Tilt Shift Effect
FreeTurn a photo into a miniature-model tilt-shift effect with a linear or radial focus area, directly in your browser.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your image is never uploaded anywhere.
Click to choose an image, or drag and drop one here
Click or drag on the image to move the focus point.
Recent Activity
Visible to everyone. Last 20 uses across all visitors, newest first.
No activity yet. Be the first.
What this tool does
Turns a normal photo into a "miniature model" style tilt-shift photo directly in your browser. Choose a Linear focus band (for landscapes and street shots) or a Radial focus spot (for a single centered subject), drag the focus position right on the image, and adjust blur strength, transition softness, saturation, and contrast to taste.
How It Works
The tool first precomputes four versions of your photo: the original sharp image plus three progressively stronger box-blurred copies, with blur radius spaced evenly up to your chosen Blur Strength. For every pixel, it measures how far that pixel is from the focus area: in Linear mode, the perpendicular distance to the focus band's centerline (a point on the line has distance 0, and distance grows the same way on both sides regardless of the band's angle); in Radial mode, a normalized distance to the center where exactly 1.0 means "on the ellipse boundary," so both the horizontal and vertical radius are respected even when they differ. That distance is converted into a fractional blur level: 0 while inside the Focus Width, ramping linearly up to the maximum blur level across the Transition Softness zone, then clamped at maximum beyond it. The final pixel color is a linear blend between the two nearest precomputed blur levels using that fractional value, which reproduces a smooth, continuously increasing blur without recalculating a blur at every possible radius. Saturation Boost then scales each pixel's existing HSL saturation upward (a pixel with zero saturation is left untouched), and Contrast Boost applies the same piecewise contrast curve used elsewhere on this site, stretching values further from mid-gray for higher settings.
Problems it solves
- Giving an aerial or elevated photo the popular "tiny scale model" look for social media.
- Drawing the eye to one subject by blurring everything else into a soft, glossy backdrop.
- Recreating a real tilt-shift lens effect without owning specialized camera equipment.
Frequently asked questions
›What is the "miniature" effect and how does this tool create it?
It is a classic photography trick where a normal photo, usually shot from above, is edited to look like a photo of a tiny scale model. This tool recreates it by keeping a thin band or a circular spot of the image perfectly sharp while progressively blurring everything else, then boosting saturation and contrast so colors look like glossy toy plastic.
›What is the difference between "Linear" and "Radial" focus mode?
Linear mode keeps a straight band in focus, set by an angle and a width, which is the classic look for photos taken from a high vantage point looking down a street or landscape. Radial mode instead keeps a circular or elliptical spot in focus, which works well for photos with one clear subject in the middle, such as a person or a building.
›Why does the blur look the same strength at several different distances from center instead of changing smoothly pixel by pixel?
A truly continuous, ever-increasing blur radius at every single pixel is far too slow to compute in a browser. Instead, this tool precomputes a handful of blur strengths once and blends between the two closest ones for each pixel based on its distance from the focus area, which is the same approach real tilt-shift software uses and is visually indistinguishable from a fully continuous blur.
›Why does the saturation boost skip gray and neutral colors?
The boost works by increasing the existing color intensity of each pixel proportionally, so a pixel with no color to begin with, such as white, black, or gray, has nothing to boost and stays exactly as it was. This keeps neutral tones like pavement or overcast sky from picking up an unnatural tint.
›Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The entire effect runs locally in your browser using the HTML canvas API. Nothing is sent to a server.
Related Tools
Image
Image Levels & Threshold
Adjust tonal range with Clip, Stretch (Levels), or Threshold (black & white) modes, with a live preview.
FreeImage
Image Histogram Equalizer
Boost contrast using histogram equalization, across the whole image or just a selected area.
FreeImage
Color Shade Generator
Generate shades, tints, tones, color schemes, and every value format (RGB, HSL, HSV, CMYK) for any color, with CSS code ready to copy.
FreeImage
Image Tint Effects
Apply Colorize (single-color tint) or Duotone (two-color gradient map) effects to an image with a live preview.
Comments (0)
Found this tool useful? Leave a comment, share a tip, or tell us how we can make it better.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!