15 Surreal & Dreamy Wedding Portraits Captured with a Tilt-Shift Lens

Of the many tools that photographers use to capture important moments that make up a wedding day, one of the most unique is the tilt-shift lens. These lenses are more commonly used to photograph architecture and landscapes due to their distinct ability to control depth of field and perspective, but they’re becoming increasingly popular among wedding and portrait photographers. If you have any interest in soft, dreamy images, you’re going to love it. As you’ll find in the collection of photos below, tilt-shift wedding portraits offer a surreal style that is at once timeless and unique. We’re confident these photos will inspire your wedding day shot list.

All of the images in this article are provided by the photographers at Wedding Maps and used with permission.

From Near to Far: More Focus Points

Most people love portraits with a shallow depth of field that focus on the subject and blur the background into oblivion. It’s a look we see in movies all the time, and it’s one that iPhone’s “Portrait” mode dreams of replicating. Using a shallow depth of field provides a great way to draw focus to the subject and separate them from the background. The downside of using this technique, however, is that the focal plane is very limited, meaning subject placement is also limited. More often than not, photographers will default to placing the subjects side by side to ensure they’re both in focus.

When photographers use a tilt-shift lens, however, they can manipulate the focal plane and get creative with how they position subjects or choose which parts of the frame will be in focus. As you can see in the images above, it makes for a surreal looking portrait that can only be captured with a tilt-shift lens.

Exceptional Flare

Capturing a sun flare during golden hour can help give couples portraits an epic feel. This is true regardless of the lens the photographer uses. Tilt-shift lenses, however, take it a step further in the “unique” category with how the rest of the objects in the frame look. As you can see, the images speak for themselves.

However many sunsets you may have seen, you probably haven’t seen one quite like this.

One-of-a-Kind Action/Recessional Portraits

The recessional is a standard part of most wedding ceremonies, but a tilt-shift lens will make it look anything but ordinary. Photos like this can prove tricky to capture because the action unfolds quickly, and they don’t provide an opportunity for do-overs. If your photographer is comfortable giving it a go, you can be sure you’ll get recessional portraits that are one-of-a-kind.

Solo Bridal Portraits

The best portraits typically incorporate multiple compositional elements. For example, in the image above, the photographer is using a shallow depth of field, negative space, the rule of thirds, and a unique focal plane that, again, can only be achieved using a tilt-shift lens. Combined, these compositional tools do an amazing job of drawing the viewer’s focus directly to the bride.

Epic Couples Session

We’ve already seen how well the tilt-shift lenses work for capturing incredible solo portraits. It should be no surprise that they work equally well for capturing epic couples portraits, especially in grand locations like the rocky hills featured in the portrait above. Normally, in a shot like this, the photographer would likely use a narrow aperture and everything would be in focus. Or, they might go the other way and keep the couple in focus while everything else would start to blur. The tilt-shift lens opens up new opportunities for capturing epic environmental portraits.

Tilt-Shift Wedding Ring Shots

Normally, when wedding photographers take pictures of items like wedding rings, they turn to macro lenses, which allow them to get close-up to capture the details. Tilt-shift lenses can also be used to capture close-up detail shots, albeit in a unique way.

Conclusion & More Inspiration

We hope you enjoyed this collection of unique wedding portraits featuring the work of some incredible photographers who know their way around a tilt-shift lens. It’s worth noting that not every photographer you talk to will have this lens in their arsenal, but if you like this style, be sure to mention it when consulting with your photographer before the big day.

Here are some more tilt-shift wedding portraits for your inspiration.