Stereoscopic 3D Tutorial

[ShadowFun]

ShadowFun's Stereoscopic 3D Tutorial Thread

Art Gardens - Persephone's Feet pll.jpg (1.63 MiB) Viewed 2262 times

I decided it was time to create a dedicated thread about my thoughts on viewing and creating stereoscopic images. Buried in my various threads are other mini tutorials but frankly, I can't find them anymore... Ha!

I'm putting a link to this thread in my signature line so that whenever someone runs across one of my 3D photos, they have a quick path to seeing what the fuss is all about.

Art Gardens - Persephone's Feet ana.jpg (1.07 MiB) Viewed 2262 times

Let's get started![/i][/b]

[ShadowFun]

Why Stereoscopic???

Cyndi - Eye Drooling pll.jpg (1.19 MiB) Viewed 2254 times

Well... As nice as a flat cutout of a hot chick is, I'm sure that that having our dollies in all their full-bodied glory is at least a little better... Yes???

Why not view images of them in the same way?

Cyndi - Eye Drooling ana.jpg (719.54 KiB) Viewed 2254 times

Stereoscopic photography is pretty much as old as film photography itself. But the bane of the 3D photographer has always been movement between paired images. Enormous and elaborate dual bodied cameras were handmade to create paired "instant" stereo images for the public. If you've ever priced antique large format cameras and been shocked by their expense... try shopping for an antique stereoscopic camera... they are a fortune!

Our dolls are the perfect 3D models because they hold perfectly still! No "alive" human could ever do this...

Cyndi - Show Me Your Tits 2 pll.jpg (1.63 MiB) Viewed 2254 times

Seriously... With modern software, apps and digital cameras, you don't even need a dedicated rig, just a little practice with steady hands. Just snap a pic, move the camera over a little and snap another. Feed it into the magic maker and viola! Your beauty's charms pop out of the frame to say hi!

Cyndi - Show Me Your Tits 2 ana.jpg (1.81 MiB) Viewed 2254 times

I use a device made in the 50's to shift my camera side to side on a parallelogram. It mounts to a tripod and the camera to it. I can imagine it's only real practical value in the past was to be used for "still life" photos because the 10-15 second lag between shots would have made "live" photos impossible.

Radex Stereo-Parallel.jpg (518.75 KiB) Viewed 2254 times

There are plenty of apps and software out there to align and stitch your images together. I use an app on my old Android tablet called 3DSteroidPro and have been very happy with it. It will create a lot of different stereoscopic formats including those that are meant for polarized 3D TV's and monitors. I don't own one of those so I can't speak to it's effectiveness.

For me, there was never a question of whether or not I would take stereoscopic photos of my girls... 3D is in my DNA.

[ShadowFun]

My Personal 3D Journey

Viewmaster Origins pll.jpg (1.28 MiB) Viewed 2236 times

In 1977, my father gave me my first camera to walk around with and shoot photos of whatever I wanted to. It was a View-Master Personal Stereo Camera.

Yes, that Viewmaster... the familiar round-reel 3D fun toy of almost everyone's childhood. Did you know they made cameras to take your own 3D pictures with?

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I grew up with family photos on Viewmaster 3D reels. My father had bought into the system in the early 50's, long before I was born. He had the special slide film cutter all the accessories and even a projector with all the funny glasses for us to wear. While my dad went on to own and use many other kinds of Stereoscopic cameras, it was always the View-Master for me.

Sky - Viewmaster Origins 1.jpg (911.76 KiB) Viewed 2236 times

I own and use my View-Master camera to this day. In fact, I have 4 of them, only 2 of which are functional. The cameras predate any electronic stuff and are a dizzying assembly of mechanical magic. Not just brass gears but bakelite too, that early plastic crap that ages terribly. There's really no hope of repairing one of these anymore. I imagine most repair techs versed in their ways have retired to that workshop in the sky...

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The camera is remarkably frugal. It shoots 72 pairs of images on a standard 35mm roll of slide film. This is especially nice with the cost of film these days being so high. It achieves this by having little film "window boxes" that slide up and down and the film is wound and shot in one direction then reversed to shoot the other way. It isn't without it's drawbacks tho... It can take forever to shoot a roll and, if your camera has a light leak or another problem, you might lose an entire vacation.

Sky - Viewmaster Origins 3.jpg (821.38 KiB) Viewed 2236 times

The real Achilles's heel of the "Personal" View-Master system nowadays is the reels themselves. They are different from the commercially produced cartoon reels. There was only ever one machine that made them and it wore out decades ago. Boxes of "New Old Stock" reels are getting rarer and more expensive. Fortunately, I have amassed a horde of them... Ha!

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I'm not sure if any of my Loves will ever pose for a View-Master reel but they sure do enjoy posing with the camera! Thanks Sky for showing off my collection with grace and charm!

[ShadowFun]

Viewing 3D Stereoscopic Images and Making Them "POP"!

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I learned at an early age how to view a pair of stereo images with my naked eyes and get the 3D to "pop" into view. What works best for me is to have the two images presented in "Parallel" pairing. What this means, is that the left image would be what your left eye would see. This is traditionally how a vintage 3D "Stereoview" card was laid out and there were many versions of "Stereoscope" viewers made to help people converge the images.

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I do not need these to make the magic happen but it definitely is easier on the eyes. If you stumble across one, they can be used with images on a digital screen also. You'd just have to remove the card holder.

Cyndi - Veiled 1pll_1.jpg (1.54 MiB) Viewed 2227 times

Another way paired images are presented for "direct" viewing is in "Crossed-Eyed" orientation. This means the left image is actually for your right eye. I cannot make this method work for myself but I know many can. The method for viewing both types is essentially the same. Some people can get both to work, some neither. I imagine this is all about individual eye and brain mechanics. Probably nothing you can do will change your personal results.

How to "directly" view a stereo photo pair...

It's all about relaxing your eyes... Most importantly, you need to "de-focus" your eyes and let them "find" the image. Remember, because it is 3D, you are essentially looking through the image and beyond it. The size of the pairs and distance between them is critical. Ideally, you want them to match up to your eye width. I can see them easily on my phone or tablet by moving it closer and farther from my face until it "pops" into view.

Here are two for you to practice with. The first is Parallel and the second Crossed-Eyed. Good luck!

Nyght and Angelique - parallel.jpg (517.78 KiB) Viewed 2227 times

Nyght and Angelique - Crossed.jpg (514.96 KiB) Viewed 2227 times

Because I can't make a "Crossed-Eyed" pair work personally, I've stopped posting my own stereo photos in this orientation on my threads and only post in "Parallel" pairs. I always tag them in the title with "pll" at the end. If crossed works for you best, you can simply swap the two images in my pics to get the results you desire.

Here's a few more Parallel sets for you to play with...

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I've discovered that there is another great method for sharing my stereoscopic images... Anaglyph 3D. That will be the subject of the next post... [/i][/b]

[ShadowFun]

The Anaglyph - 3D Made Easy!

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You've seen the goofy glasses and probably worn them before. They are cheap... really cheap. Only a few bucks on Amazon. And cheap works just fine...

Anaglyph images superimpose the right and left stereo sides onto one another and mask each eye from seeing the wrong image with color filters. Red/blue or red/cyan are the two most common but others exist. My app can make a blue/yellow anaglyph also but I don't have glasses for that.

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I originally made an anaglyph and posted it at another member's request. I quickly discovered that it was a really easy way for people to see the 3D effect. It has another unexpected great quality, you can zoom it in pretty far and see deeper into the detail. You can't do that with a parallel pair.

Cyndi - Veiled 1 ana.jpg (2.17 MiB) Viewed 2202 times

Even though my app will make a color anaglyph, I've been focusing on black and white. I find that the color images just don't render correctly if there's strong color in the image, red in particular. Here's the image of Nyght and Angelique I posted before, in Red/Blue black and white then color, and one more in Blue/Yellow if you have those glasses.

Nyght and Angelique - Anaglyph.jpg (1.07 MiB) Viewed 2202 times

Nyght and Angelique - Color Anaglyph.jpg (1.05 MiB) Viewed 2202 times

Nyght and Angelique - B&Y Anaglyph.jpg (1.05 MiB) Viewed 2202 times

I've been experimenting with manipulating the color channels, contrast and other details of my anaglyph images lately to try and get more out of them. I'm not convinced that they can be made into the kind of "top quality" I'd like but one thing will remain true... the Anaglyph is an easy way to have 3D fun. And I like Fun!

Here's a few more Anaglyphs for you to play with...

[ShadowFun]

It's a 3D World - Where Do We Go Next???

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With the entry of VR into mainstream culture, one thing is for sure, Stereoscopic imagery is here to stay. I'm not sure what new techniques and technologies will cross my path but I plan to continue to share wherever my 3D journey leads me here on TDF.

Sky - Join Us ana.jpg (814.05 KiB) Viewed 2194 times

I will continue to always post my images in parallel pairs. I feel this "future proofs" them greatly because having a true left and right image pair will always allow them to be plugged into whatever current tech develops. Posting anaglyph images will also continue in my main threads for certain. This tutorial thread is where I'll post updates to my process and likely be a place where I'll just put images I've made every so often just to make them easy to find.

Thank you for joining me on this thread and I hope you can find a way to enjoy the images I've created with my lovely ladies. If I've given you even a little inspiration to try your hand at making stereo images of your own... I am super happy!

Please feel free to PM, comment or ask me anything. I'm far from an expert but I'm committed to the 3D experience!

See you all in Virtual someday!

[hwa6cpxr]

Hi ShadowFun, I tried to make a stereoscopic image!

I moved the camera about 10mm to the side for the second image of the stereo pair. Since Matty, the subject, is a 1/6 scale doll, I figured 10mm would be about 66mm when "scaled" up to people size which is close to the average IPD (64mm) so, hopefully, the image has a workable amount of stereo separation.

I used Stereo Photo Maker to create a red/cyan anaglyph but I still haven't gotten myself some red/cyan glasses to test it out. The stereo pair seems to work with my VR goggles, though. Anyway, let me know if these actually work for you!

B&W red/cyan anaglyph:

matty-2k-bw-anaglyph-red-cyan.JPG (232.26 KiB) Viewed 2093 times

Left/right stereo pair:

matty-2k-stereo_LR.jpg (614.83 KiB) Viewed 2093 times

Right/left stereo pair:

matty-2k-stereo_RL.jpg (614.49 KiB) Viewed 2093 times

[ShadowFun]

Hi ShadowFun, I tried to make a stereoscopic image!

Looks great! I never thought about reducing the separation when shooting miniatures... Hmm... Now I'm gonna have to rethink my processes... Damn!

I bet there is some precedent for this. I recall seeing tons of "miniature" fairy tale animations shot for Viewmaster reels when I was a kid. I might have to build a camera slide bar so I can control the separation.

One observation, do you notice how the tea cup on the left doesn't render correctly? This is because it violates a stereoscopic Foreground Edge Rule. Typically, objects that are close to the viewer have the greatest amount of separation between the right and left frames. If the object runs into the edge, one frame will have too little captured and the object will not have enough information to render in 3D. It is really evident in the anaglyph image and makes your eyes fight the image.

Typically, the rule states that you avoid having foreground objects touch the edge of your image frame, particularly if they are complex items. There are a few ways to deal with this in our digital world now that just were not available for film. You can crop the side of the image frame down to the point where the image pairs each have a good chunk of the object or, my new favorite, you can re-align the pairs focusing on the foreground object. This will preserve the greatest amount of of the object's detail. Usually, I still have to crop some but this last technique has let me violate the rule the most.

Dark vs Light - Reach In ana 3.jpg (708.48 KiB) Viewed 2071 times

In these two images of Nyght and Angelique, I manually aligned the point of convergence in my stereo app to the nearest part of the images, close to the edge. Even without the glasses, you can see this because the amount of separation between the red and cyan is the least near the edge. When I used the "auto-alignment" in my app, it produced horrible edge violations.

Dark vs Light - Forever Lovers ana 1.jpg (672.53 KiB) Viewed 2071 times

When I'm out shooting with my Viewmaster camera, I'm always vigilant about violating the edge rule. This camera's little chips of film are unforgiving of transgressions. Since it is a "viewfinder" style camera and I don't get to look through the actual lenses, sometimes something like a branch wanders into the edge of one pair and ruins an image... AAARGH!!!

Thank you hwa6cpxr for diving into the 3D pool with me! I'm super excited to see your lovelies jumping off the screen at me!!!

[dxc]

That is interesting. I had trouble with the mug too. I thought it might be the pattern.

[itashaLover]

Thanks for inspiration!

I was simply moving the tripod to match the distance between my eyes))

[ShadowFun]

Thanks for inspiration!

I was simply moving the tripod to match the distance between my eyes))

Hey Itasha, thanks for dropping in! That's one of the great things about photographing dolls... they hold perfectly still...

I even managed to get some decent images in the past handholding the camera to my eye and shifting my weight from one foot to the other. Have fun!

[-Ragnar66-]

Great topic! Just discovered stereoscopics by chance just recently. Made a comparison pic of scene to compare 2 versions of post FX. While watching in browser I found I can apply the cross eye 3D method on it. It´s not quite the same as described in this thread but found it interesting nontheless.

Referenced posting: viewtopic.php?p=2208913#p2208913

[ShadowFun]

Great topic! Just discovered stereoscopics by chance just recently. Made a comparison pic of scene to compare 2 versions of post FX. While watching in browser I found I can apply the cross eye 3D method on it. It´s not quite the same as described in this thread but found it interesting nontheless.

Uh oh... You may have just opened Pandora's box!

I find it intriguing at how easily our brains will render a 3D image for us. It seems that a little luck and practice is all it takes. I have no recollection of the first time I "saw" a stereoscopic image with my naked eyes, but it is the kind of thing I cannot "unsee" now. My eyes put your image together right away Ragnar!

I've heard it said before that most of our "sight" is really just our brains filling in the canvas in our mind... that our eyes only take in a percentage of the image our mind "sees" before us.

A watercolor painter I once knew said that this phenomenon is something those working in that medium employ vigorously. Typically, not everything is painted into a watercolor and large areas of blank paper are left. The viewers mind naturally fills in the blank spaces and "sees" the whole scene.

I do hope you'll try one of the simple shifting methods and shoot a dedicated right and left eye panel. Since you were able to merge the two panels you had without the assistance of glasses or an optical device, you've got a great head start!

Thanks for dropping by and sharing!

[-Ragnar66-]

Great topic! Just discovered stereoscopics by chance just recently. Made a comparison pic of scene to compare 2 versions of post FX. While watching in browser I found I can apply the cross eye 3D method on it. It´s not quite the same as described in this thread but found it interesting nontheless.

Uh oh... You may have just opened Pandora's box!

I find it intriguing at how easily our brains will render a 3D image for us. It seems that a little luck and practice is all it takes. I have no recollection of the first time I "saw" a stereoscopic image with my naked eyes, but it is the kind of thing I cannot "unsee" now. My eyes put your image together right away Ragnar!

I've heard it said before that most of our "sight" is really just our brains filling in the canvas in our mind... that our eyes only take in a percentage of the image our mind "sees" before us.

A watercolor painter I once knew said that this phenomenon is something those working in that medium employ vigorously. Typically, not everything is painted into a watercolor and large areas of blank paper are left. The viewers mind naturally fills in the blank spaces and "sees" the whole scene.

I do hope you'll try one of the simple shifting methods and shoot a dedicated right and left eye panel. Since you were able to merge the two panels you had without the assistance of glasses or an optical device, you've got a great head start!

Thanks for dropping by and sharing!

Yes and it was quite a surprising experience as you could imagine. I read about that topic before but never considered it applying to doll (related) photography. I´ve no probs snapping my (crossed) eyes on it and then can watch every detail just like watching a normal 2D photo. Cool thing. I´ll surely delve into this topic more, but it´s not prime priority ATM. Bookmarked your thread and also saved this one for general reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/old-time- ... o-glasses/

Btw... it is possible applying the methods on GIF ani´s as well? I know it´s limited color palette so likely an "ugly" experience, but just out of curiosity.

[ShadowFun]

Btw... it is possible applying the methods on GIF ani´s as well? I know it´s limited color palette so likely an "ugly" experience, but just out of curiosity. [/b]

I would imagine a GIF could be created stereoscopically but the skill and patience required is far above my ability. Also, having a camera that shoots natively in stereo seems to be essential.

I shoot my 3D images with two separate photos and combine them afterwards. During this process, I correct slight misalignments, either manually or with the 3D software. It seems to me that all those minute corrections would stack up and make the 3D GIF produced very wobbly or distorted.

Certainly, if your GIF was an anaglyph, color would be weird. That’s why I post all mine in B&W. I already struggle to make GIFs… I won’t be trying them in 3D anytime soon!