Tilt-Shift Tutorial for GIMP

Tilt-Shift photography is a lens technique used by photographers to create the effect that what is seen in the photograph is a miniature, or a diorama. However, this tutorial will teach you how to create the same effect using the Open Source program GIMP. It's a really cool effect that changes the whole feel of a photograph, it's easy, and best of all, it's free!

OK, first off, you'll want a good overview photograph. Low, angled aerial photographs work great for this.

1. The first thing you'll want to do is remove any sky from the photo. It takes away much of your desired effect. Click on the Rectangle Select Tool from the Toolbox and select accordingly. Click Image > Crop to Selection.

2. Next, click Layer > New Layer. In the box that pops up, make sure that Transparency is selected under Layer Fill Type. Click OK.

3. Now, right-click the new layer in the Layers window and select Add Layer Mask. Click Add.

4. Click on theBlend Tool (Gradient Tool) from the Toolbox, select the FG to BG (RGB) gradient, and set the shape to Bi-linear.

5. Pick a point on the image that you want to be in focus. This should be near the center, often a little lower. Using the Blend Tool, click on that point and drag the tool vertically. Notice that you will see no effect on the image at this point, only on the mask thumbnail.

6. Right-click on the new layer again and select Mask to Selection.

7. Select the Background layer and click Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Experiment with the blur radius, undoing each time before trying a new radius. It should probably be around 10, but it varies from image to image.

8. Finally, click Colors > Brightness-Contrast and set the contrast to about 15. Now select Colors > Curves and create somewhat of an S curve. Fool around with it until you get your desired effect.

And there we go, your Tilt-Shift image is complete! Enjoy!

(I used GIMP 2.6.5 for this tutorial)