Shot Alive

The post next to this one shows some actual 3D pictures. This describes how to make them. The basic idea is that there needs to be two pictures seen from slightly different angles, just like the two eyes in our head are slightly separated.

Ideally the two pictures are taken at the same instant, but this is not possible unless you have a special camera or two cameras the same. So in practice it means taking two pictures quickly one after the other with a slight movement of the camera in between. The movement would normally be about 6 cm or 2.5 inches to match our eyes and this suits for small scale pictures such as objects at the table. For large scenes with buildings and trees the movement may be more, anything form 0.3 to 5 m (1 to 15 feet) and you can experiment with this for yourself.

Try starting out with inanimate objects such as crockery or fruit or other household items. When you have mastered this you are ready to try things like people. You have to get them to stand absolutely still while you take a picture, move, and take another picture. All this while having them not look like a statue. Otherwise you have to take the pictures very fast such as by continuous shutter action while moving the camera across the line of sight. It is important to keep the camera pointing in the same direction and to keep it horizontal at all times.

It is a good idea when taking photos for 3D to take them in the portrait mode rather than landscape mode. That means turn your camera sideways so that the picture is taller and thinner. Otherwise when you join them together they will be two long sideways.

Once you have your two pictures you need to put them into your computer and join them together with a graphics program such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or Corel Paint. Get the two images in and resize them to about 800 tall x 600 wide. If there is any lack of horizontalness, then rotate them to be properly horizontal.

Make a new blank image that is 1200 wide x 800 tall. Then copy and paste the two images into the new picture. Keep them as floating objects because they may not line up perfectly. Put them to the left and right in your new picture space. The one on the left will be seen with the right eye and vice versa. So the one on the left should have more background visible to the right of foreground objects, and more background visible at the left frame of the picture and vice versa for the other eye.

Move them up and down until they are aligned vertically by checking that key points are at the same height. If you get the top right and the bottom is unaligned then one image may be a little closer than the other. You need to stretch the smaller one to fit, but stretch diagonally so that the picture stays in proportion.

Once the two images are correctly aligned vertically you can move them horizontally until they just meet and then lock them in. Now trim the combined picture so that any white bits left around the edges are removed, trying to keep a similar size to each.

Save the result and start going cross-eyed. :-)

3D Photographs: Anaglyphs, Crosseye and Parallel. This is a detailed description of many things relating to 3D pictures, including equipment, software, flickr groups and tags and more.