Flex Image Tilt Shift ⚡🅡🅞🅣🅘

Tilt-shift is the effect that makes real scenes look like miniature models - a thin sliver of the frame stays sharp while everything else goes soft, mimicking the shallow depth of field you'd get from an actual macro/tilt-shift lens shooting a tiny scene. This is the most parameter-dense of RyanOnTheInside's image effects nodes, with real control over the focus region's shape and the character of the out-of-focus blur (bokeh) - and, being a Flex node, any of it can be driven by a reactive Feature.

How it works

The focus area is defined by focus_position_x/focus_position_y (0–1, where it's centered) and focus_width/focus_height (how large the sharp region is, relative to the frame). focus_shape decides how that region's edge behaves: rectangle for a hard-edged sharp band, ellipse for a soft oval, or gradient (the default) for a continuous falloff that reads as the most naturalistic depth simulation of the three. Everything outside that focus area gets blurred by blur_amount (0–50).

The out-of-focus character comes from the bokeh settings: bokeh_shape - circular (natural, modern-lens look), hexagonal (vintage-lens aperture blades), or star (deliberately decorative) - plus bokeh_size and bokeh_brightness, which control how prominent the bright, blurred highlight blobs are in the out-of-focus regions. chromatic_aberration adds a touch of color fringing specifically in the blurred areas, which is a small but real detail real macro lenses actually exhibit.

feature_param can drive any one of nine settings: blur_amount, focus_position_x/y, focus_width/height, bokeh_size, bokeh_brightness, chromatic_aberration, or None. A genuinely useful reactive pattern here is animating focus_position_x/y so the "in focus" point tracks something over time - a slow rack-focus effect - rather than only pumping blur intensity up and down.

Inputs and outputs that matter

• images - required.
• focus_position_x/y and focus_width/height - set where and how large the sharp area is; get this right first, it defines the whole composition of the effect.
• blur_amount - the second thing to tune once focus placement looks right.
• focus_shape/bokeh_shape - worth trying a few combinations; gradient + circular is the most photographically "correct" pairing, but rectangle + star reads as much more stylized/toylike.

Output is a single IMAGE.

How to install it

Via ComfyUI Manager, search "RyanOnTheInside." Manually:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/ryanontheinside/ComfyUI_RyanOnTheInside
cd ComfyUI_RyanOnTheInside
pip install -r requirements.txt

then restart. No model download needed - it's an image-processing effect, not a diffusion model.

Common issues & troubleshooting

Effect doesn't read as "miniature" at all, just blurry. Tilt-shift's illusion depends heavily on the focus band being thin relative to the frame - a wide focus_width/focus_height just looks like a normal soft vignette-blur, not the miniature effect. Keep the focus region genuinely narrow, and place it low in the frame (matching where a real tilt-shift lens's plane of focus tends to fall on landscape/cityscape shots) for the classic look.

Bokeh highlights aren't visible even with bokeh_size cranked up. Bokeh only shows up meaningfully where the source image actually has bright, small highlights in the blurred region - string lights, specular reflections, sun through leaves. A flat, evenly-lit source image simply doesn't have anything for the bokeh shape to render around, regardless of settings.

Reactive focus_position drifts unnaturally. If a feature is driving focus_position_x/y in absolute mode and the feature is noisy, the focus point can jitter rather than sweep smoothly. Switch to relative mode or smooth the upstream feature if you want the rack-focus effect to feel deliberate rather than twitchy.