This effect mimics "Tilt shift" Photo effect
It makes an image look like a table top model.

Here is how to turn this.



Into this





Start with a nice picture looking down on something like a city or field etc.



Create a duplicate layer




Add a black layer mask.




Create a gradient that looks like and apply it to your mask where you want your focus to be.




Add lens blur to the bottom layer until you are happy with the effects. (Experiment)



Add a hue and saturation layer



Add a curves adjustment layer with these settings. (adjust if it too much for your image)



There ya go




More examples:

It should be noted that you will need PS CS2 or higher.

Older versions such as PS 7 (I still use) do not have the "lens blur" filter, though I supposed one could substitute it with another blur effect possibly.

Nice tutorial.

Gaussian blur should work fine.

Nice tut, I wish it would be added to the tuts section.

Me too.

Seems I converted the others for nuffin.

well make it happen captain

"Waiting for things to get done here
Is like watching paint dry...
Except it stays wet and sticky
And you're blind in one eye..."

- Victor Vacuum & the Attachments, 1972

This one really does look like a model



So does this one:



A ReinTWEAK for a ReyRey TUT:

USE "CREATE SMART OBJECT" of the image first. You can then control blur with the gradient still, but you can dial up more or less blur at any given time. Also I use the LENS BLUR (if you have CS3 and beyond) - it will not work out of the box on a smart object but if you GOOGLE "Enable all scripts in Photoshop" and you'll get info on being able to use the LENS BLUR filter even with Smart Objects.

(I'd do a tutorial but it wouldn't get posted - hopefully the above info will get you started

Are we gonna get this tuts in the tuts section or just talk about it?

Yeah, I tried that with PS7 a while back and got decent enough results...

Did this for a contest sometime ago, what I did notice is that if you have small bright colors ( people with red, green, orange ) shirts or bright buildings it looks much better. Dull images don't look as nice.

Thus the bright RED lipstick on my "model" image.

Cool tut Rey, had a go at it!

Push it

Try it on a painting.
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/hot/tilt-shift-van-gogh-2.htm