Medium Format on a Full Frame Budget?
I love the medium format look (low distortion + wider field of view + good separation between subject and background), but I simply can’t justify the high cost of a medium format camera. If someone has a spare $15-30k lying around, let me know. I’m not joking, the Hasselblads I’ve been drooling over are outrageously expensive.
In comes Sean Tucker, whom I’ve learned a ton from over the years, with an idea I never considered: pano photo merge. Apparently this concept is nothing new. It’s called the Brenizer Method. In order to cover the medium format sensor size, you need to take three portrait orientation photos: one with the Subject center frame, one to the side, and one to the other side, being careful to overlap with the adjacent photo. Then you merge these together in Lightroom. I tried it out with my 85mm at F1.4, and I was pretty happy with the results:
So try it out for yourself! Next time, I’m going to be sure to switch to all manual mode. Some of the series of three could not be merged together in post because the exposure was too uneven to blend together. Also, back button focus is super helpful for holding consistent focus, which is the most important part.
I took a bunch of other photos I like on this hike, so here are some more (thank you to Sarah for indulging me):
