Creative shooting modes are very popular on 2010 point-and-shoots. One of Canon's is the Miniature Effect on its SD1400 IS, SD3500 IS, and SX210 IS cameras.
Joshua Goldman
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
The effect works better when you have a lot of color and contrast in the scene. A little height above your subject helps, too.
The following examples are by no means stellar, but should give you an idea of what the feature can do.
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A picture of the new New York Giants Stadium. Since there's not a lot of color and it was taken almost at ground level, the effect isn't very good.
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Add more color, more contrast, and some height, though, and you get a better results.
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Canon introduced a few new creative shooting modes in 2010. This is Miniature Effect, which blurs the top and bottom of the frame and boosts contrast and color saturation to make subjects look like painted miniature models. It works to some degree, but is not as convincing as true tilt-shift photography, which is what the effect is based on.
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The top photo was taken in Miniature Effect mode, while the bottom is taken in the camera's Auto mode. All that is happening is a blur applied to both the top and bottom of the frame and colors are saturated to give the appearance of being painted miniatures. The problem is, the effect just isn't convincing enough.
