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Mike Harris uses the Brenizer method to shoot and edit a bokeh panorama with a super-shallow depth of field
The Brenizer method is the brainchild of renowned wedding photographer Ryan Brenizer. It’s sometimes referred to as the bokeh panorama, owing to the wide frame and supershallow depth of field that characterizes the style of these images.
Bokeh panoramas boast shallower depths of field than are achievable with a wide-angle lens, and give APS-C and full-frame users the ability to produce portraits with a large-format aesthetic. The key to this technique is to use a fast telephoto lens to achieve the characteristic portrait depth of field, and constant camera settings that won’t change between frames to create a seamless blend.
Once you’ve settled on a white balance preset, locked your exposure, and used AF to focus on your subject, you need to switch to manual focus so as not to change your point of focus as you begin to shoot your panorama sequence. Exactly how many photos you take is down to personal preference, but we recommend overlapping each frame by around 30% to ensure you don’t leave any gaps.
Photoshop makes it easy to blend your sequence by automatically merging your images together. You then simply need to check the blend for any inconsistencies, and crop as desired. If you like the idea of creating a wide portrait with a super-shallow depth of field, here’s how to shoot and edit your own bokeh panorama…
HOW TO SHOOT A BRENIZER
A fast lens is essential for achieving a shallow depth of field: we used an 85mm f/1.4, but a 50mm f/1.8 would also work well. You’re not limited to just prime lenses though – a fast telephoto zoom, like a 70-200mm f/2.8, will still produce a suitably blurry background.
As you’ll be merging several frames, they need to be as consistent as possible. To prevent the white balance from changing mid-sequence, head to you camera’s White Balance menu and select the desired preset. We’d suggest shooting in raw so that you can tweak the colour temperature later if needed.
You’ll have plenty of room to crop your large panorama in post-production, but you should still consider your composition. Visualize your final image, and position yourself accordingly before you start shooting. Still leave enough space to crop, though, as your blended image will be an irregular shape.
Select aperture priority mode and choose a wide aperture – we’d recommend f/2.8 or wider – then adjust the ISO until you get a shutter speed of 1/200 sec (or higher). Now switch to Manua
