BRENIZER Method: How to Take Amazing Panoramic Portrait Photos

The Brenizer Method has undoubtedly come up often in recent months. In fact, it’s a very enjoyable technique that may help you produce outcomes you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to. Without a medium format camera, large format camera, or wider super-fast aperture lens, you might have at least accomplished this. We’ll explore posts we’ve written on the Brenizer Method during the years we’ve been publishing in this article. We’ll highlight accomplished photographers as well as techniques, historical information, and more.

WHO IS THE “CREATOR” OF THE BRENIZER METHOD, RYAN BRENIZER?

Nearly ten years ago, photographer Ryan Brenizer had a terrific time working his way up. His company is still going strong, and he well deserves the success he’s had. For the record, he is a long-time resident of New York City wedding photographer. He has also always been innovative. There was a focus on several of his distinctive portraits, which led to the development of the Brenizer Method. He once produced panoramic portraits by using long lenses with a wide-open aperture. His pictures should ideally be nine photographs put together.

The Brenizer Method wasn’t precisely invented by Ryan, but he revived it at a time when DSLRs were truly starting to become extremely excellent. The process of stitching a panoramic portrait has been used for a long time previously. It returned once again due to social media’s proliferation.

WHO HAS USED THE BRENIZER METHOD IN PHOTOGRAPHY?
We are quoting photographers who have used and discussed the Brenizer Method because we support photographers’ rights. These photographers have been interviewed by us, and you can read our hyperlinked interviews below to see more of their work.

“During my first two years of photography, I used Photoshop a lot to composite and make my photographs. These days, I like to capture as much as I can and simply experiment with color. But in order to have total control over the scene, I often use the Brenizer Method to extend my photographs. I prefer to think of each element of the shot as a canvas because there are occasions when the backdrop itself significantly enhances a tale. Before the piece can be put together as a whole, each component must be painted separately. Sara Loreth

These days, Sarah seldom ever shoots, but her work shows what is possible with the Brenizer Method. Without the Brenizer Method, it would be almost impossible to create a picture like this. Additionally, there were no ultra-fast wide-angle lenses available in 2015 when we spoke with her.

Anthony Chang’s method is another way to go about it. Our interview revealed the following:

“I like the Brenizer approach (or bokeh panorama/bokehrama) because I enjoy having a wide-angle perspective and a narrow depth of focus. I won’t say much more than that. In order to photograph at F8, I didn’t purchase an F0.95 lens (I have the Mitakon 50mm F0.95 for anyone who are interested). I need it so I can use F0.95 to achieve a small depth of focus when I shot. By using this technique, I am able to get an impossible-to-achieve broad range of vision and an unbelievable shallow depth of field. Personally, I absolutely like how a panoramic shot looks, and I adore the cut and frame you get with it.

Anthony is a big fan of the panoramic portrait concept. He really explores the left and right sides rather than merely taking nine photographs in a circle around the topic. It gives off a movie-like vibe!

Don’t forget to look at Mark Sapps’s work as well.

WHOSE METHOD IS BRENIZER?
Consider it essentially as a panoramic portrait technique. Using Photoshop or Capture One, you take a lot of photographs and combine them. You are producing the appearance of a wide-angle lens with a very fast aperture. It isn’t really feasible with 35mm full-frame photography. But using medium format film directly from the camera, you may get this appearance.

HOW IS THE BRENIZER METHOD DONE?
You can see how to use the Brenizer approach in the image above. Sure seems like cubism to me. This image was produced in 2014. The panorama stitch algorithms developed by Adobe in that year weren’t very good. These days, Capture One’s and Adobe’s are both excellent. However, this particular Brenizer Method image is quite challenging. I did as follows:

begin with Adam’s face.
Manually adjust the exposure when the camera is in manual mode. Don’t alter the exposure in any way.
The camera’s focus. After that, disable autofocus. In this manner, the emphasis is fixed in one place. This is crucial because you want to give the impression that everything is one picture rather than many images that have been combined. You may fix the focusing plane on a specific location by switching to manual focus.
Tilt the camera downward, then shoot Left, then shoot Up, then shoot Right, then shoot Down, then shoot
Circularly repeat this process till I create a scenario.
Combine the images with Photoshop.
The method’s particular application is somewhat difficult. Most of the time, photographers only take nine pictures. The face of the subject should be in the middle, and you should fire down, three times to the left, three times to the right, and once above. However, there must be overlap in order for post-production software to recognize what to combine.

When the processed picture was converted from color to black and white, it looked fantastic. – A happy accident in a panoramic portrait led to a piece that resembles cubism.
Furthermore, we observed in 2014 that you need a lens without vignetting if you want a cleaner appearance. Vignettes may contribute to the cubism aesthetic. Personally, I adore the cubism aesthetic. You may not, however. Get a lens without vignettes instead, or remove the vignetting in post-production before sewing the images together.

YES, IT MAY SEEM LIKE A MISTAKE, BUT THINK ABOUT IT. I tweaked the images for days until I was able to replicate the effect myself after PhotoShop unintentionally produced an image similar to this.
This same shot was updated to serve as the blog post’s main image. Once again, the rendering in the image above has a cubist appearance. Actually, that seems quite cool. Some people could criticize it and claim that it isn’t clinically perfect. To each their own, however. I don’t and have never tried to get lab-quality results. You can get this appearance with smaller sensor cameras, as we mentioned back in 2015. Here’s another lesson on the Brenizer Method for your further education.

What do we suggest now that we’ve studied so many lenses? We only ever endorse products that we have evaluated.

(Read our review of the Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L USM here)
Here is our review of the Nikon 85mm f1.8 Z.
Review of the Sony 85mm f1.8 FE
Here is our review of the Fujifilm 50mm f/1 R WR.
Review of the Olympus 45mm f1.2 PRO available here
(Read our review of the Panasonic 85mm f1.8 Lumix S here)
These lenses are all telephoto renders, have small apertures, little vignetting, rapid focusing, and a stunning appearance. We believe you’ll like them.

We wish you luck and hope this was helpful. The Brenizer Method requires a lot of planning, but as you use it more often, it becomes simpler. However, you need to have an original vision. Yes, post-production is necessary. And to be really honest, I wish contemporary cameras could simply effortlessly do the whole in-camera panoramic stitch. But they haven’t arrived yet.