Tilt-Shift Photography

Over the winter I took it upon myself to try something new with my photography... I don't know how I happened across this effect, but I loved it when it first crossed my eyes.  The effect is called Tilt-Shift and, in a nutshell, it's supposed to make the things/subject in your photo look miniature.

I absolutely LOVE the train shot in this link.  That link is actually the first link I came across.. then I got clicking around and found the tutorial for how to create this neat effect myself!  It looks and seems easy (and in the end, it is) but you have to have some patience and know that not every photo you have will work.  Today I am posting to show you the 2 (of like 6-7) that I thought turned out the best, I will try to post the other examples tonight and you can tell me your thoughts (to me, they didn't quite stack up).

Without further ado, here is the first shot:

In my opinion, this one turned out the best.  It's a shot of the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis from the arm of the Guthrie Theater.  I'm not posting the original photo here, because I want you to tell me your thoughts as it's supposed to look, miniature.

Next up:

So, this was downtown Anoka... just some random shot from a parking garage of some cars in the car show last summer.  Do they look miniature to you?

Like I said, I will try to remember to post some of the others tonight and you can tell me what you think.  After playing with photos for so long, sometimes the 'effect' fades in my eyes.  Thats part of the reason I haven't posted until now, after doing these over the winter, I wanted to see how they looked after a period of not looking at them.. know what I mean?

Now... if anyone knows of a free tutorial for making eyes POP (without making them look über creepy), please share the link with me!