Recreate the tilt-shift effect in Photoshop

Make a gradient 1 With your image open in Photoshop, switch to Quick Mask mode (quickly activated by pressing Q). Select the Gradient tool (G) and make sure that the Reflected Gradient is selected, then draw a straight vertical line down the middle of your image. Position the start of the line in the area you want in focus, and end it where you want blur to begin.

Apply lens blur 2 Leave the Quick Mask mode. You should see a selection around the area you want blurred. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur to apply a lens blur effect to that area. This will open a window, where you can adjust just how blurry to make things by taking the Radius up or down – don’t go too high or it’ll look fake. Click OK to exit, then go to Select > Deselect.

Boost those colours 3 Now that the blur has been created, you can make the photo look more miniature by boosting the colour and contrast again. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/ Saturation and increase the Saturation until the image looks more toy-like.

To up the contrast of the photo, go to Image > Adjustments > Curves and create a slight S-curve. Voila!