What is Tilt-Shift Effect?

Tilt-Shift Effect applies a selective blur to your photos, creating the illusion that real-world scenes look like miniature models. Adjust the focus band position, blur intensity, and saturation to achieve a convincing miniature photography effect.

The canvas runs Gaussian blur along a horizontal strip, a vertical strip, or a radial pool around any point you choose, with adjustable focus width, blur radius from 0 to 30 pixels, and a saturation boost up to 100% to mimic the over-saturated look of a true tilt-shift lens. Drag right on the photo to place the sharp band, then download as PNG for a lossless result, or as JPEG or WebP with an adjustable quality slider for a smaller file, at the original image dimensions either way.

How to use

1. Upload any photo — aerial or street-level shots work especially well for the miniature look.
2. Position the focus band where you want the sharp area, then adjust blur radius and band width.
3. Fine-tune saturation and brightness for a more vivid miniature effect, then download the result.

When to use

• Making a drone photo of a stadium or city look like a model railway diorama for Instagram.
• Adding a tilt-shift accent to event coverage where you want the audience to feel like miniature figures.
• Faking shallow depth of field on a phone photo for a more cinematic Insta-story or YouTube thumbnail.

Result

A photographer uploads an aerial cityscape shot, positions the focus strip across the buildings, sets blur to 8px with increased saturation, and downloads a photo that makes the city look like a toy model.

FAQ

Why does tilt-shift make scenes look like miniatures?

Our brains expect tiny objects to have very narrow depth of field — that's why macro shots of insects have blurred backgrounds. By forcing the same blur pattern on a full-size scene, the visual system reads it as miniature, even though the image is of real-sized things.

When should I pick horizontal, vertical, or radial focus?

Horizontal works for landscapes and aerial shots where the depth runs along the ground plane. Vertical is right for portraits, tall buildings, or shots where the depth gradient runs left-to-right. Radial is the pick for a single subject — a person, a car, a centerpiece — where you want a circular sharp zone and everything around it softly blurred.

What blur radius gives the best miniature effect?

Start around 8 to 12 pixels for a 2000-pixel-wide image. Too little and the effect is invisible; too much and the blurred areas turn to mush. Scale the radius with your image size — bigger images often need 15 to 20 pixels for a similar visual punch.

Why bump the saturation when applying tilt-shift?

Toy and model photos tend to be hyper-saturated because the materials reflect light cleanly. A 20% to 40% saturation boost reinforces the miniature illusion. Without it, real-world colours sit in a believable range and the brain rejects the toy reading.

Will the focus band always run through the middle?

No. Move the focus position slider between 0 and 100% to put the sharp band wherever the subject of interest sits. For a tilt-shift of street vendors at the edge of a square, drop the band to the bottom third so the focus matches the subject.

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