TIPS FOR MAKING GOOD 3D PICTURES

Introduction
We don't purport to be expert in 3D, and if you google 'anaglyph' or '3D pictures' or even 'view master', you'll find a good selection of sites. Quite frankly though, we were not too happy on the internet, because we just wanted a simple approach and easy instructions! 3D-nerds, we are NOT! So, these are some of our notes that you might find helpful. We'll ASSUME you (1) want pretty good 3D and (2) don't want to spend much time or money!

Recommended Photo Equipment
The quickest, cheapest way to do pretty good 3D uses a simple digital camera, a tri-pod, and a little slider mechanism between the camera and the tri-pod. The slider mechanism lets you take two shots ... one left and a second, sliding to the right. Costs $40-120 depending on your vanity! The simple one works fine, and you can even make your own.

On the internet you'll read of the 'cha-cha' method, which achieves a similar effect. You put your weight on your left leg, take a shot and then shift to your right leg and take a second shot. In a 'pinch', this works, though a slider-mechanism with tripod is safer! The slider mechanism can be found at most of the 3D sites. Ours allows a 5" slide difference, plenty for what we want.

Recommended Viewing Glasses
Basically there's two types ... one for side-by-side pictures, and the other for anaglyph or red/cyan glasses.
RED/CYAN or ANAGLYPH: Many (most?) people have a cheap pair of red/cyan anaglyph glasses from a visit to the movies, which work fine. You can get red/cyan or red/blue. Red/blue seems to be better, but most people have the red/cyan version. We have a clip-on version, since we wear eye-glasses.
SIDE-BY-SIDE: Side-by-side provides better color rendition, but only you (or someone with side-by-side equipment) can view them. We bought the Pokescope which easily fits in your pocket and can be used to view both for print-outs and on-screen side-by-side pictures. This site also has (many) more choices.

Taking 3D Pictures
(1) PEOPLE: Unless you use a camera setup with left/right pictures taken at the same instant, it is VERY difficult for a person to stay still between shots. Their eyes move, fingers move or everything moves!
(2) PHOTO-COMPOSITION: 3D works best if you can include a foreground, middleground and background. This allows your eye to interpret the distance. A landscape with only a background tends to be 2D. On the other hand, a 3D picture with a strong foreground and little background is hard for the eyes to focus on. SOLUTION: We found it best to take the picture closer to the ground, thereby providing good foreground texture. This avoids having to worry so much about composition positioning.
(3) LIGHTING: For anaglyphs (red/cyan), bright lighting is tough on your eyes to view. The reds are bright and the blues are also bright. This is especially a problem, if there's something bright in the foreground. Side-by-side is just the opposite ... bright is good! SOLUTION: We try to AVOID anaglyphs during mid-day, or at least select partly-cloudy days.
(4) SHADOWS: These almost NEVER work. Also low-light anaglyphs are very difficult.
(5) HORIZON: For some reason, on a landscape, if you have lots of 'sky', your eye has trouble focusing the horizon. SOLUTION: we either try to include clouds, or move the horizon toward the top of the picture (reduce the sky).
(6) COLOR/BW: Color is harder on your eyes to convert to 3D. So black and white 3D pictures are easiest to create, when your learning. If you browse the older pictures, they're all BW! Also, by browsing the older pictures, you'll notice a lot of good technique.
(7) TAKING SHOTS: Here, I'll beg our own experience. I try to make sure the slider is horizontal, so that the left and right pictures are on the same plane. It allows adjusting them more easily later. Also, if the picture is 'critical' (you won't be back?), make sure that both left and right views have what you want in them! Sometimes the foreground shows on the left shot but not the right. Not good!

Creating 3D Pictures (software)
(1) There's commercially available software for processing 3D pictures. For the most part, these allow aligning the two pictures that you took, clipping them, adjusting coloration/brightness, and saving the result.
Frankly, we like the freeware version better! The name is 'StereoPhoto Maker' by Masuji Suto and David Sykes (copyright 2002-2006). See the site list below for downloads. The best part is a downloadable plugin that aligns the left/right pictures automatically! Whew! Does a great job, and the software supports virtually all aspects of 3D processing. Love it.
(2) In processing the pictures, I usually move the saturation up about 30%, to overcome the anaglyph bias (red/blue). Sometimes I also have to shift the brightness up. Both of these are a little tricky, since you don't want the 'red' to become too strong. This is especially true in Sedona and the 'red' rocks!
(3) On your software, if you see a 'barrel' adjustment, this is referring to your camera's lens. Some lenses create a rounded image (easily checked if you just photograph a horizontal surface and see if it is curved). If you go on the web, you can find sites which list cameras and their barrel adjustments. You use the adjustment once in the 3D software.
(4) Creating a fuzzy edge to the photo is supposed to make the 3D effect more easily seen by your eye. We don't know if this is true or not ... looks the same! But the software described above includes several effects to enhance the 3D viewing effect.
(5) Adding text to the picture helps the person viewing, since it's more convenient to move from picture to picture, without removing 3-D glasses! The text can be either normal or 3D, depending on where you want it to be perceived by the viewer. We like normal, for non-3D viewing. We left out text here, since some people want them for screen-savers.
(6) Saving the 3D pictures out is a decision! The above listed software is nice, in that it allows specifying the picture size (bytes) for JPG's. Normally you have to use trial and error, adjusting the compression. What about compression vs 3D effect? So far, anyway, we haven't seen an issue (loosing the 3D effect with compression). Remember that if you save out anaglyphs, keep the originals, since your can't easily separate an anaglyph later into its left and right components.

What's a Good 3D Picture?
(1) Using 3D glasses, it immediately looks 3D (you don't have to 'squint'). (2) It's interesting (landscapes, arty, scientific, and on and on). (3) It's fun! (4) You want to look at it again!

Recommended 3D Sites
Stereo Photo Maker This is the site for the recommended software above. He also has other software as well. At no charge! Great stuff. If you want a more lengthy list of software: Stereoscopy
Berezin There's many commercial sites. This one has a broad selection for you to see what's available.
StereoEye This is the site for Takashi Sekitani, whose work is quite good.
EyeTricks These have a lot of good examples to learn from.
Jesse Mazer His site has many of the older black and white anaglyphs. Fun to remember.

Need Advice?
If you have advice or need advice, feel free to send us an email. We're listed on the contact page for this site. And remember ... our approach above is just for simplicity. 3D has a LOT of different approaches!