Fail!

I thought I had a good idea.  Actually, it probably is a good idea, but the execution needs some work.  I've been playing with panoramic stitching some more using individual images with low depth of field.  I thought it would be interesting to get in very close to a person for a tight portrait.

The first obstacle was how to get in close enough to be interesting.  I experimented a while and opted to put a Canon 500D close up lens on my 85/1.4 and use it at F/1.4.  I discovered that at 1.4 I couldn't lower my lights far enough, so I stuck a polarizing filter on the front of the lens to cut some additional light reaching the sensor. ( I don't have an ND filter -- but that may change, see below ).

As you can see the image leaves a lot to be desired. I  did this handheld which contributes to some of the issues.  I need to fashion a rig to keep the camera on a single plane, yet still be able to move it around quickly.  The exposure also varied slightly shot to shot which contributes to that blotchy look.  This worried me at first because I thought maybe the lens or the lights weren't being consistent.  But, I believe it was the polarizing filter being at slightly different angles to the subject now.

Photoshop doesn't want to merge these automatically, so I stuck the pictures and masked them by hand.  That was easier than I expected.  I added some noise to make issues a little less noticeable, but needed to keep clean enough to show the depth of field transitions.

The color picture is an uncropped frame to show how full each frame is.  This isn't possible without the close-up lens.

I will keep trying this, and hopefully come across a good tool set and good technique to get what I really want!