3D Photos

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Did you ever use a Viewmaster as a kid? The photo above works on the same principle. You can generate three dimensional views by taking photos of an object from slightly different angles. There are special attachments you can buy for cameras that will split the exposure to get different viewpoints at the exact same point in time. This is really the only way to get action photos. However, if you are taking photos of objects that don't move you can use a much cheaper approach known as the "cha-cha" method. This is what I do for 3D landscape photos. You take one photo and then quickly take a step or two to the right or left and take another. The further you step, the greater the 3D effect. For large objects like the natural bridge above, you can pick out three dimensional details that you would not pick out even being there in person. This is because rather than the parallax from the few inches separating your two eyes, you can generate parallax as big as you want, in effect amplifying the 3D effect. The biggest I have ever done is a hundred feet or so at Rainbow Point at Byrce Canyon.

View of Molly's Nipple from Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon National Park

To view the images I take you need to be able to cross your eyes. If you can do this, then you will line up the two images on top of one another. The image for the right eye is on the left and the visa-versa, so when you line them up by crossing your eyes you create the 3D effect.

If you have managed to do this take a look at the photographs here and on my 3D photo page. Notice how you can easily determine relative distance with this photos in ways you could not with a single photo. For objects that are really far away you cannot tell relative distance with the unaided eye(s) because your eyes are too close together to get any significant parallax.

The technical name for this "amplification" is hyperstereo.