How To Create Medium Format Film Portrait Panoramas | Brenizer Method

Photographers have been stitching landscape photos together for decades for more comprehensive and detailed pictures. But, can you do this with portraits?

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How Did Portrait Panoramas Start?

Panoramic photography isn’t a new concept; photographers have been stitching landscape images together for decades to achieve a more comprehensive and detailed final picture. But what happens when your panorama subject isn’t a landscape but a person? Believe it or not, there’s a name for this – a Brenizer portrait.

Where does this name come from? This technique is named after Ryan Brenizer, a renowned wedding photographer who developed and popularized this process in 2008. You may have also heard of it as a portrait panorama or bokeh panorama.

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My Process

I typically capture anywhere from 9-15 images for my panoramas and stitch them together in Lightroom, though you can use however many photos you wish. Photographers usually use this method to achieve a “medium format look” with a full-frame camera, meaning you get a broader image with much more depth than you usually would. Instead of using a full-frame camera, I used my Mamiya 645AFD + 80mm f/2.8 lens. This excellent medium format film camera means the final stitched image will probably have a crazy amount of depth, maybe even similar to a “large format” image.

The tricky metier with Brenizer portraits is when I create them digitally, I typically use the back button to focus on the first image and then keep that locked focus for the remaining photos. However, my Mamiya doesn’t have a back button focus. Instead, I’ll half-press the shutter to focus for the first image, take that image, switch to manual focus, and then take the remaining photos—super hoping this actually turns out.

(pssssst… I tried this same technique with an ENTIRE roll of film. Watch how I did it here!)

Professional Portra 800 Color Negative 120 Film - 5 Rolls

$75.99$79.99

Kodak Professional Portra 800 120 film delivers all the advantages of a high-speed film along with finer grain, higher sharpness, and more natural skin tones and color reproduction. Portra 800 film delivers best-in-its class underexposure latitude, with the ability to push to 1600 when you need extra speed. it is ideal for long lenses, fast action, and low light, enabling you to capture shadow details without flash. Portra 800 film - for perfectly stunning results with less-than-perfect light.

*Note: Opened consumable items (film or film cameras) are not refundable. To learn more click here.

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Final
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Stitching

Post-Production

  1. Import your film scans into Lightroom
  2. Select your first image and click control + N to open up Negative Lab Pro, which is my favorite film conversion plugin.
  3. Paste that edit on the next images in your Brenizer portrait. Make sure the crops don’t include any of the black borders of the film strip.
  4. After converting every image that will be included in the panorama, select the images and export them as JPEGs. Don’t export as TIFFs, because the colors get weird when you stitch them into a panorama.
  5. Re-import these new JPEGs, select all of them, and click Panorama. Toggle between each of the Cylindrical, Spherical, and Perspective options to see which one works best for your specific image.
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Professional Portra 400 Color Negative 120 Film - 5 Rolls

$69.99

At true ISO 400 speed, this Portra 120 film delivers spectacular skin tones plus exceptional color saturation over a wide range of lighting conditions. For years, professionals have preferred Kodak Professional Portra films because of their consistently smooth, natural reproduction of the full range of skin tones. Portra 400 is the ideal choice for portrait and fashion photography, as well as nature, travel, and outdoor shoots, where the action is fast or the lighting can't be controlled.

*Note: Opened consumable items (film or film cameras) are not refundable. To learn more click here.

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And there’s your Brenizer portrait / panoramic portrait/panorama portrait, whatever name you like best! This technique is so fun to experiment with and reminds me of why I love photography: to spark new ideas and nurture creativity.

Santa Fe Shoulder Bag - Creme-Multi

$80

Inspired by epic road trips and shooting on film, the Santa Fe shoulder bag by Long Weekend is the perfect travel buddy for any adventure. It strikes the right balance of size and organization — just enough room for what you need, without the extra fluff. Made from rugged 500d Recycled Nylon and technical gridstop, it’s weatherproof and built to last through every pit stop. Better yet, it comes in a lineup of rad, vintage-like colorways that’ll catch the eye of any design lover.

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Film Pouch - 5 Rolls

$25

Still using ziploc bags to carry your film? This is our simple, reusable solution to keeping your rolls more organized. Available in 2 sizes, it has a center divider so you can separate fresh rolls from exposed rolls. The simple drawstring closure keeps things nicely sealed up and the durable ripstop material protects from the elements. From the film fridge to the camera bag, keep your freshies on deck and have yourself a looong weekend.

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