Back in 2017 I came across an interesting technique whilst researching new ways to capture portraits. The Brenzier method involves taking a series of images from left to right with a shallow depth of field, this allows you to create a sweeping panorama with your subject in focus but the background blurred out.
There are many guides on how to achieve the desired effect but most focus on shooting a series of images vertically as well as horizontally. This of course introduces issues with parallax by not knowing the nodal point of your chosen lens.
I spent a couple of months trying to achieve the image in mind by hand holding the camera and using a lens with a large aperture. Using my trusty old Sony a7r and the newly released Sony 85mm f1.8 at it's maximum aperture i set the focus point on the subject (my wife) and locked the focus down. From then on I continued taking a series of shots, 3 to the left and then three to the right of my subject. It was paramount that my subject remain as still as possible to ensure the stitching process went unhindered.
As you can see in the above image one of my first attempts failed miserably. The curvature of the railings and the foreground show I didn't accurately identify the nodal point in the lens.
A slight improvement over the first image but as you can see there is still some heavy distortion going on with the road. Added that there were also moving elements in the scene proved that I could have bitten off more than I could chew. Most examples of the Brenzier method use natural surroundings and static scenes to simplify the process. Also shooting at night provided a longer shutter speed, which can create trails with moving lights and people which can cause havoc with the stitching process.
Taking the above into account I decided to simplify the set up and shoot a static background in good light. Using flat lines and and evenly lit scene provided a much easier post processing task. As you can see, the out of focus background with a panoramic portrait offers a unique perspective which would normally be impossible due to the limits of cameras and lenses. I am still on the search for the perfect scene that would compliment such a technique whether it be urban or a natural landscape.
So after some experimentation I was intrigued whether this application could be used for other types of photography. So I headed back into the city with tripod in tow and found the results not to be the best but an interesting experiment in developing new ways to shoot the urban environment.
