just use the lens, but I also want to understand how/why things go like they do. Especially that figure I posted, such huge movement from such tiny tilt angle sounds strange, so that makes me want to learn it even more.

Thanks for the link, have to read more on the lens.


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## JohanL (Dec 26, 2015)

Dear tpatana,

I had the same issues that you presently have, I needed to understand the principles before feeling comfortable when using the lens. Like yourself I have an inquiring mind and spent most of my adult life flying high performance aircraft and teaching others how to do so. In this world of mine we had to understand the principles absolutely in order to react instantaneously when we needed to. Operating a TS lens is perhaps less dramatic and the consequences less dire in case something does not work out. Also in this world we had to digest high volumes of diverse information and in the end had to put it all together in a harmonious fashion, only now we could then simplify.

Let's simplify the little tilt thing and in the end enjoy its use and the magnificent results that can be obtained.

The main issue for me was to understand exactly how the Depth of Field reacts when tilting, all the way from no tilt to max tilt. How does the DoF change from that of an un-tilted lens to a wedge? This resulted in reading a lot of theory and finally writing an Xcel macro which graphically illustrates all this. The best literature I could find was twelve different documents by *Harold Merklinger*. So what did I learn?

The basic adjustments on the lens are:
*Focus Distance* - This places the Focal Plane at a particular distance perpendicular to the camera sensor.
*Lens Tilt* - This determines the "Hinge Line" or axis around which the "Wedge" of acceptable focus will rotate.
*Camera Body Tilt* - Nobody tells you about this - Simply tilting the camera body forward and backwards.
*Aperture* - Increases or decreases the DoF and thus also the angular width of the "Wedge" of acceptable focus.

Coming back to the DoF behavior from being un-tilted to any amount of tilt:

The un-tilted plane of sharpest focus is naturally at the Focus Distance which you set on the lens and is on a line straight through the centre of the lens and perpendicular to the sensor plane. The "Hinge Line" or axis of rotation of the "Wedge" is then at infinity and parallel to the Focus Distance Plane.

When we start to tilt the lens, the plane of sharpest focus remains at the Focus Distance where it intersects the un-tilted line of sight. The "Hinge Line" is now no longer parallel to the "Focus Distance Plane" and starts to intersect it, albeit very far away. As lens tilt is increased the "Hinge Line" will move closer to the lens.

What this all tells us is that the Sharpest Plane of Focus will always be at an angle to the lens line of sight. Now the only way to place the Plane of Sharpest focus onto a horizontal surface is to use *Camera Body Tilt* by the same amount as the angle between the Focus Distance Plane and the Sharpest Plane of Focus.

Most people seem to just rely on the fact that the Plane of Sharpest Focus and the Plane of Far Acceptable Focus covers the horizontal surface that you need to capture.

This is perhaps the most compact version I could explain this, should you need more knowledge about it please let me know, will be glad to assist. I tried to use the terms found in Merlinger's literature.


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## tpatana (Dec 26, 2015)

Thanks JohanL, lot of information there, need to digest a bit.

But I see the magical word, excel macro. Who I need to sleep with to get my hand on that?


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## JohanL (Dec 26, 2015)

No need to sleep with anybody, it would be a pleasure to send it to you. I think I found your contact details.


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## ejenner (Dec 29, 2015)

While it is good to get the physics, do bear in mind that the physics is for perfect optics. No field curvature, no changes with tilt and shift etc..

Certainly for the TS-E 17mm this is not the case. Understanding the theory only tells you what direction you should theoretically move (or how to get an approximate starting point), not what will actually get you the shot you want.

For instance, do you actually want the focal plane 'flat' on the ground? You may say for a particular shot, well obviously, yes. Then you do everything right and find you have very soft near corners, or something else not quite as you expected. 

Then, assuming you are prepared to 'bend' the theory you will find the best focus distance and tilt for the shot you want. Maybe you care about the corners, or maybe you don't, maybe you are OK with a slightly softer infinity for sharper near-field corners, or maybe not. This involves a lot of experimentation and a methodology to setting up a shot and getting the tilt and focus where you want it (maybe the shift too) for the shot at hand and the particular lens. Knowing the lens is 1/2 the equation IME and you only get that with taking a lot of shots.

When you get to fine adjustments the fact you are actually moving the lens, rather than the camera doesn't help either.


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## tpatana (Dec 31, 2015)

I did couple test shots on Monday at a basketball arena, and just tried the next door church (w/ 6 stop ND). Both have basic LR adjustments, church needed 0.5 degree tilt, tripod was almost level but not exactly.

What amazes me with the church picture is the lack of CA. There's some, but that kind of shot is brutal for many lenses. Also noticed that there's couple small specks in the sky, so time to get my cleaning kit out soon. I've seen way worse, but it only takes couple minutes to clean so might as well start the new year with clean sensor


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## privatebydesign (Dec 31, 2015)

You didn't need any tilt for the church image, just shift.


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## tpatana (Dec 31, 2015)

privatebydesign said:


> You didn't need any tilt for the church image, just shift.



Yup, true. Tried both no-tilt, and with tilt, just for the sake of trying 

Can't really them them apart, not sure if that I posted was tilted or not


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## match.head (Jan 11, 2016)

tpatana said:


> Ok, time to educate a dummy. For some time I've been looking for the TS-E lens(es), and reading quite a bit about them too. Problem is that without one in hand, the instructions can be complicated. Now I finally snatched one from the Canon refurb deals, 24 Mark II  Waiting for the shipment to arrive...
> 
> I'm sure I'll learn plenty by just playing with the knobs, but to start with, can someone give dummy-proof setting how they usually use in certain situations. Dummy-proof as in how is the tilt (including direction), shift (including direction), rotation and focus, for following scenarios:
> 
> ...



You can use the TS-E lenses as precision instruments for straightening converging lines, making perfect panoramas, and yes you can calculate the exact tilt angle required to have the ground from your feet to infinity in focus, but you're missing out on a lot fun if you only shoot that way. 
To me, the real paydirt comes from getting up close and personal with the tilt. Tripod or handheld - find some cool stuff to put in the foreground, then tilt so you have some of the background in focus. Its a classic shot, but endlessly fun and challenging. Shoot with the blood!
This first picture was shot handheld, near Coyhaique, Chile. This is a perfect example of when to use tilt. It was extremely windy as it always is in Patagonia, so I needed a fast shutter speed. I wanted the flowers as the main focus of the picture with the mountains in the background, so I needed a huge depth of field. Typically fast shutter and huge depth of field are contradictory, but TILT to the rescue! I threw the lens into maximum tilt towards the ground, leaned over the flowers, composed, focused, and took the picture.
I know the whole image isn't in focus, but that's the point! I find it hard to believe, but there are so many photographers who don't get selective focus.
Photo info: 6D, TS-E 24II, 1/500sec, f/8, ISO 400


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## match.head (Jan 11, 2016)

More fun with tilt:
My friend decided he needed a Maori tattoo. I was there to catch his priceless expression:
Photo Info: 60D, TS-E 24I, 1/250sec, f/3.5, ISO 1250 with enough tilt for his face and hand to be in focus.


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## match.head (Jan 11, 2016)

Tilt is fun and beautiful. Its not all about precision and numbers. Keep it loose.


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## tpatana (Apr 17, 2016)

I've taken shot now and then, slowly learning how it works. Fun experimenting.

Took some amount this week travelling.

First one 4 photo stitch (shift diagonally, rotate and shift again).

Second one 30" exposure with 6 stop ND.

Third one with tilt&shift.


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## Khristo (Apr 17, 2016)

Great shots!
Specially like the 2nd one. When I was there a few years ago there was so much smog it all looked just grey.


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## Click (Apr 17, 2016)

Khristo said:


> Great shots!
> Specially like the 2nd one.



+1. Well done, tpatana.


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