Flying over New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas, this photographer has managed to both capture the essence of each city he shoots from the night sky above while also turning these places into surrealistic, faux-futuristic versions of themselves.

Using a full-body harness to hang out of helicopters, adventurous artist Vincent Laforet went to great lengths and high altitudes (in some cases nearly 10,000 feet) to take pictures of each setting (NYC and LV shown above, SF shown with making-of video below).

Special permission needed to be obtained to use flight paths normally reserved for passing planes. Tilt-shift techniques make the scale more comprehensible and help highlight areas of focus in each shot. What is truly remarkable, though, is how each set both reflects the photographer’s personal style but also very much embodies the character of each distinct location.

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The scope of all that exists beyond our own planet is so large, it’s mind-boggling to contemplate. Yet a simple Photoshop trick can seemingly reduce shots of outer space, including those taken by powerful Hubble telescopes, to miniature scenes.

Reddit user TheScienceLlama took a bunch of space imagery from NASA and ESA and transformed it with the Tilt-Shift filter in Photoshop, including the Horsehead Nebula, Crab Nebula, Meathook Galaxy, Thor’s Helmet Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy.

The tilt-shift effect blurs the top and bottom of an image to mimic a shallow depth of field, making it seem as if life-sized scenes are actually miniatures.

The effect is especially effective on urban scenes, making planes, city buses, cruise ships and people look  like toys.

The art of fake tilt-shift photography has become something of a phenomenon in the last several years. By altering the light levels and focus depth in a photograph through Photoshop or another photo editing software, it is possible to make the picture look as though it depicts a miniature scene. While most tilt-shift photographers use landscape photos or other real life scenes, Artcyclopedia has brilliantly chosen to reinterpret classic Van Gogh paintings as spectacular tilt-shift artworks.

It is worth mentioning that there is absolutely no pressing need to change or improve on Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork. His paintings are some of the most compelling images ever created. However, this project brings out surprising details in these paintings that most of us have gazed at many, many times.

The tilt-shift effect was applied to the paintings in Photoshop by adjusting the color saturation, depth of focus and contrast. Obviously, no priceless masterpieces were harmed in the exercise. Nothing has been added or removed. But the results are absolutely stunning: the paintings, which were already breathtaking, take on a whole new context. They become more real in a sense.

Van Gogh’s paintings were particularly well suited to an experiment like this thanks to their rich details and surreal textures. Manipulated by the tilt-shift technique, small details which tend to be overlooked normally pop out and announce themselves to the viewer.

There are, no doubt, many art lovers who would protest even the harmless digital manipulation of these masterpieces. But the changes seen here are not meant to be improvements on the originals – they are simply a different way to look at Van Gogh’s work.

Just as tilt-shift photography of landscapes can bring out aspects of a familiar city or street that we have never before noticed, these slightly altered paintings make the textures just a bit more noticeable and the colors just a bit more vivid.

It comes as a bit of a surprise that the tilt-shift technique works so well on paintings. The distorted depth of focus transforms each two-dimensional painting into a three-dimensional world of its own. These images were all prepared for Artcyclopedia by Serena Malyon.

It doesn’t take much to fool the human mind into thinking it’s seeing something other than reality.  To the casual observer, the subjects of these photographs look like incredibly detailed miniatures.  But if you look closer, you’ll see that this isn’t play time – these are real-life scenes made to look like tiny models through the magic of tilt-shift photography.

Ronaldo Fonseca

(images via: Ronyjux)

The term “tilt-shift photography” refers to the method of tilting the camera lens to distort the plane of focus and shifting the lens to distort the perspective.  Today, most photographers simply take a digital photograph and apply the tilt-shift distortions via software.  Ronaldo Fonseca uses the traditional method to create tilt-shift images with no digital manipulation.

Marcus Spedding

(images via: Kasei)

Aerial views of cities are well-suited to tilt-shift photography.  The blurring at the edges of the photograph simulates the effect of a macro lens on a much smaller field.  These photos from Japan depict what looks like a perfectly miniaturized city, complete with tiny people and beautifully detailed trees.

Kris Kros Photography

(images via: Kris Kros)

One of the most difficult aspects of tilt-shift photography is finding the right conditions.  The lighting has to be bright and full in order to turn out a convincing finished photo because those are the lighting conditions one would expect to find with a photograph of a true miniature.  These pictures from Kris Kros Photography take advantage of excellent lighting conditions to make delightful images of “tiny” scenes.

Modest and Jill

(images via: Modest and Jill)

The subject matter is just as important as the angle and lighting in tilt-shift photography.  If a subject is too complicated or detailed, it isn’t believable as a model.  But if it’s too plain, it is difficult to notice the changed perspective.  Husband and wife duo Modest and Jill have compiled a small but high-quality collection of tilt-shift photographs from cities all over North and South America.  Their subjects are visually exciting, but not so complicated that the illusion is ruined.

David Legnon

(images via: donniedark0)

These tilt-shift photographs of a Boston neighborhood show another way to be creative with this optical illusion.  David Legnon‘s hand putting the “finishing touch” into the scene reinforces the illusion that the photograph of the city is, in fact, a photograph of a tiny model Boston.

Olivo Barbieri

(images via: Metropolis)

Olivo Barbieri’s venture into tilt-shift photography arose from a desire to put some magic into his photography.  By photographing scenes from a helicopter with a tilt-shift lens, he has been able to capture phenomenal pictures from around the world.

Keith Loutit

Using a combination of tilt-shift and time-lapse photography, Australian photographer Keith Loutit creates enchanting Lilliputian worlds where itty-bitty people enjoy their leisure time. His goal is to get people to take a second look at their surroundings and notice things that they may not ordinarily pay attention to.