The Brenizer Method

This is a new technique that I just learned about. I have never heard of it before and apparently Ryan Brenizer is the originator of this method.

The idea is to take a wide angle image (one that covers are large area of a scene) but retain a shallow depth of field (the main subject is in sharp focus while the foreground and background are out of focus). If you have ever shot with a wide angle lens, than you know that even at their widest aperture, the overall image is rather sharp  from foreground to background. Ryan Brenizer created this method to overcome that issue.

Here is how I shot my first Brenizer image. I used my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Everything was set to manual (shutterspeed, aperture, ISO, WB, focus). I then "scanned" the scene firing off about 30-40 images. It is essentially a panorama. After stitching the images together using PTgui, I re-imported into Lightroom and finished the editing process. I suggest you check out Ryan's work, as he is the originator and the master of the technique.