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Tilt-Shift Miniature Effect

Hand it a photograph taken from above and it takes the picture again as though the place were a model on a table — sharp only on one plane and falling off by distance, which is the thing that actually reads as small. Two fields.

bring a photographicsstillphoto-inlensimage-promptminutes
ExamplesOne photograph in · one miniature out · focus by distance, not by height
in
Harbour from a hill
in
Station concourse

We made two examples, from two different photographs: a harbour whose quay sweeps diagonally, and a station floor that recedes straight ahead. The harbour is the one that shows whether the focus follows real distance or just height in the frame.

You get your aerial photo turned into a model on a table: sharp on only one plane, with blur that follows distance rather than a horizontal band, so on a diagonal quay the sharp zone slopes with the ground. Contrast and saturation go up and the distant haze disappears. Boats, cars and people stay put. In the second field, name something genuinely close that should already be soft; if the blur starts too far back, it just looks like a photo with a soft edge.

Generated for this library

Input
  In focus    the fishing boats along the quay, and
              nothing nearer or further than they are
  Falls off   the cars parked one row behind the boats
              are already soft
  Photograph  harbour.png (1254 x 1254)

Returned   1 image · 1:1 · the harbour as a model

plane      follows the quay, not the frame - measured
           across a 6x6 grid the sharp zone descends
           to the right with the ground
falloff    fast on both sides: the near hedge and the
           far headland are both soft
colour     more saturated, harder shadows, the haze of
           distance taken out of the far cliffs
place      same boats, same cars, same quay, same
           viewpoint, nothing added
words      none, in any script
SKILL.mdthe whole thing, as you would paste it© vibary.ai

You fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.

  1. 1What is in focus — one thing, at one distance
  2. 2How fast the focus falls away, said against something in the picture

Tilt-Shift Miniature Effect

What this makes

Hand it a photograph taken from above and it takes the picture again as though the place were a model on a table — sharp only on one plane and falling off by distance, which is the thing that actually reads as small. Two fields.

The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.

How to use it

  1. Copy the whole template with the button above.
  2. Attach the photograph and paste the template in the same message.
  3. Replace the two FIELDS lines. Choose the falloff by naming the nearest thing that should already be soft.
  4. Check where the sharpness runs. It should follow the things at that distance, bending with the ground — not lie in a straight horizontal band across the frame.
  5. If it still reads as a big place, the sharp zone is probably too deep. Name something closer as already soft.

What you swap

What is in focus — one thing, at one distance
the fishing boats along the quay, and nothing nearer or further than they are
How fast the focus falls away, said against something in the picture
the cars parked one row behind the boats are already soft

Before it runs

  • A photograph, attached to the message, taken from well above the subject. A picture shot at eye level cannot be made to look small, because a model is always looked down on.
  • One thing at one distance to focus on. Naming two things at different distances asks the lens for something no lens does.
  • A picture with real depth. If everything in it is the same distance away, nothing can fall off, and the result is just a photograph.
  • Things whose real size is not obvious. A recognisable person's face or a legible sign tells the viewer the scale immediately and no amount of focus will argue with it.

When to reach for it

When a real place should look like a model: a title card, a cover, a map illustration, an explainer. Templates in this genre ask for a tilt-shift miniature effect and hand back a blurred strip across the top and bottom of the frame, which is a gradient rather than a lens and which anybody can see is fake.

What changes

  • One photograph in, one miniature out — the same place, photographed as though it were small.
  • Focus falls off with distance from one named plane, not with height up the picture.
  • The sharp band runs along whatever is actually at that distance, so it bends and follows the ground.
  • Colour and contrast are pushed the way a lit model is lit, which does half the work of the illusion.
  • One image, no vignette, no border, no toy props added to the scene.

Pairs with