Do you enjoy experimenting with photo filters and editing? Tilt-Shift Maker is a great, free online service that produces some absolutely wonderful looking photographs based on your input. It’s loaded with options but it is also easy to use and the end results can really be kind of mind-blowing.
Tilt-Shift style photos are, essentially, photographs of real things or places that have been modified through a process called ‘filtering’ that will change them to, ideally, look like they are photos of 3D models in miniature. There are various other things you can do with it, but that is the main function it is designed for and it does so quite well with a minimum of muss and fuss.
The process itself is quite simple, as with most other programs of this kind. All the processing is done online and none of your photos are kept online anywhere once you get the finished product so you won’t have to download or install anything and you also won’t have to worry about your photos wandering around in cyber space unsupervised.
To begin, you should choose a photograph. You can use a photo from your own collection or even use the URL of one posted on the web. The ones I have found that work best with Tilt-Shifting are of city scapes, preferably ones taken from an angle. There’s an example photo on the site that will give you a good notion of the best kind of pictures to use, but you really can use just about anything you want. Even abstract pictures can be processed with Tilt-Shift but they are a completely different story and won’t come out the same way that city scapes or photos of other physical objects will.
Once you have chosen your photo, it’s just a matter of following the on screen instructions to upload it, where it’s stored temporarily, and then set your filter options until you get a preview you are happy with. At that point you can then save the finished product to your computer, and then send it to anyone you want in any way you want or even load it into any art program (like Psykopaint or Gimp) to manipulate it further. The advantage of having the photo edited online like this, of course, is that you can do it from anywhere and you don’t need to get separate software installed just for one filter, albeit a complex and powerful one. There are quite a few features you can use for free, and they do have some more options that you will only be able to use if you sign up but that is completely optional.
Overall, I was quite impressed and pleased with this program and while I would like to see a mobile version, that’s not really a true con or downside. Given that it costs nothing and installs nothing on your computer, it’s loaded with pros and lacking in cons. Go take a picture of the exterior of your home and see what you can do with it! Until next time, my friends!
- Check out Tilt-Shift Maker here.
