The tilt-shift may just be a food photographer’s lens of choice. Why? Because using a tilt-shift lens in food photography can allow you to precisely control the plane of focus like no other lens can.
A tilt shift lens can be a great choice for shooting food if you require a mix of depth of field and control over what’s in focus.
If you’ve clicked through to check out the links to the lenses, you’ll see that they are pricey! Yikes. You might be thinking, that you’ll just never be able to afford a specialty lens like that.
But the great news is that you can rent lenses. If you’re in a major city, there is more than likely going to be an opportunity for you to rent a lens to play with.
But first, I know you’re curious to read about what a tilt shift lens is and how it works. So let’s get into that. This post contains affiliate links.
What is a Tilt-Shift Lens?
Tilt-shift is a lens that encompasses two unique movements, being a tilt movement and a shift movement.
This allows you to control the plane of focus and control the convergence of parallel lines.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plane of focus, I’ve done a whole post about it you might want to check out. Visually this is what it looks like.
You can see the difference between a normal lens and a tilt-shift lens. The lenses I have used in this post are the:
- Nikkor PC-E 45mm Micro 2.8 (affiliate link)
- Nikkor PC-E 85mm 2.8 (affiliate link)
The ‘PC’ stands for perspective control, signalling a tilt-shift lens. Other brands may use ‘TS’ for tilt-shift. But they are the same thing.
Let’s firstly get into the *tilt* function.
Lens Quiz
Which Lens Matches Your Food Photography Style?
The Tilt Function Changes The Plan of Focus.
TILT – the tilt function is used to change the orientation of the plane of focus.
In a regular lens, the plane of focus is parallel to the sensor in the camera. When you focus on something, everything at that distance will also be in focus.
When you tilt a lens, the plane of focus is *no longer parallel* to the sensor. This creates an ‘angled’ plane of focus. Now when you focus on something, everything at that angle will be in focus.
Let’s look at this visually.
The image on the left is using the tilt-shift lens normally, without any tilt or shift function. In this shot, the plane of focus is parallel to the table and the subject.
The image on the right has had the plane of focus tilted. It is no longer parallel with the background. It has instead been angled so that the cherries in the middle are in focus, but the surrounding subjects are out of focus.
Let’s take a look at that shot closer. It gives us a nice mix of focus.
The Shift Function Adjusts The Position of The Subject.
SHIFT – the shift function is used to adjust the position of the subject within the image without moving the camera.
Just read that one more time. We are adjusting the position of the subject, but not moving the camera. How is that possible? By shifting just the lens.
This means that you can still get the angle you think works best for the shot, and capture things otherwise outside of the frame without moving the camera.
Simply by shifting the lens up/down or side/side. It also allows you to control or correct converging lines, so that parallel lines in the field remain parallel in the image.
Let’s look at this visually.
In the images above, the lens was shifted so that we are now capturing more of the negative space at the bottom of the frame, (and even some of my legs!).
This is NOT the same as just moving the camera. Moving the camera changes our perspective. By shifting the lens, we have the same perspective, but we essentially cropping outside of our original frame.
It’s the ability to find the best perspective for your subjects, then having control over how much to add or remove through the shift function.
Check out this little clip to see a Tilt-shift lens in action. (Although not food photography, it helps to understand converging lines if you were like waaah?).
Using a Tilt-Shift Lens in Food Photography
If that didn’t leave you totally confused, I’m sure you’re eager to know how a lens like this would improve your food photography.
A number of commercial and professional food photographers use this lens, with a fellow advertising food photographer sharing with me on Instagram that he almost exclusively shoots commercial jobs with his tilt-shift.
There are two main reasons for using this lens for food photography, (and no surprise there is one for the tilt function and for the shift function).
Mix of focus/blur control. You can selectively control the plane of focus, allowing the dish at the front of the image to be super in focus, whilst the background story is superbly out of focus.
Angle/subject position control. You can shoot a dish in its most flattering angle, and control how much of the story/props around the frame are included without changing the camera angle, distance or the subject placement.
This is really powerful for shooting cover or product/packaging images.
Why use a tilt-shift lens?
Have you ever admired a photo and tried to replicate it’s technical aspects only to find that you failed miserably?
Well, there are a lot of images that I am now seeing were potentially shot with a tilt-shift lens in food photography, and that’s why I wasn’t able to replicate its aspects.
I ‘read’ a lot of photos and some of my favourite images I am starting to see must have been shot with a tilt-shift lens.
I guess I can’t say for certain without asking the photographer, but images like this, this and this are now possible with a tilt-shift lens.
Allowing you to capture that delicious combo of super in focus front dish and blurry everything else that differs visually from my 105mm Micro.
The struggle between getting the ‘correct’ or most flattering angle of a dish and being able to capture the subjects around it is real. Especially when shooting images for potential cover shots, packaging or when text is to be applied.
With a tilt-shift lens, you can have the power and freedom of capturing the angle you want whilst being able to play around with negative space or passive space for cover images, simply by adjusting the shift function up/down or side/side.
Renting a lens can cost less than $50 for the day to rent. It’s something where seeing is believing.
Two Loves Studio was not paid to write this post, however, it does contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item from an affiliate link, Two Loves Studio does get a commission on the sale which goes towards continuing to provide awesome content. Only affiliates for products/services I believe in and that align with my values appear on this site.
Jo
Awesome post Rach thanks so much for sharing!! I’m slowly getting my head around how a tilt shift works and this helped SO much. xx
Rachel
Perfect! Yes, writing down what tilt v shift meant really helped me. I had to run it over with Matt a few times to make sure I had it down pat.
Karene'
I did one assignment on an old tilt-shift sheet film camera when I was studying and had totally forgotten the magic you can create! Wow. It opens a whole new world of possibilities, doesn’t it? Oh, dear, I think I might just have to add another “must-buy” to my list of things to save up for. Beautiful deep tones in these shots, by the way. Good luck for your shoot!
Rachel
I feel the same way! I love that you had a go on an old film camera that is wicked. I feel like I just touched the tip of the iceberg so definitely want to shoot some more with this lens.
Aysegul
A very informative post. I have been procrastinating to rent one and play with it. But I guess after reading this I am so encouraged that I may do it sooner than later.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge Rachel!
Rachel
That’s is so great. I just kept putting this off too and time really does get away from you. Maybe you can combine this with some of the awesome styling you would have learned at the workshop you went to recently, (which by the way, I’d love to hear about!).
Louise | Cygnet Kitchen
I am SO glad I found your blog (via Bea’s Cookbook). Your photography is just beautiful! This is a great article, another lens to save up for! I just wondered as a Canon (5D Mkiii) user how did you find using a Canon compared to your Nikon.
Rachel
Hey Louise! Lovely to meet you. Thanks for stopping by. Isn’t Bea great. I am so lucky to have her as a fellow photographer.
Yes the good old Canon v Nikon conversation. Like many photographers, I there are things about both that I like and it would be amazing to take the best features of both and combine them into one body! (One can dream right?). Overall I personally don’t think it matters. I like where the buttons are placed on my Nikon, but that is such a small thing to consider as new makes/models will often move buttons so you can’t rely on that. My Nikon currently doesn’t let me use Live View whilst tethering, which the Canon does. Really when the deciding factor for me when I chose a camera was how it felt in my hand. Being a petite person with smallish hands, the Nikon just felt more like an extension of me and fit almost perfectly in the grip of my hand. So I went with that. I don’t think I’d switch brands, simply because I wouldn’t see a return in investment. I’d be better investing in using/learning about medium format brands. I think they are both great cameras and when you’re a professional it comes down to knowing both how to use them and how to manipulate your surroundings and settings to create something amazing!
Victor
Awesome post. I understand why I was unable to recreate some shots now. Thanks for the explanation. I surprisingly understood ?
Rachel
Well great! I know these concepts can be like ‘wha’? It’s so amazing what this lens can open up. I hope you can now recreate some of those techniques you’ve been looking for. Please do share!
Sarah and Laura @ Wandercooks
Incredible. The tilt shift is fascinating to read about, and now you have me intrigued to do further research. Loved the example images, it’s amazing what you can achieve with just a little focus adjustment. Thanks x
Rachel
So fascinating and even more in real life when you can see it right in front of your eye. If you rent one, I’d love to know what you think!
Sarah and Laura @ Wandercooks
Yes, definitely. OR if I meet my photography goals by the end of the year + save my pennies…maybe that could be my reward. After reading more info, it really does sound amazing and there isn’t a lot online about using it with food. So thanks for sharing what you know.
Pang
There are reasons I have admired & followed you, Rachel, and here it is again, another reason to be your biggest fan!! Thank you SO MUCH for such a wonderful post. It is thorough and fun; this post makes me want to run out & rent one immediately. I am gonna have to wait until I fly home though.
Thank you .. Thank you .. Thank you 🙂
xoxo
Rachel
Pang you’d love this! I can see you really creating something amazing with this lens, especially in your beverage photography (which you’ve been doing really well in recently btw!). As always, your kind words make this all worth while! Stay well my friend.
Olaiya
This post blew my mind. Now understanding how to get some of the elusive focus I couldn’t make happen with my current lenses. Will definitely be renting a tilt-shift to see if I need to add one to my collection. Also, so glad to have discovered your blog. Adding it to my Feedly now. Thanks for a great post!
Rachel
Great Olaiya, that is what I want to hear. I hope you get a chance to rent one, cause you won’t grasp its full capacity until you test it out in the flesh. Let me know if you do!
Linda
Your posting really stgearhtined me out. Thanks!
Fran Flynn
Hi Rachel, I wonder if you found the tilt-shift helpful when vertical lines in an image tend to curve? Does it give you some control to straighten them up again? I’m a food photographer also and this kind of lens is on my wishlist also – and it would be great if it could overcome this issue also… Thank you, Fran
Rachel
Hey Fran, great question! Do you have an example of these vertical lines and when they aren’t co-operating? My pet hate is glassware that tends to look like they are falling over at the edge of the frame, but that’s not a tilt-shift issue.
There is an example of vertical lines of buildings curving and how the shift function corrects them back to being straight. Check it out here: Tilt Shift Introduction – Photography Concentrate. Is that what you were referring to?
Fran Flynn
Hi Rachel, that’s it exactly! The glassware falling off the frame issue – I was hoping tilt-shift might be able to help with that, since it seems to be a problem created by the spherical nature of the lens… and I knew that tilt-shift can help the distortion in the case of buildings. I’d love to get one just for the focusing capabilities, but I was hoping it might be the miracle answer for this issue also. Have you found any other way to address it? Thanks a million, Fran
Rachel
Hey Fran, yes this is a different issue and I do know how to solve it! I was actually thinking before you mentioned this that I should do a post on this! Too much explaining for the comments, but feel free to email me to chat about it!
Marco
Great post, love the 90mm Marco too. So an “ordinary” 105mm macro is redundant for this type of work?
Rachel
Thanks Marco! I wouldn’t say the 105mm is redundant, it just doesn’t have the same capacity as a tilt-shift (which is a really unique feature), so the composition will always be different. I think the 105mm and the 90mm tilt-shift produce different results so one will not necessarily get you the look you’re after. If you’re not shooting for advertising or a book, then it’s probably overkill to get a tilt-shift kinda shot. Seeing is believing so if you are able to rent one for an afternoon, then you can make up your mind for yourself and what you’re trying to achieve! 🙂
Heidi
I am beyond grateful to have found your website, Rachel 🙂
Thank you so much for opening my eyes to the tilt shift; Until now, I thought it was an instagram thing LOL.
I’m starting to piece together so much about good food photography or ‘phoodography’ as I call it. Your posts are really helping in my journey. AND I think you just gave Nikon my business…
So many thanks!
Rachel
Hey Heidi! Lovely to meet you. Yes the tilt-shift. This effects of this lens were taken and put into the filter of IG, which many people will have learned from that platform first. Glad to hear that you want to be a Nikon girl! haha. Enjoy.
jean pierre (pete) guaron
Sigh – the Canon TS is more versatile, but my cams are Niks. Which means if I use one of these lenses, I can EITHER shift (up or down – or from side to side) OR tilt. But if I want to do both, in the same plane (ie both on the vertical plane, or both on the horizontal plane), I can’t – because the Nikon TS’s do one function at right angles to the other one.
Of course you can DO both, at the same time – but not on the same plane. And I can’t figure why you’d ever want to do one on one plane and the other at right angles to it, on the other plane. Surely you’d want them both travelling in the same direction?
Rachel
Totally Pete! It’s good to have full functionality with your vision.
Todd
Hi Rachel! Your site came up at the bottom of page 1 on a search for ’tilt shift macro’. Congratulations on page 1!
I’ve signed up for your free course because I LOVE the lighting and colors of your shots on this page.
I’ll be renting a T/S lens in a couple weeks to play around for the first time, and I’m really excited to get some first hand experience.
Regarding Fran’s question above, about glassware seeming to fall out of the frame. Isn’t the solution to put the point of perspective (center of non-shifted image) closer to the glassware to reduce distortion, then shift to the desired composition?
Actually, this is related to the question that I came to ask: You said that finding the right angle is the ability you like the most from the shift function. I’m curious why this is easier than just moving the tripod around–the shift only moves in a 2D line, where a tripod can perform complex movements. Wouldn’t the tripod be the better place to make those adjustments?
Rachel
Hey Todd! Hope you enjoy the 7-day free course. I am totally excited for you to play around the T/S lens.
With regards to the falling out of the frame, it is more to do with perspective distortion. So you can move things around the frame, the centre will reduce this. However, it isn’t to do with the shift function and that is more to do with framing. I did chat offline with Fran as it isn’t super easy to explain. Perhaps I need to do a blog post on this!
In relation to your question, you can definitely move your tripod BUT the thing that we’ve got to understand is that perspective and framing are not the same thing. If you think about when we ‘zoom’ the perspective doesn’t change. We are just changing the crop. Shifting via a T/S lens is also not changing our perspective. What we are actually doing is we are cropping outside of our original frame. This allows us to now frame out shot to something that we weren’t already seeing. Changing our perspective on the other hand (i.e moving to a different place) is a different concept with a different result. If you find the right perspective when shooting with a T/S lens you can now frame differently at that given perspective.
Hope that makes sense. It will be a little bit easier to understand when you have the lens to play with. Seeing is believing.
Todd
OK, that does make sense, thanks for explaining. The lens comes in a week, and I’ll play around for the weekend. Maybe I’ll post another question then. 😉
Mohamed Abdel-Hady
I am using a 24mm one from Samyang for interiors/architecture work, and when the space allows, it does magic especially with the shift function, we don’t use the shift almost at all when shooting interiors, and I know how much it would save my time and effort in food photography instead of focus stacking each job tons of files, I am really craving the 85mm from Nikon for my D810
Mohamed Abdel-Hady
Sorry I meant we don’t use the tilt function at all with interiors work not the shift
Rachel
Totally understood what you meant! 🙂
Rachel
Totally Mohamed! I have wanted the 85mm for the longest time as well, but when I played with the 45mm – I actually loved it more. The shift function I find can be super handy for flatlays.
Kylie
I absolutely love your work and love your posts. Every time I find myself inspired!
When you’re shooting, how do you find the balance between technical vs creativity? Or have you done it so long that it’s now second nature?
Sometimes I find myself so drawn into the creative process, everything about focal plane etc. goes completely out the window. Similarly, if I focus on the setup I find myself unable to create.
Rachel
This is such a GREAT question Kylie! One that Matt and I talked about over dinner. It led us to the fact that I think creativity and technique are part of the process and therefore not separate things (at least the way we think about it). The discussion was so in-depth and thought-provoking we’re thinking we will turn it into a video to discuss it more! Basically, the technique should serve your creativity and lead you to problem-solve to realise your vision. For sure there is an element of things become second nature and subconscious when you put in as many hours as we have over time. If you have any follow up questions or ideas, let me know! I would love to continue this discussion. xx
Nancy
Thanks for all this great info! I am feeling a strong desire have one of these lenses. I’ve seen secondhand Canon 45mm tilt shift lenses for £400-600 and a new Samyang 24 mm F3.5 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon for a similar price. Might either of these be worth getting for what you describe in the post?
Rachel Korinek
They are such a fun lens! Do you have a cropped sensor camera or full-frame? These aren’t the most ideal focal lengths for food photography. I would be looking at the 85mm tilt-shift or equivalent depending on the brand. But that’s a little bit of personal preference. I have enjoyed the 45mm before but we have to decide when it makes sense to give this appearance of blur in our food stories.
Nancy
Thanks so much for your help Rachel, I really appreciate the advice! I have a full frame camera, Canon 5D Mark III. This looks like the Canon equivalent lens – Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8.
I have seen this lens available secondhand for about £500. Do you think it’s worth looking at secondhand lenses? I am a professional photographer (editorial rather than advertising), but would really like to keep these equipment costs down 🙂
https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-lenses/used-canon-fit-lenses/canon-ts-e-90mm-f-2-8/sku-915098/
Rachel Korinek
Yes absolutely! If they are in good condition. You can also think about selling the old lenses that you don’t use often too.
Musheer
Thankyou Rachel for sharing this detailed Blog
Roshni
Thankyou for sharing this detailed blog on tilt shift lenses
Rachel Korinek
You’re welcome Roshni!
Dawn
Hi, thanks for this article. I have a tilt-shift lens and wondered how I could use it more efficiently for food. I’ve got a restaurant wanting photos for their website so I’ll test the lens out at home before I do the shoot next week.
BTW, you might want to check your article for spelling issues. You accidentally left the “f” out of the word “shifting” at least 3 times…☺️ And the r was left out of cropping.
Emma
Hi Dawn,
Thank you for letting us know. We’ve corrected those spelling errors in the blog.
Rachel Korinek
Hey Dawn, so great to hear you are going to test it out before your shoot! I’d love to know how you ended up using it on set. Did you like the results?
Musheer
Tilt shift lens is very important for product photography
Rachel Korinek
It sure is Musheer! I couldn’t agree more.
Michael sadek
do you think that the Tilt shift lens is a must have lens for product photographer?
Rachel Korinek
Hi Michael, it’s definitely a must in advertising and commercial work. I think they can seriously come in handy but they are expensive. I would recommend getting this lens only when you have all the other lenses in your kit that will help you capture more day to day scenarios. You can check my Ultimate Lens Guide here. I always recommend renting before you buy. If you shoot a major brand this is of course easier.
Rrajani
Nice Post, Thanks for sharing…
Rachel Korinek
Thanks for stopping by! Have you every used a tilt-shift lens?
A.Rrajani
Nice post…
Modelsbank Agency
GREAT POST!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING….
Dominick
Great article
Thank you!