I was really excited when this month’s challenge for my group of photographers came out. The selected style of photography is known as “The Brenizer Method” which consists of stitching lots of pictures with a shallow depth of field to create the impression of a medium format or large format of photography. The method is widely known by the work of Ryan Brenizer, a talented NY based wedding photographer.
The concept is to develop and enhance the field of view (showing wider angles), while keeping my depth of field intact to create some beautiful wide angle images with incredibly shallow depth of fields. Simple terms? Use a lens that is really meant for close up, cropped shots and create a wide full picture image by taking more than one picture and than photo-stitching all the photos together and create a large photo. The results are simply stunning!
So I called out for a model on my Facebook Fan Page (follow me!) and the Sunday before all the leaves blew away – Heather, a Legend High School Senior was my model while I tried to create this cool effect of photography. Heather was amazing to work with. I shared with her the ideas of what I was going to try to do before hand by sending her links of other photographers that have mastered this style down, so that she was aware she was going to do a lot of standing and not move around a lot. She was still game and brave!
I’m posting a few of the shots that I did, the before and after… and I’ll give some details as I went along the process.
Background: I photographed Heather with a 70D Canon and an 85mm f/1.8
The first image is 17 images stitched together, so there is a lot of jagged edges. Once compiled, the 17 images make an image large enough to be around a 72 x 36″. That’s huge, but for viewing sake, I made them web size ready for viewing. The 2nd image (after) is what it would be liked cropped and ready to go to the printers and in it normally would still be a huge file for printing.
Image 2: 16 images stitched together (LOVE the Fall Colors!!)
Image 3: 28 images stitched together. Now I’ll admit, I didn’t get this one right at all in exposure and for the most part, I really wasn’t focusing on exposure, it was the concept of the images. But I still liked how it came out and Heather was just so cute!
Image 4: 28 Images
Now on the next 2 shots – I knew I was breaking some serious rules. The idea is to keep the subject in focus and the rest of their surroundings blurry… I can’t possibly ask a Senior girl to throw leaves and still get an amazing shot right? Well, we tried it and this is what came out, it’s pretty cool.
Image 5: 5 images stitched and Heather is shown throwing the leaves in the air
Image 6: 6 images, I omitted one image in the same set above and it’s wicked the leaves are suspended in the air
Image 7: 18 Images stitched
Image 8: 15 Images stitched
Thank you Heather for being such a great help! I enjoyed meeting you and working with you on my monthly challenge. I still have some kinks to work out on when working with this method, but I hope to incorporate this into future sessions!
For Heather’s great help I took a few portrait photos of her and she will get a free 8×10 for helping me out. Watch for future model casting calls when I take on a new monthly challenge… you could be next!
