Brenizer portraits

I would love to be able to afford a medium format camera, say, like a Hasselblad, with a digital back and lots of insanely expensive lenses.  That large format can't be beat for landscape and portrait work.

But, I can't.

However, there is an alternative.  It's called the Brenizer method, and it was created by a wedding photographer Ryan Brenizer.  Using this method, you can simulate a much larger camera than the one used to actually take the photo.

Here's how it works.  First, you take a bunch of overlapping images with a very shallow depth of field.  Then you use a post processing program, like Photoshop, for example, to stitch them back together into a larger image.  The result, as shown below, is the equivalent of having a camera sensor many times the size of the one actually in the camera you used.

This is an image of my son, Erik, that was stitched together from about a dozen separate photos. [Here is a larger version so you can see more detail.] Now, you may think it's just a typical photo, but look closely.  The detail is much greater than I could have gotten with a single shot, especially considering the shallow depth of field.  I did crop this down from a larger frame to eliminate some of the distracting background.  If I were trying to do this for money, I would have taken the photo someplace with a better background.  But I was just playing.

I could have gotten a somewhat similar shot using a single frame, but it would not have looked like this.  A normal lens shot this close would have produced perspective distortion, and a telephoto would not have produced the same bokeh.

Brenizer couples this with some crazy lighting, where he has an assistant walk around lighting up different parts of the scene with a remotely triggered flash, then uses additional post processing to blend the images.  The result is an image that really can't be obtained any other way, and it's pretty cool.

Anyway, if you have PS, you should try this.  Just be sure to not change your own location when you take the shots - otherwise the program will give you some strange results.