3D photography for viewing with red / blue glasses

Patrick Cooper · August 3, 2009

Though I might share some 3D photography that Ive been shooting recently. All images were exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 slide film. Camera was a Canon EOS SLR shifted from left to right between shots on a slide bar attached to a tripod. If anyone has some red / cyan glasses that are designed for print (packaged with a magazine, comic or book etc) these should work fine for viewing. The 3D glasses that are supplied at movie theatres will generally not work because they are often a different type - polarised. (When I went to see Jaws 3 at the cinema in the 1980s, the supplied glasses were a little too big for me and they kept slipping off.) There are a few 'window violations' in the images here but sometimes they really can't be avoided in 3D anaglyphs.

By the way, I haven't seen a 3D movie for ages. Always an amazing experience being part of the action on the big screen...well that's what it seems like! I certainly notice a resurgence in 3D in a number of films showing these days.

Leo Anthony Vale · August 3, 2009

Though I might share some 3D photography that Ive been shooting recently. All images were exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 slide film. Camera was a Canon EOS SLR shifted from left to right between shots on a slide bar attached to a tripod. If anyone has some red / cyan glasses that are designed for print (packaged with a magazine, comic or book etc) these should work fine for viewing.

There are a few 'window violations' in the images here but sometimes they really can't be avoided in 3D anaglyphs.

By the way, I haven't seen a 3D movie for ages. Always an amazing experience being part of the action on the big screen...well that's what it seems like! I certainly notice a resurgence in 3D in a number of films showing these days.

I could not get the enlarged pictures. I got smaller ones instead!!!

I liked the rocks(?) best. No clue as to the size. Initially thought they were h

Chris Keth · August 4, 2009

Do you have any of these as straight side-by-side stereo images that we could view without glasses? I like this kind of stuff but I don't have glasses around.

Patrick Cooper · August 4, 2009

Thanks Leo! Yea, I the rocks anaglyph produces really nice depth...I'm quite happy with how that one turned out. These geological formations were photographed on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. They're about 3 - 4 feet high.

Chris, so far Ive only created anaglyphs. I don't have the software (as yet) for those cross-eye views. However, there was someone who created a cross-eye view using one of my stereo pairs of a Russian Orthodox church. I could try uploading that one.

Chris Keth · August 4, 2009

Thanks Leo! Yea, I the rocks anaglyph produces really nice depth...I'm quite happy with how that one turned out. These geological formations were photographed on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. They're about 3 - 4 feet high.

Chris, so far Ive only created anaglyphs. I don't have the software (as yet) for those cross-eye views. However, there was someone who created a cross-eye view using one of my stereo pairs of a Russian Orthodox church. I could try uploading that one.

It doesn't take any software. 3D images were done like this the whole way back to the civil war:

Just place the images side by side as you shot them and resize them so they're not too large (playing card size on the monitor is a good size). To view them you just relax your eyes and let the two images converge. You can also view them by getting your face closer to the images and using a septum to block the left eye's view form the right eye and vice versa.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Chris Keth

Tom Hepburn · August 4, 2009

"It doesn't take any software. 3D images were done like this the whole way back to the civil war:"

Yes, I've got that civil war book of 3D images. Pretty cool that they were doing that back then.

T

Edited August 4, 2009 by Tom Hepburn

Chris Keth · August 4, 2009

"It doesn't take any software. 3D images were done like this the whole way back to the civil war:"

Yes, I've got that civil war book of 3D images. Pretty cool that they were doing that back then.

T

Yeah it is. I have a 5x8 camera that is capable of shooting negatives to contact print stereographs. Stereo cards and viewers were very, very popular for a good 50 years or so and then movies kind of killed them.

Patrick Cooper · August 4, 2009

Very true though software certainly makes precise cropping easier for placement of the stereo window...for the lazy people! Ive seen some really nice stereo cards and I have considered getting some kind of viewer for them and perhaps also making up some cards of my own.

All the stereo images that I have exposed so far have been on slide film. The plan is to place the trannies in stereo mounts for use with a hand held viewer similar in concept to a viewmaster. There is certainly nothing like viewing 3D transparencies against a backlit light source...for me, that has the most impact. Just before Kodak announced the end of Kodachrome, I thought I would buy and shoot a few rolls of K64 to give my stereo images a sort of 'nostalgic viewmaster' look to them.

Leo Anthony Vale · August 4, 2009

Yeah it is. I have a 5x8 camera that is capable of shooting negatives to contact print stereographs. Stereo cards and viewers were very, very popular for a good 50 years or so and then movies kind of killed them.

They were the color TV sets of the Victorian era.

One of the extras on 'Day After Trinity-the Atomic Bomb Movie' is a "gray" anaglyph short about the Nevada test site.

Clean anaglyph. It turns out that some of the most frequently seen footage of the A-tests with various types of buildings were shot in stereo. The shot of the swaying trees is particularly good, the trees are off in the distance with dust clouds stretching to the foreground.

At one time I was hoping to make stereo cards using a Nismlo. But couldn't find a lab that made the size prints I needed.

I didn't have a dark room nor access to one. I did shot slides with the Nimslo. Counting and mounting the stereo slides was tedious, particularly cutting the transparencies.

Also 3-d DVDs are now supplied with GREEN & MAGENTA glasses. The color doesn't come out quite as bad as with red and cyan,

but I'd rather they did the 3-D version as a "gray".

Patrick Cooper · August 5, 2009

I admit that Nimslos are really tempting to purchase...they are dirt cheap on eBay and it looks like they have good quality lenses. The only thing that puts me off them is that they seem to be auto exposure only. Do they have any sort of exposure compensation at all? I'd be hesitant to use slide film with them but it sounds like you're happy with your results of using transparency film with that camera. I guess as long as you're not shooting high contrast or back lit scenes, you'd be fine.

Leo Anthony Vale · August 6, 2009

I admit that Nimslos are really tempting to purchase...they are dirt cheap on eBay and it looks like they have good quality lenses. The only thing that puts me off them is that they seem to be auto exposure only. Do they have any sort of exposure compensation at all? I'd be hesitant to use slide film with them but it sounds like you're happy with your results of using transparency film with that camera. I guess as long as you're not shooting high contrast or back lit scenes, you'd be fine.

They're auto exposure and have only two ASA settings 100 and 400. So the only control you have is if using 400ASA film, click the ASA setting to 100 for back lit scenes.

If I had a better computer set up, such as a 35mm scanner, I'd shot black and white neg and make anaglyphs. I'd probably be able to print out the correct size for stereo cards.