>>6709230There's the mechanical explanation - the reason things look small when a tilt-shift lens is used is also pretty simple. When you look at something close-up, the lenses of your eyes are unable to completely bring the object into focus, creating out-of-focus areas in the foreground and background - obviously this is replicated with tilt-shift, creating the illusion that the subject is very close/small.
Feel free to trash me if I'm wrong, it's been a while but I think this is right.
