Real photo, tabletop feel.
Drop a photo, drag the focus band, watch the world become a miniature. Three focus shapes — horizontal band, vertical slice, radial spot. Saturation and contrast crank for the full plastic-toy illusion. Nothing uploads. For real lens work, grab a real camera.
Make a photo look like a miniature
Blur everything outside a narrow band of focus so a real scene reads as a tabletop model.
What you can change
- Band
- Slice
- Spot
- Sharp band position
- Spot position
- Sharp band size
- Blur strength
- Saturation
- Contrast
How it works
- 01Drop in a photo, or open one of the samples.
- 02Choose the focus shape — band, slice or spot — tap the photo to move it where you want it, then set the sharp band size, blur strength, saturation and contrast.
- 03Download it at full resolution. Nothing is uploaded — the work happens in this browser tab.
Tilting the lens…
Make a photo look like a miniature
Blur everything outside a narrow band of focus so a real scene reads as a tabletop model.
What you can change
- Band
- Slice
- Spot
- Sharp band position
- Spot position
- Sharp band size
- Blur strength
- Saturation
- Contrast
How it works
- 01Drop in a photo, or open one of the samples.
- 02Choose the focus shape — band, slice or spot — tap the photo to move it where you want it, then set the sharp band size, blur strength, saturation and contrast.
- 03Download it at full resolution. Nothing is uploaded — the work happens in this browser tab.
Tilting the lens…
Six places miniature beats reality
- 01 for cities
A street scene that looks like a tiny model
Tilt-shift turns a real street into a HO-scale model. Position the focus band over the people walking, blur the buildings above and the road below, bump the saturation. The full-size city becomes a tabletop diorama — same scene, dollhouse feel.
- 02 for travel
A miniature European market square
Travel photos of bustling squares always read better in tilt-shift than as flat documentary shots. The focus band on the market stalls, the blur on the cathedral and cobblestones, and the saturation crank — suddenly the photo is a postcard, not a reference image.
- 03 for landscapes
Vertical-slice tilt for a tall waterfall
Switch to vertical-slice mode and the focus runs up-and-down the frame. Useful when the subject is vertical — a waterfall, a building facade, a tall tree. Blur left and right, sharp band through the center. Reads as 'one focused thing' instead of 'wide scenery'.
- 04 for portraits
Radial-spot focus for a portrait halo
Radial mode puts the focus inside a circle — sharp at the center, blurring outward. Place it on a face, set a moderate blur, and the photo reads like a vintage soft-focus portrait. The classic Vaseline-on-the-lens move, free, controllable.
- 05 for sports
A horizontal action shot with a focus stripe
Sports and action shots benefit from a focused band across the action and blur on the periphery. Reduces visual noise around the subject without cropping. Helmets, bikes, dance moves — all read sharper when bracketed by intentional blur.
- 06 for video stills
A cinematic still from a phone video frame
Phone video stills look flat because phone lenses have huge depth of field. Tilt-shift adds the optical-feel of a real cinema lens — shallow focus, blurred background. The frame suddenly reads as a film still, not a screen grab.
Frequently asked
Does the photo upload anywhere? +
No. The blur composite runs on a canvas in your browser. Your photo never touches our servers — we don't run an image pipeline at all.
How does tilt-shift fake the miniature look? +
Real miniatures are photographed with shallow depth of field — only a thin slice is in focus, and everything else falls off gradually rather than all at once. This tool builds that ramp: several blur radii layered outward from your sharp band, so a detail just outside the band goes slightly soft and something at the frame edge goes fully out. Then saturation and contrast add the 'plastic toy' richness. The brain reads a gradual focus drop-off as 'small subject, close camera' even though the scene is huge — a hard cut-off just reads as a blurred photo.
Which focus shape should I pick? +
Horizontal band: classic city/street tilt-shift, blur top and bottom. Vertical slice: tall subjects (waterfalls, buildings), blur left and right. Radial spot: single subject in the center (portrait, product), blur outward in a circle.
Why bump saturation and contrast? +
Real miniature scenes (model trains, dioramas) have intense saturation because the paint is fresh and the lighting is bright. Bumping saturation on a real-world photo cues the brain to read it as a model, even before the blur registers. Contrast adds the same effect — strong shadows feel 'staged'.
My photo looks weird with default settings — what should I change? +
Move the focus position to where your subject actually is — default is the middle, but a cityscape's people might be in the bottom third. Then narrow the focus band so the blur kicks in tighter to your subject. Smaller focus band = more pronounced miniature effect.
Will this work on close-up photos? +
It can, but the effect is muted because real close-ups already have shallow depth of field — adding more blur on top can look exaggerated. Tilt-shift sells best on wide-scale scenes where reality has too *much* depth and you're forcing it shallower.
now what?
A few moves after the diorama lands
next →
Add Text to Photo
Caption the miniature scene.
Opennext →
Crop & Resize
Reframe for IG or stories.
Opennext →
Duotone Effect
Recolour for a posterised tabletop look.
Opennext →
Drop Shadow
Float the diorama over paper for a print mockup.
Opennext →
Polaroid Maker
Wrap the miniature in a Polaroid frame.
Opennext →
Pinterest Pin Maker
Use the diorama as a Pinterest pin hero.
OpenThe rest of this shelf
Photo Filters
Eight looks plus the original — vintage to cinematic.
OpenFilm Grain
Tri-X, Kodak Gold, Lomo — pick a roll, see the grain.
OpenHalftone Effect
Comic dots, risograph red, punk-zine textures.
OpenPencil Sketch
Photo to graphite drawing in two clicks.
OpenLight Leak
Sunset, lomo red, golden hour — bleed light into corners.
OpenRGB Glitch
VHS bands, anaglyph 3D, CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration.
OpenUse a real lens for real-time miniature work.
A real tilt-shift lens (or a fast prime at f/1.4) gives the optical depth of field this tool fakes. For deliberate miniature photography on a budget, a 50mm f/1.8 plus creative framing beats software every time.