Project 52 - #3 - Anzac Square Eternal Flame AGAIN!

Enternal Flame - Anzac Square Reshoot
Originally uploaded by jezza323

I re-did this shot yesterday afternoon. It was a bit overcast so there are no shadows, and thats why the sky is white. No stitching errors this time! (that you can notice at this size).

This is a Brenizer Panorama, stitched from 181 shots using Autopano. The final edit is 123 megapixels. I could have rendered it larger, but its hard enough to work with at this size!

Shot with Pentax K200D and Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0 @ f2.8. Shot handheld, this time I made a conscious effort to keep my body still while shooting, to avoid the stitching errors I got the first time I shot.

I am much happier with this shot, so I will use it as my Project 52 shot for Week 3.

Project 52 - #3 - Anzac Square Eternal Flame

Anzac Square Eternal Flame
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is a Brenizer Panorama of the Eternal Flame in Anzac Square, Brisbane. This is landmark #3 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.

Taken with my K200D and Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0 lens @ f2.8. It is made up of 204 stitched images (it took a while to shoot it)

Unfortunately the exposure is a bit off (i was shooting in jpeg so i didnt fill up the card too much with 1 photo), and i got some parallax error in the stitch around the pillars above the flame. The midday lighting was also not ideal.

I am going to re-do this shot tomorrow afternoon to try and get a better version. I will update this with the results

Brenizer Shed Recrop

Brenizer Shed Recrop
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This shows how cropping can really change an image (well I think so).

Compare to the original which I blogged a while back. It was just bland shot, with a distracting shed on the left of frame, and you couldnt really see the narrow depth of field, except that the foreground was out of focus.

In this tighter crop, you no longer have the distraction on left of frame, and you can see the sharp outline of the shed and tree as compared to the background.

Picnic By the Lake, Under the Tree

Picnic By the Lake, Under the Tree
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is another Brenizer Panorama I took yesterday at the Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens. Shot with the Pentax K200D and Tair-11a 135mm f2.8 lens, at 2.8.

Shooting and Processing as Follows

• Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF) - 94 shots
• Import into Lightroom 2.5
• Export to 16 bit TIFF with ZIP compression
• Stitched using Autopano Giga 2
• Rendered to 16 bit TIFF
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• Heavy crop (94 images was for a much bigger scene, but I only liked this part of it)
• Edited as shown below (Basic tab only) 
• Export to JPG for Web

A Backlit Brenizer Angel

A Backlit Brenizer Angel
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Another Brenizer Panorama from the Toowong Cemetary taken yesterday. This one is again with the Tair-11a on K200D. Its 58 images stitched with Autopano Giga 2 and edited (cropped, curves, colours, exposure brush) in Lightroom 2.5.

Processing :-

• Shot in Manual Mode, ISO 200, f2.8, 1/320 sec shutter - Pentax RAW (PEF), custom white balance.
• Imported into Lightroom 2.5
• All shots in pano exported to subfolder "Pano-5" as 16 bit TIFFs
• Stitched using Autopano Giga 2
• Saved-as 16 bit TIFF
• Imported result back into Lightroom 2.5 library
• Edited in Lightroom as show below (click pics for more detail). I did use a preset for most settings. Also cropped but not shown.

Exposure Brush to show more detail in the Angel

Develop settings

Flowering about your Resting Place

Flowering about your Resting Place
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Another Brenizer shot I took today in the Toowong Cemetary in Brisbane. This one was also taken with the Tair-11a 135mm f2.8.

• 42 shots taken with K200D, manual mode, ISO 100, f2.8, 1/640 sec, custom white balance, shot in JPEG (to save space)
• Import into Lightroom 2.5
• Stitched with Autopano Giga 2
• Save as 16 bit TIFF
• Import result into Lightroom 2.5
• Edit as shown below

Lightroom Edits (click for larger)

The Brenizer Method Pt 2

Well writing the previous post and seeing my rather lame attempt at the technique inspired me to go out into my back courtyard and try again on my basil plants. I used my Tair-11A lens (135mm) at f4.0, the final image was 100 shots! Again first is a single frame, followed by the full resulting image. The narrow DOF really makes the subject pop.

The Brenizer Method

I mentioned in a previous post a way to use panorama shooting to get a very narrow depth of field (DOF) on an image. This technique has come to be known as the Brenizer Bokeh Panorama method. A quick overview is using a fast telephoto lens (for example, 85mm f1.4 or 135mm f2.8 etc) to get a very narrow depth of field, but you also end up with a narrow field of view (obviously). So to build up your normal image you take lots and stitch them together. The man this technique is named for is Ryan Brenizer. And you can find his original guide HERE. I first read THIS guide, and find it a bit more informative. Ryan Brenizer has also published a How To video HERE. I highly recommend giving this technique a go. I have tried a couple with my Tair 11-A (135mm f2.8). The first photo following is a single shot of the panorama, to get an idea of the field of view. And then the final result. This one would have worked better had I been a bit closer to the subject (and reduced the DOF some more).

So, if you haven't tried this technique before. I suggest you get out there and give it ago. As you can see from the links I posted with the guides, you can produce some spectacular images! Don't forget all the tips from my panorama post still apply.

UPDATE: Took another demonstration shot