Oleg’s tilt-shift photography

When I met Oleg Volk at the Manchester Appleseed shoot I noticed something funny about the lens on his Canon camera. It had a big squared-off area close to the camera body. I asked him if it was a PC (perspective control) and he answered in the affirmative, then explained why he used it.

Perspective control is also called tilt-shift. It allows you to alter the angle of the lens elements inside the lens body. The best-known use for tilt-shift photography is architecture. Using a tilt-shift allows you to keep the architectural lines straight, even when shooting tall buildings from the ground. (You can sort of fake correct perspective using Photoshop.

Oleg explained that he used tilt-shift because he often photographs rifles and shotguns for product literature and for his right to keep and bear arms work. To get the entire longarm in focus he has two options. One is to photograph the gun perpendicularly from the side so that the gun is in the same focal plane from one end to another.

That works, but it provides a boring perspective that’s visually unappealing. By using the tilt-shift lens Oleg can photograph the gun from an angle yet keep every part of the gun in focus. That’s how he made yesterday’s photograph.

Tags: guns and cameras