Half Dome in Clouds by David Lee

 

Many people think that stereo photography (also known as 3D) is something their grandmother looked at and that it is not a viable medium today. Nothing could be further from the truth. Today is the golden age of stereo photography. While there may not be much awareness of it by the general public, there are many people doing it and the availability of equipment and materials has never been better. My purpose in this column is to give the person interested in exploring the possibilities of stereo photography the basic resources to get started. If you have never seen a quality stereo photograph and would like to, you can email me with your location and I will try to get you in touch with someone who can show you some great images ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). If you are near Modesto, California you can see one of my images at the Photographer’s Gallery . If you are near Portland, Oregon you can see a number of fine stereo images (including some of mine) at the 3D Center ( the only gallery dedicated to stereo photography that I am aware of).

The Basics

Stereo photography works because we have two eyes that perceive slightly different images of the world. These slight differences are interpreted by our brain as depth. If we mimic this natural process by making two photographs, showing the right one to the right eye and the left one to the left eye, we can perceive binocular depth in a photograph.

Making the Exposures

The two photos can be taken in at least four different ways.

1. A stereo camera, made with two lenses make the respective exposures at the same instant using the same settings. This type of camera works best for many types of stereo images.

2. Two identical cameras that are mounted side-by-side to make identical exposures at the same time. The advantage of this set-up is that the camera separation can be varied depending on the distance to the subject. The disadvantage is that very few camera pairs can be separated by the small distance that the lenses in a stereo camera are (usually about 2.5 inches, the distance between the average person’s eyes). Another disadvantage is that it is very difficult to obtain two identical cameras (even those that are nominally identical usually have slight differences between focal lengths, shutter speeds, and/or aperture sizes).

3. One camera can be moved perpendicularly to the axis of the lens between the two exposures. The main advantage of this is that you don’t have to buy anything new in order to do it (assuming that you have a camera). This works very well for subjects that are not moving, but the disadvantage is that most subjects have at least some element that is moving.

4. One camera with an adapter that either goes over or replaces the lens of your SLR camera, that essentially splits the image into two stereo halves.

How to Start

The next question is, which of these methods should the beginner use? If you’re not sure if you want to get into stereo photography, but want to see if you can make a stereo image, the easiest way is to use you regular camera and take two photographs using the side-step method (also known as the astronaut shuffle because the astronauts used this method on the moon to make stereo images with a Hasselblad). All you have to do is compose the image in your viewfinder, then shift your weight onto your left foot and make the first exposure, then shift your weight over to your right foot and make the second exposure.

If you know that you want to get involved with stereo photography and want to get a stereo camera, there are several ways to go. I recommend starting with the relatively inexpensive camera called the Stereo Realist made in the 1950’s. There were approximately 250 thousand of these made and they are readily available on ebay and other places (for around $100). You can find out anything you’d ever want to know about them by going to George Themelis’ website .

 

If you want to buy a new 35mm stereo camera, you could get the custom built RBT camera available from 3D Concepts (but I would highly recommend the Realist first because the RBTs are very expensive.


Not quite as expensive as the RBT, is the newly made Chinese medium format stereo camera called the 3D World TL-120. This is the stereo camera that I use and I believe that it is the best stereo camera ever made. You can get it from George Themelis or 3Dstereo.com . (The third lens is for viewing.)



If you want digital, you can get twinned-camera systems (there are no digital stereo cameras at this time) from 3D Concepts and 3Dstereo.com , but they are relatively expensive.

Viewing

The other obstacle to overcome in stereo photography (after making the exposures) is viewing the images in depth. You can’t just look at them; you have to have some kind of viewing device in order to see the right image with just the right eye and the left image with just the left eye. I’m not going to attempt to cover all the methods here because there are too many. I will give you some ideas to get you started.


1. You can shoot 35mm slides and view them with simple viewers that range in price from $3 to about $700 depending on the sharpness and versatility you want. Available from Steve Berezin , 3D Concepts , and 3Dstereo.com .

2. You can make 4x6 prints and view them with the ViewMagic viewer .

3. If you want to spend a little more money you can view them on the computer screen with a number of devices available from Steve Berezin .

4. If you don’t want to spend any extra money and are visually adventurous you can reverse the order of the images (either prints or on the computer screen) and view them by crossing your eyes. This website gives simple instruction for cross-eyed viewing. If you think you view using the cross-eyed method, you can try this image of Half Dome that I made in 2001. If your monitor is wide enough you can try the medium or large sizes .


I hope I have piqued your interest in stereo photography. Email me if you have questions and I will answer you personally or in the next column.