[ATM] viewing in stereo - a bit off topic, but interesting anyway

[georgea at cam.org (George Anderson)]

There are some wonderful (and free) pieces of analglyph software
available on the net. I use one by Zanag and it produces those red and
green (or blue, your choice) 3D images from the stereoscopic pair. And
it will produce either colour or black and white images for the output
in your choice of several graphic formats.
It works very well with my 2.1 megapixel point and squirt and I have
been trying to decide if I should shoot a pair in 35mm and do a max res
scan with my negative scanner and see if it can cope with two 25meg tiff
files.
A simple rig can be made to allow you to slide a camera from side to
side on a tripod to match the seperation of your eyes. Exagerating the
seperation is a voodoo sort of thing as it depends on the complexity of
the image.
It may be an excellent tool to photograph scopes for web presentation to
give a 3D view so that you feel that you are looking at the actual
scope.

George Anderson
Montreal Canada

Clear skies and good health

"Stephen C. Koehler" wrote:
> 
> Guy,
> 
> I can relate an interesting and unexpected (to me) effect of this sort of
> stereoscopic modification.
> 
> A number of years ago, I fooled around with taking stereo slides using a
> normal (not a stereo) camera.  It's easy to do.  Take one picture,
> remembering exactly where you were aiming.  Move to the left or right by
> some distance.  Take a second picture aiming at the same spot.  The
> resulting slides can be viewed in pairs in an inexpensive stereo slide
> viewer.
> 
> I took a couple of roles of stereo shots on a trip to the Grand Canyon.
> I took many shots with a separation of about 1 foot.  Then, I thought I
> could enhance the stereo effect by moving larger distances between the
> shots.  I tried a few feet, 10 feet, and even something like 50 feet for
> very distant shots.  The results were very strange.  The wider the
> separation, the smaller the items in the photo looked.  For example, 6'
> pinyon pines in the middle distance looked like 3" miniatures in a diorama.
> When looking at these pictures, you cannot get your brain to make those
> trees look like 6' trees.
> 
> So, yes, it did enchance the stero effect, but it also changed the sense
> of scale in the photos.  Apparently we very strongly use the stereo effect
> in deciding how big things are.
> 
> Now that I think about it, it would be very easy for people to fool around
> with this using a digital camera.  The shots can be put side-by-side on a
> computer screen, and the images merged without a stereo viewer.  When I get
> a chance, I will try to put together a demonstration of the effect I
> described above.
> --
> Steve Koehler
> koehler@securecomputing.com
> 
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