Tilt-shift miniature faking

Tilt-shift miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. By distorting the focus of the photo, the artist simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is. Many miniature faked photographs are taken from a high angle to further simulate the effect of looking down on a miniature. Objects oriented horizontally, such as the train in the first example, make better subjects for tilt-shift miniature faking than vertically oriented objects.
Techniques
The effect can be achieved optically by using a tilt-shift lens. It can also be achieved using an image editor by blurring the top and bottom of the photograph so that only the subject is in focus. The freedom of having an editable gradient map in the digital world allows for a greater degree of control over which areas in the foreground and background are going to be blurred. Other techniques to enhance the effect involve increasing the contrast of the picture, simulating the darker, harder shadows of a miniature under a light and increasing the saturation of the picture to simulate the brighter colors of a painted miniature.
It is perhaps improper to refer to this technique as "tilt-shifting". These more detailed digital "fakes" do not simulate the effect of tilt-shifting per se, rather it merely simulates the effect of photographing a miniature, and to a much more realistic effect than a tilt-shifted photograph.
New Applications
Tilt-shift miniature faking was first publicly seen in motion picture form in "Harrowdown Hill" a music video for Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The project was produced at Bent Image Lab in July of 2006, and directed by filmmaker Chel White. In this instance, the false miniaturization effect was achieved digitally, using helicopter footage of full-size vernal and urban landscapes that was broken down into separate planes. Bent Image Lab coined their process Smallgantics. It involves hand creating as many as eight planes of z-buffering over live-action footage, one frame at a time, resulting in an animated black and white matte (filmmaking) sequence. These mattes are then blended together with varying degrees of blur to create the effect of shallow depth of field.
Usage
*Miniature faked scenes of the Las Vegas skyline were featured prominently in the CSI episode "Living Doll" in which the The Miniature Killer is revealed.
*Photographs taken with the technique have been used in a set of bumps on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim nighttime lineup.
*Faked miniature crowd scenes are used in the intro sequence of the TV series Dollhouse.

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