The Brenizer Method – shallow DOF and wide angle

I love shallow depth of field and the Brenizer Method (or bokeh panorama) is an intriguing way of achieving that in a wide angle shot.

Basically, with your lens zoomed in you take many overlapping photos of your scene like you would a panorama but you don’t go for the traditional 360 degree image. It’s more like 50-90 degrees, or what a “normal” lens would see. The beauty of the technique is achieving a very shallow depth of field because your lens is zoomed in and the DOF is shallower still than it would be wide open, or so I’ve read. I haven’t managed to take such a photo yet!

Here’s a great video showing how to do it with Photoshop, but you could use Hugin or Microsoft Ice as well.

Take a look at the stunning photos here, here and here. Beautiful.