Today I'm going to show you what the Brenizer Method is and how to create an
image using this process
the Brenizer Method is sometimes referred to as Bokah panorama or Bokahrama
this technique is similar to the video I made a few years ago on shooting
super wide angle shots with the kit lens but just using a longer focal length and
shallower depths of field if you haven't seen this video yet click on the I in
the corner or the link in the description basically you take a lot of
images and stitch them together to give a wider field of view for a given focal
length when you shoot with say an 85 millimeter or longer and at F 1.8 or
maybe F 1.4 you can get a much shallower depth of focus for a given framing so
basically a wide angle shot with a really shallow depth of field if we look
at these next two images the first one has been taken as a single shot with a
25 millimeter lens whereas the second one has been taken with an 85 millimeter
lens but a lot of images all stitched together it's pretty much the same
framing but a very different shot now as well as the depth of focus being
different between these two images there are other differences and these are the
size of the file and the time it takes to process the stitched image is huge
and does take a long time to process especially when using a high megapixel
camera on quite a slow computer but I do think it really makes your images stand
out from the norm and it's well worth the effort and can be a lot of fun when
you get it right this image of my car is over 135 megapixels and this one of my
wife is over 220 megapixels now this is how to get images like this I found it
works best when the distance between you and the subject is around about 8 to 12
feet or 6 to 8 foot when the subject is a person or you're photographing a
couple also with the distance between the subject and the background you need
to make sure this is as far as possible to get that background out of focus the
first thing you need to do is work out the framing and where you want the
subject or model you could shoot with a 25 millimeter to work out your framing
and then swap lenses for a much longer focal length so you know where
to start your frame and you know where to end your frame next it's time to work
out your settings you'll be shooting everything in manual so manual mode
manual ISO and manual focus also affixed white balance is good so the colors
don't shift around between shots and raw will give you much more latitude in
editing think about how you will be framing your shot and then look for the
brightest part in that shot then you want to expose for that brightest part
so the sky behind the trees is over exposing in this example and I have to
make sure this isn't clipping before starting this sequence of shots if the
dynamic range is too high for your camera you might have to shoot from a
tripod and then bracket each shot this is a more advanced technique so for now
I'll just show you how to do it with a dynamic range within the limits of the
camera to expose for the brightest part as we're going for that shallow depth of
focus set the aperture first and set it to the widest that your lens will go
mine is on 1.8 then set the ISO to 100 and dial in the shutter speed if you're
shooting in a darker environment and the shutter speed drops below the same
number as your focal length you may have to up the ISO but where I'm shooting now
it's bright and there's a lot of light about so I set the ISO to 100 and then
dial in that shutter speed I'll quickly check the histogram and then make sure
my zebras aren't dominant in that bright area this is just to make sure my
highlights aren't clipping I have a look around the shot and once I'm happy with
the exposure over the whole of the area I'm going to be shooting I'll set my
focus here I'm focusing on the side of the cube to try and get as much a bit in
focus as possible and then I'll switch to manual focus it's vital not to knock
or turn the focus ring after this point so make sure you keep your hands away
from the focus dial if it's a static subject like this cube just start
working your way through the shot I start at the top left and then across
and then work my way down in layers making sure I have lots of overlap so
the computer doesn't struggle too much and this is the key as long as you've
got lots of overlap the computer will find it easier to
build the image afterwards now if you're photographing a person you can cheat
them first and then build the image up around them and that's the way I
approach it now it's better to get more than you think
so shoot more images and go wider than you think you'll need when doing this
technique a few times I've missed a corner or two and I haven't got quite
wide enough so make sure you do get everything you might want it's better to
get too much and discard a few images than to have bit missing also be wary of
straight edges and distortion this cube has a few so I'll show you what can
happen later on when editing now once you've finished the sequence you can
take more sequences or just carry on with your day when you're done bring
your images back into your computer and import them into your editing software I
use Lightroom and Photoshop Lightroom to organize the images and if it's a
straightforward stitch I use the panorama function in that build that
image and then Photoshop if there are any parts missing or if Lightroom is
struggling to stitch them together once you have all of your images imported you
need to enable profile Corrections in lens Corrections so scroll down to lens
Corrections and make sure this is checked it has automatically selected
the right lens for me but if it doesn't do this find your lens in the drop down
menus then make sure all images in your sequence of shots are selected by
clicking on the first one holding down shift and clicking on the last one
they'll all go white like they are in my strip along the bottom you need to sync
these lens Corrections so make sure the first one is selected and then click on
sync if everything is checked in this menu click check none and check the lens
Corrections and then click synchronize this will ensure that all of the images
have the right lens Corrections reducing any vini etting might have next make
sure they're all still selected then right-click on the film strip along the
bottom go to photo merge and select panorama and let the computer do its
thing I normally start with a spherical projection if that doesn't work I then
go on to cylinder called projection if you do have any
buildings in your shot you can try perspective but this often fails for me
boundary warp often distorts the image in a weird way so I always leave this on
zero if you check fill edges if there's not too much to fill it can work but I
prefer to do this afterwards in Photoshop with Auto crop I'll also keep
this unchecked as I want to crop it myself I'll also leave auto settings off
as I can do this at the end before exporting then click merge now depending
on your computer's processing power you might have to wait a while especially if
you're shooting with a high megapixel camera so this is a time to get a cup of
tea once processed it will give you a new image and if you've shot it like I
have it'll be huge this is over twenty eight thousand by fourteen thousand
pixels which is whopping 392 megapixels I do have all of these white bits though
so I'll be cropping in on it a little bit but with all of those pixels
cropping in won't matter one bit so select your crop tool which is this
little square up here make sure the padlock is unlocked and then crop to
suit I'll get rid of the big white bit but sometimes not all of them once I'm
happy with a crop I'll click done or double click the image now with this
example if i zoom in you can see the soft out-of-focus background however the
one main problem with this one is the distortion where it's bending the side
of the water pool in the foreground I'll address this later but first of all I'll
show you how to get rid of these white edges and for this we'll have to go over
to photoshop so right click Edit in Photoshop and wait for it to load as
it's such a big image it may take a while once in Photoshop
select your Spot Healing Brush tool which as default will be in the left
hand side but I've just moved everything to the right hand side to make it easier
for me all you're going to do is increase or decrease your brush size
with the square brackets on your keyboard
and then paint in the missing bits you might have to go over some parts a few
times but if they're only small sections like this you can normally successfully
fill them in with this tool keep doing this until all parts are complete if you
have some tricky parts it might be worth cropping these out otherwise save the
image and go back into Lightroom once back in Lightroom edit the images normal
now I've already mentioned it but the main problem with this shot is the
distortion in the foreground and if you have any straight edges in your shot be
wary of this I wasn't happy with this one but luckily I took another sequence
further back going through exactly the same process when shooting it as well as
when editing it and it came out a lot better I was about 15 to 20 foot away
from the cube with this one it has lessened the effect but the small
building is still more out of focus than say if I shot it with a 25 millimeter
lens so here I have the 25 millimeter lens and the bokeh Rama or brin eyes a
method shot next to it so you can see the difference they do look a lot
different and when you zoom in you can really see how much the background is
out of focus in the stitched image it is a subtle difference when zoomed out but
it does make your subject pop out of that background a little bit more than
usual now if you've tried and failed with this
technique there are normally a few reasons why for instance like the image
that I went through with straight lines make sure you are further back than
normal if you are too close to your subject not only will it distorts but it
may not all be in focus like this one of my car if i zoom in the back of the car
is out of focus so stepping back and putting more distance between you and
the subject will help but make sure you don't move too far away as the shot will
then start to look like a normal panorama like this one I was around
about 30 foot away and this meant that everything started to come into focus so
it really is getting the balance you don't want to be too far away from the
subject but you don't want to be too close either and this all comes down to
experimentation also if everything is on the same plane
a big landscape far in the distance you won't really see the benefits of this
process so you need a lot of depth in your photograph I try and get about six
to eight feet between me and the subject and then as much distance between the
subject and the background also if there's anything in the foreground you
can kind of bring that out of focus as well and that'll add to the depth of the
shot I do this whenever I'm out and about and even if I've got my wide-angle
lens with me I still try and get a shot using this process however you shoot it
just make sure you are set to manual everything then set your focus and set
that to manual focus then your settings and focal plane will stay exactly the
same from the first shot to the last shot now if you've tried this technique
already let me know in the comments below how you got on or if you haven't
go out and try it and let me know in the comments again it'll be great to hear
how you get on with it now to shoot super wide angle shots with
the kit lens click on this next video here and if you want to shoot handheld
panoramas click on this next video down here and if you haven't already make
sure to subscribe for weekly videos every Monday and Thursday I'll see you
next time