Tilt-shift Photography

Movements have been available on view cameras since the early days of photography; they have been available on smaller-format cameras since the early 1960s, usually by means of special lenses or adapters. Nikon introduced a lens providing shift movements for their 35 mm SLR cameras in 1962, and Canon introduced a lens that provided both tilt and shift movements in 1973; many other manufacturers soon followed suit. Canon and Nikon each currently offer several lenses that provide both movements. Such lenses are frequently used in architectural photography to control perspective, and in landscape photography to get an entire scene sharp.
Some photographers have popularized the use of tilt for selective focus in applications such as portrait photography. The selective focus that can be achieved by tilting the plane of focus is often compelling because the effect is different from that to which many viewers have become accustomed. Walter Iooss Jr. of Sports Illustrated, Vincent Laforet, Ben Thomas, and many other photographers have images using this technique on their web sites.