Have you encountered some pictures that look like
miniatures but it's actually a real world's scene? This is called Toy Town Effect. There are several ways to achieve this. Firstly, using a
Tilt & Shift lens such as
Canon's
TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II lens. However, this approach is costly (The lens itself costs
RM4,500++). The cheaper alternative is to get a
Lensbaby but the effect is not so well executed. The cheapest way to do this is faking it in
Photoshop.
(Click to have a better view)
![](http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/neoroxx/Photography/IMG_2019sts.jpg)
I will have a simple tutorial here to illustrate ways to do this.
1) Choose / Take the picture. Pictures with wider angle to include the environment and with few people/objects is suitable. Please make sure the people/object in the picture is small and does not dominate the frame. Do
NOT include the sky in the picture as this will definitely spoil the feel of a miniature.
2) Enter
Quick Mask Mode (Q). Select
Gradient Tool (G). Make sure you select the
Reflected Gradient (2nd from the right side).
![](http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/neoroxx/01-2.jpg)
3) Drag a vertical line from bottom to top. The starting point is where your picture should look sharp. The shorter the line is, the narrower the focused area is going to be.
![](http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/neoroxx/02-1.jpg)
4) Press Q to exit
Quick Mask Mode. Select
Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Try to experiment with different attributes until satisfied and press OK. Ctrl + D to
Deselect.
5) To further enhance the effect of Toy Town, Adjust the
Curve (Ctrl + M) to boost the contrasts and increase the
Saturation (Ctrl + U) by making it to look a little bit fake. Adjust accordingly to taste, just don't overdo everything.
Tips:
- Avoid Sky
- Small people/object
- Avoid moving objects (freeze it if possible)
- Choose scenes with
not-so natural lighting conditions. Find those with a potential "indoor lighting/fake lighting/artificial lighting" feel.
- Higher angle (when taking photo) have more
depth of field (DOF). Lower angle have smaller DOF.
- Get creative.