Miniature faking

Miniatures can be simulated optically by using lens tilt, although the effect is somewhat different from the shallow depth of field (DoF) that normally results from macro photography.

For a completely flat surface, the effect using tilt would be almost the same as that with a regular lens: the region of focus would be sharp, with progressive blurring toward the top or bottom of the image.

The image of Jodhpur was made from such a scene; although the blurring was accomplished with digital postprocessing, a similar result could have been obtained using tilt.

In the image of Jodhpur, the diorama simulation is quite effective, because the scene includes relatively little height and was photographed at a fairly high angle to the ground.

Similar effects occur in the image of the large, low building; although the diorama simulation of the main subject is reasonable, there are noticeable sharpness differences from top to bottom on the nearest light poles and on the taller building in the background, even though the tops and bottoms of these objects are at nearly the same distances from the camera.

A simple depth map[10] consisting of a linear gradient can be edited to give uniform sharpness to objects at the same distance from the camera.

An advanced use of the diorama effect in a motion picture was a process developed by Clark James, dubbed Smallgantics, for "Harrowdown Hill", a music video for Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

In this instance, the false diorama effect was achieved digitally using helicopter footage of full-size vernal and urban landscapes that was broken down into separate planes.

It involves hand creating as many as eight planes of z-buffering over live-action footage, one frame at a time, resulting in an animated black and white matte (filmmaking) sequence.