It’s not often that I can pull off a candid “Brenizer method” panorama, but here’s a 10-photo image from when the couple took a break at their Stage 6 at Steiner Studios wedding reception to spend a minute alone with the skyline. Like any extreme panorama, it reads best in very large sizes, so here it is in exactly one percent of the original area. One adage of panoramas is that at any given print size you’re compressing out the noise, handy at ISO 10,000.

10 photos with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4.

Elizabeth had long dreamed of a November wedding in Central Park. This is why.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 29-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 38mm f/0.6 according to Brett’s calculator)

I’m working away on my October workshops, now less than a month away! There are just five slots left for Day 2, so make sure you follow the instructions here and, even if you can’t pay right this second, let us know that you’re a lock and when you can pay, since I want to be as fair as possible.

Why do I bring this up? Well, Valerie above is not only an excellent assistant, but she’ll be one of the subjects I have lined up, coming in again all the way from Oklahoma! As you can see, she’s fantastic to shoot, and you’ll see a lot more tomorrow.

Since this is a huge panorama, I want to give you a sense of the size. So you can click on the image above for a link to a larger image, which is exactly one percent of the area of the original. I need to start leasing billboard space.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 24-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the 58mm f/1.2 Noct-Nikkor AIS (equivalent of 17mm f/0.36 according to Brett’s calculator)

Jessica and Brian commute to the city every day by boat. That’s pretty cool. One rung under commuting by jetpack. I’m working on that.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 8-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 55mm f/0.9 according to Brett’s calculator)

Either this panorama was so big or Yvonne and Clyde were simply so smoldering that my laptop couldn’t handle it and I had to wait to get home from California to put it together. A rare moment alone in the High Line.

I’ve put together a collection of Brenizer method example photos in nice large size on Google plus, for those who want to wrap their head around it or just like looking at them. Depth-of-feeling matters, not depth-of-field, but it’s nice to be able to turn the dial to f/0.4 when you want to.

I’m digging google plus quite a bit. As some others have found, even though it’s a lot like Facebook and not so much like Twitter, Twitter is what I’m losing enthusiasm for as I delve more into G+. This tweet from Ken Kienow shows the strange folly of a service popular with photographers without, well, photos.

Also, I’m currently one of the only people with a G+ address that makes sense: ryanbrenizer.com/googleplus
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 64-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 27mm f/0.5 according to Brett’s calculator)

Ida in particular is a trooper for this one. The place they had to stand was not the easiest to get up to, and then there’s the 20-foot drop…
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 35-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 28mm f/0.47 according to Brett’s calculator)

Once again, the first word that came to your mind when you saw this photo probably wasn’t "Newark." But it is.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 18-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 36mm f/0.6 according to Brett’s calculator)

This is just about as extreme a “Brenizer method” pano as I’ll probably ever do, using sixty-two frames from the exotic 200mm f/2 to bring a three-dimensional feel to a nice day in Central Park. Lauren is part of the great wedding planning team at Private Receptions, so I figured I’d swing for the bleachers. More from this session coming soon, as well as a full review of the 200mm. According to Brett’s calculator, this ended up functioning like it was taken with a 60mm f/0.6 lens. The original is 150 megapixels, and you can count their eyelashes.
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Lens: 62-frame “Brenizer method” panorama with 200mm f/2G VRII
Camera: Nikon D3

There’s shallow depth-of-field, and then there’s this — Brett’s calculator shows this to be the equivalent of an 80mm f/0.8. But what kept bringing me back to this photo is Lindsay and Ron’s connection to each other, clear even in silhouette apart.
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Lens: 30-frame “Brenizer method” panorama with 200mm f/2G VRII
Camera: Nikon D3s

Happy Memorial Day! I’m on the road in Washington DC today as part of my Memorial Day Weekend Wedding World Tour … three weddings and an engagement shoot. Kim and Dinesh were married on Saturday in a gorgeous wedding at Gotham Hall. It’s crazy-season time, but I’ll do my best to keep up, becauase I have so much to show!

Fun fact: We’re at 23rd Street because an off-duty MTA worker wrongly claimed we weren’t allowed to shoot at my subway stop … so we got onto the train and off at the next stop. One day MTA workers will read what the rules actually are (no lights, no tripods, no impeding traffic, otherwise photography is expressly permitted). Shooting with a wedding dress on a rainy day in NYC is a challenge because there is literally nowhere you can go that people will not try to stop you. NYC is like a video game on Hard Mode.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 10-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Nikon 105mm f/1.8 AIS (35mm equivalent focal length: 41mm f/0.67 — calculated here)

Update: See an updated gallery of Brenizer-method images at Google Plus

So, there was this crazy technique I came up with and streamlined a few years ago to use the effects of a multi-layer panorama, combined with fast lenses shot wide-open, to achieve depth-of-field impossible with current lenses. Ever wanted to shoot with a 24mm f/0.4? This technique gives you the opportunity. I asked a few thousand people if they’d ever seen anything like this before and no one had, so I thought I may be on to something. Still, out of the tens of millions of photographers out there I figured nothing is new under the sun, so I worked and worked on different applications of this. How do I do a 20+ image panorama of moving objects like people? How do I do this with continuous lighting? How can I do this with flash? Along the way, people started calling it “The Brenizer Method,” and while I like to think I have a lot more than one method, I admit I am honored and amused by the way it messes with my siblings’ heads.

It’s pretty simple once you learn the process, but I find for almost everyone it requires hands-on, visual learning to really get it. I’ve wanted to do a really good video of it for a long time, and finally I got the opportunity with the great team at B&H Photo.

If you’re interested in learning more, keep this page marked — I’ll use it as my new home base of information about the technique.

PS: Yes, I know there’s no such thing as a 135mm f/1.2. A man can dream, can’t he? And yes, I know I talk with my hands. That’s why I weigh them down with heavy cameras.

Quick tip: One important thing that got left on the cutting-room floor. When shooting any panorama ALL of your settings should be the same shot to shot — your focus, your ISO, your aperture, your shutter speed, and your white balance, otherwise it will be a hot mess. If your camera has an “AEL/AFL” button set to lock both exposure and focus, this takes care of all the variables except the white balance, and if you’re shooting RAW you can correct that later.

Also, photographer Brett Maxwell has come out with a really handy spreadsheet tool so you can figure out the exact equivalent of you final shot in 35mm terms. For example, in the shot in the B&H video, taken with a 105mm f/1.8, the final frame acts like it was shot by a 49mm f/0.8 lens.

Further tips and links (Updated as I have time)

Software: I used Photoshop CS5 in the video because that’s pretty much the current default. Any Photoshop of CS2 or higher will do it, but strangely I find CS3 works better than CS4 or CS5. Since I do this so much, I’ve invested in Autopano Pro, which makes the process so much easier and can also batch multiple panoramas at one time, so if I do four or five of these on the wedding day, I can process them all at once very quickly.

To Tripod or Not to Tripod: I should do a review of pano heads someday, but since I tend to use this technique with people I choose speed of capture over the absolute perfection of a pano head. You tend to only get in trouble when shooting either really close to the subject or things like stairs or railings, both due to parallax error. Good stitching programs, which you’ll need to correct for the vignetting of shooting wide-open, also correct mild parallax as long as you overlap your images by at least a third.

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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 35-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Nikon 105mm f/1.8 AIS

Here’s a shot I took yesterday of Bartow and Tiffany. I’ve been thinking a bit about the “Brenizer method” (or bokeh panoramas) recently, given that finally I have been working on a cogent, well-produced set of instructions (with some great help along the way). As I’ve noted before, the thing that really changes when you create a panorama is the sensor — it’s the same lens, same distance to subject, you’re just essentially making your sensor bigger. But I never thought about how simple that makes the answer to the commonly asked question — “what sort of camera is this emulating?”. Just simple measurement, compared to your original frame. Here’s a sample where one of the original frames have been inverted:

As that’s a 36x24mm frame, the total image ends up being like it was shot with an 8×9 cm camera — either “large medium format” or small” medium format, since it’s just a little smaller than a 4×5″ frame. Of course you could run out and get an actual 4×5″ frame, and maybe even set it up and shoot it in the middle of the street, but good luck finding a 105mm f/1.8 that will fit it.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 38-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Nikon 105mm f/1.8 AIS

I’ve always had energy and drive; I think the biggest thing that I’ve developed in nearly 200 weddings is a handy sixth sense for how and when Murphy’s Law will strike and a necessarily unflagging sense of confidence. This job requires you to be a little crazy, and if you’re bringing a bride out to a field like this in heels, you’d better deliver.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 17-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4

I feel like my blog has unexpectedly become a travel brochure for Newark. But man, Branch Brook Park did their cherry blossom display right, and Cindy, Sharvin and I had all sorts of fun there.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nine-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4

Amanda and Glenn braved the cold, rocks, and the law for this one.

Sometimes I wish there were a way of displaying a photo on the Web about five feet across. It helps that the original is more than 100 megapixels. Y’all need bigger screens.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 23-image “Brenizer method” pano with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4

I had a wonderful time teaching at the Digital Wedding Forum conference in San Antonio, and I got to do some really fun shoots along the way, testing out new gear for B&H Photo. Great weather, even better people. If you hate beautiful women, you might not want to visit the blog for a little while.

Or not, but Central Park does in a pinch.

Me Method, 22 images with the 85mm f/1.4D.

… at least if you go off the beaten path. This couple had recently gotten married in Australia, so they wanted a more casual shoot on their honeymoon. Hard to believe this is the middle of Manhattan.

22 shots with the 85mm f/1.4G.

The Me Method, 20 images with the 85mm f/1.4D.

It was a pretty nice day.

Brenizer method, 19 shots with the 85mm f/1.4.

I have plans in order to do a proper video tutorial on this, but my photography clients come first (and I have a lot of them), so I’ve put it off until late fall. But here is my original post on the matter, and you can see a lot more samples here.

In the meantime, here’s an old video laying it out. Sorry for the terrible sound, and my hair at the time:

On the fun side, I’ve often wondered why, with eight million viewers to my photo stream on Flickr and many more on my blog and Facebook, I get so little hate-mail. Exposing this to a million new people today might change that. Greetings! But to head the hate-mail off, no, I didn’t come up with the name. I called it “bokeh panoramas.” I like to think I have more methods left in me.