Recently I’ve heard quite a lot about “tilt-shift” photography, or “fake miniature” photography. Done with a proper tilt-shift lens, you can mess with the lens to make a real scene look like a model. It’s also possible to fake the effect in post-processing, which is what I’ve been concentrating on since I don’t have a tilt-shift lens.
My friends Paul Seward and Dave Musson have also recently published fake tilt-shift photos, of Royal Fort House and Acocks Green railway station respectively, and last night I also looked through this page of 50 beautiful examples of tilt-shift photography.
Today I set out to take a photo that could be turned into a fake model. It’s not just about editing on a computer – you have to start with a photo taken from a high perspective, as if you were looking down upon a model. So I headed for the Clifton Observatory, which overlooks the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Avon Gorge.
I took this photo looking down the cliff onto the A4 that passes beneath, beside the river.
Despite it being a mediocre photo, I’m quite pleased with the result. I will definitely revisit this concept, and working on a university campus I have access to lots of tall buildings. Watch this space!
Jonathan Gazeley 
Nice work mate, I really like this. When I scrolled down and saw the picture, (before reading) I thought: I’ve got to visit that model village!
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Super! The more I look at this picture, the more fake it appears. However, you’re the second person to have initially assumed it was a real model, so I guess the effect is good enough.
I will be revisiting this idea with a better source photo. You gonna have a go too? Only my blog I posted instructions for how to do it in GIMP – no doubt you can find similar ones for Photoshop on the web.
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