I realise with the potential audience this blog may one day get that I’m preaching to the converted. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a practising stereographer, or at the very least understand the mechanics of it. But if this blog happens to be your introduction to the world of 3D, I don’t want you to be left behind, so that’s what this article is about. I’ll probably return to this every so often as I think of more important things that need to be known to the 3D beginner. ‘3D 102’ will be taught over the next few months across different articles on a few of the more complicated things around stereoscopy and the techniques I use. But for right now, this is all beginner friendly!
Stereoscopy can be a little intimidating to get into. How do you take the photos? How do you process them? How do you look at them in 3D? Like the word ‘stereoscopy,’ it sounds more complicated than it actually is, and it’s easier now than ever to try this out for yourself. You need three things to make stereos and be able to see them properly, but thankfully they’re all very easy to find and we’ll break them down here:
A camera, because it’s a lot easier to take photos with them than an orange.
Stereo format software, which you can get for free on your phone and PC.
A 3D viewer, which nowadays is remarkably cheap.
Using the camera
Thankfully, stereoscopy doesn’t really require anything special. You can get away quite happily with taking shots on your phone or a cheap camera. The slight downside for the first-time stereographer is that shooting stereos is double the effort than regular photography. Literally, it’s all about taking two pictures instead of one. But they can’t just be any old two pictures, they have to be taken in a straight line, one after the other. We call this sequential stereoscopy and this graphic from the 3DSteroid app shows how to do it.
Other people have better explanations for how to do this, but I’ll give it a shot. Think of it like this: hold the camera as you would normally, but then lock your arms in place. They’re not moving at all. Then, move your hips to your left, which sets you into position to take the first shot. After that, move your hips to the right, which will create enough distance for the second shot. Something to keep in mind is that you want to keep the camera straight as you move. You may be tempted to twist it around to give more depth, but all that’ll do is make it harder for your brain to fuse the two images together and give you a bad case of strained eyes.
Why does it need to be completely straight? Because when you’re looking at them in 3D, the two images, with all the details in them, are fusing together to create the illusion of depth, and that happens horizontally, i.e. left to right. So if, say, you shot a tree, you’re able to see it as 3D because every bit of one shot lines up with where it is in the other, like this:
If, however, the shots are wonky and don’t line up because the camera is angled weirdly or it’s not formatted right, they’ll hurt your eyes when you try to see them in 3D, like this:
When you first get into stereoscopy, there are a few confusing technicalities and terms like ‘parallax’ and ‘baselines’ which can make it scary to attempt it. Honestly, a lot of how to take stereos becomes muscle memory after you start trying it. The best way to describe it is that each of the two pictures should represent a view from one of your eyes. If you alternate closing your eyes while focusing on something, you’ll see a lot of little difference in how what’s in front of you is placed. Stereoscopy really is just trying to simulate that. Again, it sounds more complicated than it actually is, and once you do it for a little bit, you’ll get a good feel for how to start shooting them.
Formatting
So you’ve shot your two images – now what? Now you need to format them so they can be seen in 3D. Once again, it sounds more complicated than it actually is as there are several hassle-free options for you to do this.
If you’re taking shots on your phone, you can download the free app 3DSteroid (or i3DSteroid for Apple users) in which you can take shots and format them in a quick and easy-to-use interface. The stereos of the tree up there were both shot on 3DSteroid and what's helpful for beginners is that it guides you to line up your shots with a line at the bottom showing you how straight your movement is.
If you’re a bit more old-school and want to do this on your computer, you can download the free program StereoPhoto Maker which allows you to input your raw pictures and automatically format them for you to save as stereos.
These two apps are incredibly beginner friendly and take out a lot of the guesswork when it comes to formatting stereos. They’ll often place the images so that they can be viewed comfortably, and both have the option for ‘auto-adjustments,’ so if you have a less steady hand for one (or even both!) of the stereos, the apps will do all they can to fix them and make them as viewable as possible.
In 3DSteroid, once you’ve taken your shots, just tap the ‘auto adjust’ button and the app will take care of the rest.
In StereoPhoto Maker, just go to Adjust at the top and click ‘Auto Adjustments.’ A few seconds later, it’ll have done it like magic!
Viewing
Now you have your stereo and it’s formatted all nicely – but how do you actually look at it? Well, a few talented people out there can cross their eyes and ‘free view’ stereos without anything to help them. I’m not one of those people, and even if you can, it can take time to get right. So it’s much less hassle to just go and buy a 3D viewer.
Thankfully, you don’t need to buy a big wedge of Victorian-era wood to see stereos nowadays. The London Stereoscopic Company do a range of what they call OWL viewers (get it? Because it looks like an owl? Kinda. A little bit. Maybe? Sure, why not, it’s good for marketing) which are cheap and efficient to use. There’s the standard OWL, which you can use to look at cards and any stereos you decide to print out or, for the budget-conscious, there’s a Lite OWL which is just the oculars for £5.
If you prefer to look at your stereos on your phone – and are prepared to spend a little bit of money – they offer a special phone OWL which has a metal backing that can stick to your phone, meaning that you can look at them on your phone more easily.
Now, for my personal recommendations on viewers: I always go for the standard OWL. If anything, the back which can hold printed stereos make for a good guide on how straight you can keep an image when you’re looking on it on a computer screen. I’ve never got on too well with Lite OWLS because of that: it’s difficult to keep it and whatever you’re looking at perfectly aligned.
As with any art-form, the only way to really get to grips with stereoscopy is to actually try it. It’s hard to put into words how exciting it is unless you’ve tried it first-hand. I suppose I’ve failed as a writer by not having the words to convey that. But if you’re happy to make the tiniest investment, you’ll have all the tools to try this yourself!
3DSteroid can be downloaded for free on the Google Play Store: 3DSteroid – Apps on Google Play
i3DSteroid can be downloaded for free on the App Store: i3DSteroid on the App Store (apple.com)
StereoPhoto Maker can be downloaded for free here: StereoPhoto Maker (English) (jpn.org)
OWL viewers can be bought from the London Stereoscopic Company website here: OWL Viewers - LSC Official Online Shop (londonstereo.com)
The walls of text above go over how to get into stereoscopy in 2023. The tools I linked to will
give you a solid foundation to build your practice on. When I started in 2013, though, I didn’t
have these. It was just before the smartphone revolution completely dominated how we
engaged with the world, so 3DSteroid was out of the question. As for StereoPhoto Maker, my
only excuse for not using is, as poor as it is, that I was a woefully uninformed kid.
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