Thank you so much to the entrants! There were a number here where I didn’t see a Web site link in the e-mail; please drop me a note so I can add them!

Photo by: Kelcey Olson
Info: 56-image pano with a Canon 5D and 50mm/1.4

Photo by: Dennis Baburov
Info: 19-image pano with a Canon 5DII and 50mm/1.4

Photo by: Owen Cherry
Info: 38-image pano with a Nikon D3s and 85mm f/1.4D

Photo by: Annie Hall
Info: Nine-image pano with a Nikon D700 and 50mm f/1.4G

By: Joshua Ayres
Info: 69-image pano with a Canon 5DII and a 70-200 f/2.8L

Photo by: Ahmed Behiry
Info: 29-image pano with a Nikon D7000 and 85mm f/1.4

Photo by: Andrew Ramsey
Info: 9-image pano with a Canon 40D and 50mm/1.4

Photo by: Borys Las-Opolski
Info: 36-image pano with a Canon 5DII and Sigma 85 f/1.4“>Sigma 85mm f/1.4

Photo by: Sara K Byrne
Info: 44-image pano with a Canon 5D Mark III and 85mm f/1.2

Photo by: Andrew Ramsey
Info: 35-image pano with a Canon 7D and 70-200

Photo by: Urška Majer
Info: 20-image pano with an Olympus E-3 and Samyang 85mm f/1.4

First, I want to show you some of the honorable mentions. The impetus for this contest was to show that, once you get the mechanics of the Brenizer method down (instructional video here), the important thing is to go out and take some good pictures that show your unique vision. It’s not easy, but it’s been great to see what others have done with it, so I wanted to highlight that work here.

So, before we announce our winners, we’ve come up with 20 Honorable Mentions, great photos showing off different approaches, that I hope will give you some ideas about how to apply this to your own work. Here are the first 10, with more to come. Thank you so much to everyone who entered — this will not be the last contest!

Most of all, thanks again to B&H for sponsoring.

*Sam was nice enough to help judge instead of enter even though, let’s face it, a Brenizer Method portrait of George Clooney is sort of a ringer.

If I had a nickel for every Sri Lankan/Polish union I’ve seen… I’d have a nickel.

Since people have asked, we are on the final round of Brenizer Method contest judging … but that requires three extremely busy photographer teams in very different time zones to be available at the same time as we hash it out. We’re working on it, and can’t wait to show the results.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 70-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G (equivalent of 25mm f/0.4 according to Brett’s calculator)

Time flies. It was almost four years ago that I started playing around with panoramas not for the traditional reasons of super-wide frames or insanely high resolution, but to dance my way around a simple problem of physics: to get incredibly shallow depth-of-field, generally you need a lens with a long focal length set to a fast aperture, but that restricts you to a narrow frame of view. You could shoot medium or large format film as one way around this problem, but physics gives us another problem: there’s a good reason you don’t see f/1.4 lenses for large format cameras. They’d be ginormous. But using panorama techniques effectively increases the size of any camera’s sensor, allowing us to use super-fast and relatively compact SLR lenses to achieve incredibly shallow depth-of-field even on wide-angle frames.

I loved the look I was getting and set out to see what I could do with it. How can I shoot panoramas with people? Of candid action? How could I use flash? I was happy to share the things I was learning, and photographers seized on it, trying it for themselves and naming it the “Brenizer method.” (You can read more about it, including a tutorial video, here)

Years later, countless thousands of photographers around the world have made this technique their own, using it for everything from weddings to still lives to even George Clooney. It makes me thrilled to see people taking this and using it in ways that achieve their own vision or just make beautiful photos … and so I want to see what y’all can do with a little incentive.

To that end, I have partnered with B&H and some fantastic photographers for the first Brenizer Method contest. We want to see exactly what you can do. The basic tool is simple — it’s just a way to shoot at crazy effective apertures like f/0.4, but that alone doesn’t make a photo good, you do. And so I’ve partnered with some amazing photographic teams to help the judging:

Cole and Jacob of Nordica, and Seth and Tenielle of Feather and Stone are absolutely fantastic photographers, skilled in various techniques and brilliant in compositions. Seriously, spend some time drooling over their work. They also don’t as far as I know, use the Brenizer method. In the end, this contest isn’t about using the biggest lens or the most photos in a panorama — it’s about creating the most compelling photos — and I’m excited to have them aboard.

Honorable Mention photos will be featured on this blog and related social media sites and linked to by the B&H media mammoth. All photos will be credited with links back to your Web site (if you have one.)

The top three photos will be awarded gift cards to B&H Photo. Third place will win a $50 card, second place will win a $100 card, and first place will win a $150 card. These photos also will be given top spot in the Web feature.

First, of course, these photos must be taken with the Brenizer method. Not all panoramas count — what the method does is rely on a fast aperture and close enough subject distance to show a visibly shallow depth of field. This is not a Brenizer method photo:

But these are:

The entries do NOT have to be wedding photos, or even of people. They just have to use the method to create compelling photos.

We will be accepting entries until midnight EST on July 1, 2012.

All photos will be properly credited and you retain full copyright. Images will just be displayed in conjunction with contest results.

E-mail entries to brenizermethodcontest@gmail.com. No more than five entries per contestant, and use a separate e-mail for each photo. Each entry needs to contain a reference to the camera and lens that were used, and how many frames were used to make the final result. Please include how you would like to be credited, both your name and the Web site.

Resize photos to 1000 pixels on the largest side. NO WATERMARKS. My assistant will be managing the entries so that judging will be as blind and fair as possible.

Seriously, who knew?

PS: If you like shooting Brenizer Method images, you’ll want to watch this blog in the next couple weeks. Trust me.
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Camera: Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: 28-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 27m f/0.44 according to Brett’s calculator)

One of the nice things about the Brenizer method is that it gives that same feeling with film that — even when you know exactly what you’re after — there’s still a bit of a surprise at how it comes out.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 28-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 27m f/0.44 according to Brett’s calculator)

Ariana and Eric, alone in Manhattan.
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 29-image “Brenizer method” panorama with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (equivalent of 34mm f/0.55 according to Brett’s calculator)

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