NJF wrote:

Are there any boffins out there who can explain exactly what's being done?

I'm no boffin but essentially you create it in practise by using a large aperture setting (more often achievied through optical zoom) with a quick shutter speed to compensate for the aperture size.

This should blur the foreground and background. What makes it look like a model to the eye is unknown to me. Crews Control took some good photos in Italy (which I unsuccessfully tried to recreate in the same towns) where zooming in on rooftops makes it look like a toy town. I think he can explain the 'illusion' better.

For example I took this on an F/7.1 aperture at a 1/800 exposure. Due to the bog standard lens I was using I couldn't get aperture much greater than that but it shows you the idea.