STEREO thread!

anton980 · Jul 12, 2006

Hello, hello! I've searched the forums and have not found anything related to this, so I dont think I will be repeating someone else's thread.
I enjoy stereo photography, and thought I'd start posting stuff here, and it would be great if someone posted something as well.

To start, those who are unfamiliar with stereo pairs, please read this: http://www.edge-3d.com/how_to.htm

Personally, I always use parallel (or wall-eyed) method since I cant see anything cross-eyed. But if you have photoshop, you can easily convert parallel to cross-eyed. I found a width of 550 pixels to be ideal for me when viewing stereo pairs. If someone looks and has problems, I can resize to any other size.

Anyways, here's the first image! Thanks for looking, and leave a comment, or better yet, your own stereo pair (hopefully in parallel-eye format

)

xfloggingkylex · Jul 12, 2006

wow I have never even heard of this, but it works basically like thos "Magic Eye" books where the picture pops out at you. I just crossed my eyes and relaxed them, and the image started poping. worked so well I had to look away to break the 3d image.

Arch · Jul 12, 2006

Hey it does work!...... at first i got nothing..... and i can do the 'magic eye' things..... but then i moved my head closer to the screen and it worked.... just made me feel nauseous.... but thats ok :mrgreen: :lol:

anton980 · Jul 12, 2006

remember, this is parallel, and not cross-eye stereo pair! if you reverse them, it "kind-of" looks 3D, but if you look at it right, then it really pops.

I've made a cross-eyed version for you to try:

CROSS-EYED:

PARALLEL:

xfloggingkylex · Jul 12, 2006

the cross eyed picture isn't showing up

I cant figure out how to do the parallel

anton980 · Jul 12, 2006

ok, cross-eyed should be up now. Sorry, I named it wrong.

in the meantime, here's an older one. Works very well as well

CROSS-EYED:

PARALLEL:

xfloggingkylex · Jul 12, 2006

honestly I see the 3-d effect the same on both. That second set was awesome. I didn't think it would be a big deal since it is so dark, but the hallway looks great

LaFoto · Jul 13, 2006

Cool thing ... seems like I can produces the effect for fractions of a second and then see the pic in 3D but I can't hold it for long enough and my head begins to hurt immediately.

Have you taken your first two away from the server? I no longer get them. Only the hallway.

anton980 · Jul 13, 2006

xfloggingkylex said:
honestly I see the 3-d effect the same on both. That second set was awesome. I didn't think it would be a big deal since it is so dark, but the hallway looks great

I dont know... 3D does show up in both for me as well, but if you look at the parallel images while cross-eyed, some things dont allign and stand out too much, irritating my eyes, whereas I can look for a long time at the image if I view the correct one with the proper method.

LaFoto said:
Cool thing ... seems like I can produces the effect for fractions of a second and then see the pic in 3D but I can't hold it for long enough and my head begins to hurt immediately.

Have you taken your first two away from the server? I no longer get them. Only the hallway.

sorry about that. They're back up.

As far as head hurting - there are devices that can help you view these pictures without doing unnatural things to your eyes (check out the latest Tool album - the CD booklet includes goggles for viewing the stereo pairs).

anton980 · Jul 13, 2006

And here's today's stereo pair. Taken very recently - it's a monastery in Belarus.

CROSS-EYED:

PARALLEL:

xfloggingkylex · Jul 13, 2006

so exactly what is the difference in the picture that dedicates one to be cross eyed and the other to be parallel, in fact, what is different about them period, they look like two of the same picture... or am I retarded.

wow those trees look great.

anton980 · Jul 14, 2006

xfloggingkylex said:
so exactly what is the difference in the picture that dedicates one to be cross eyed and the other to be parallel, in fact, what is different about them period, they look like two of the same picture... or am I retarded.

wow those trees look great.

In the parallel version - the left image is meant to be viewed with the left eye, and the right image is for the right eye. And in cross-eyed - left image for right eye and right image for the left eye. Since there's a bit of a distance between the left and right eye they see the same thing under slightly different angles - hence these photos were taken from 2 different positions. If you have photoshop, you can copy-paste the two versions on top of each other and you will see the slight "rotation" around the center of the image.
I'm actually surprised that you cant tell a difference when looking at the parallel images using the cross-eye method. When you overlap the reversed images a lot of things dont lign up and you dont get a crisp and clean stereo photo. Instead you get something that kinda looks stereo. That's how it works for me, at least.
Here's a link to a product that I was talking about yesterday: http://www.berezin.com/3d/Tech/Clipviewer/clip-viewer.htm

Here's another photo pair that I took very recently. Again, I present cross-eye and parallel versions. This one looks SUPER crisp and clean, so I'm sure if you try the same method on both images you will see the difference.

CROSS-EYED:

PARALLEL:

anton980 · Jul 17, 2006

New set for today - from the countryside. A water well!

CROSS EYE:

PARALLEL:

xfloggingkylex · Jul 17, 2006

wow the one with the guy is insanely cool. So how do you know how much to rotate the camera? I guess what Im trying to get at is that I want to take pictures like this, but have no idea what I need to do.

anton980 · Jul 18, 2006

xfloggingkylex said:
wow the one with the guy is insanely cool. So how do you know how much to rotate the camera? I guess what Im trying to get at is that I want to take pictures like this, but have no idea what I need to do.

Yeah, the one with the guy came out super clean.
Here's what I do for taking these pictures:
Find something in the center of the composition to "lock on" to, make sure your camera is perfectly horizontal, take a picture. Then without changing the elevation of your camera take a small step to the left or to the right (the distance shouldnt be too big as it would create nauseating stereo photo. I usually go half a foot. It's more than a distance between the eyes, but not an overkill either.) Of course, if you photograph something that's very close to you, move the camera a much shorter distance. If you're doing macro photography, then I would imagine the camera would have to be moved mere centimeters if not less, depending on magnification.

A hint - if you have any kind of a grid display in your viewfinder, or autofocus areas that are illuminated and are always visible, use those as a guide to keep the center of composition in the center on both photos. That way things will lign up and you wont get headache when looking at your stereo photos.

If you photograph something that's far away, like a landscape in the distance, then make the distance between shots greater to really capture the stereo effect. In the photo below I allowed about 10 feet between the shots since the buildings were so far away and I wanted to exhaggerate the 3D effect so you can sense the difference. Because of that the foreground (water) looks really crappy, but buildings look 3D, almost like miniature models. Here are the sets:

CROSS-EYED:

PARALLEL:

And the last thing - bring both photos into photoshop, Select one, make the canvas size a little more than double of the original and copy-paste the second photo there, then move it beside the first photo. And you have a stereo pair. Just dont confuse which photo goes where. But it's a good idea to post both versions since people have different preferences of viewing these images.

Hope that helps and I hope to see your photos on this thread soon!

Anton.