Inverary: A Tale of Three Techniques – Stream of Consciousness

In August I called in on an old friend in Inverary for a small guided tour around the local forests with camera in hand.

There was one particular photo I had in mind – ever since I first saw an old ruined barn with disused farm machinery, it was crying-out for the bokeh-panorama (aka Brenizer) technique – instead of one straight shot composed with the final focal-length in mind, one uses a longer lens (preferably a fast prime) and stitches the results into a panorama, to give an image with narrower DoF than was possible at the focal length in question.

Here’s the straight scene, taken on the Fuji X-H1 on the 16-50mm f/2.8 at 18mm – even wide open there’s no significant blurring in the background.

A comparatively straight version of the scene; f/8 was sufficient to make everything from foreground to back in focus; even f/2.8 was not wide enough to create significant narrow depth of field

So here’s the stitched result, taken using a Helios 56mm f/2 wide open – drastic focus drop-off:

A photo that's been many years in the making. Having discovered this farm implement in a disused ruin on a photo-walk, I've been meaning to revisit and deploy the bokeh-panorama technique.
This is 100 frames (2.4GPixel!) using the Helios 58mm f/2 lens, stitched in Affinity Photo where the overlap reduced it to 260MPel. Pleasantly the bokeh is now noticeable, keeping the base of the wheel rims sharp but letting the far wall recede into a blurry distance. — A photo that's been many years in the making. Having discovered this farm implement in a disused ruin on a photo-walk, I've been meaning to revisit and deploy the bokeh-panorama technique. This is 100 frames (2.4GPixel!) using the Helios 58mm f/2 lens, stitched in Affinity Photo where the overlap reduced it to 260MPel. Pleasantly the bokeh is now noticeable, keeping the base of the wheel rims sharp but letting the far wall recede into a blurry distance.

It took 100 frames at source – 2.4Gpx – but the result would be the equivalent of an 18mm lens at f/0.6.

The second technique was keystone/perspective adjustment. On seeing a stone waterworks in the woods, my friend challenged me to get a view of it straight-on without using the drone. That’s simple enough – even though it’s several feet above head-height.

A former water processing facility in the woods outside Inverary.

There was a slight element of a challenge to make a square-on photo... amazing what one can do with a bit of keystoning. — A former water processing facility in the woods outside Inverary. There was a slight element of a challenge to make a square-on photo... amazing what one can do with a bit of keystoning.

The third technique was simple long exposure: night had long fallen before I left the town but the clouds moving across Loch Fyne/Shira looked pleasantly ominous. Keeping base ISO, f/6.4 gave a 7s base exposure – with HDR 5*±2/3EV this became 7+18+30+27+10 = 92s combined total, retaining exposure from brightest point of clouds into shadowy areas in the mountainsides. (Contrast is not just a daytime problem!)

Several long exposures blended together into an HDR image of clouds and smooth water, Loch Shira from Inverary.