Post 16: Outdoor Experiments

      We went down to visit family in Beatrice, South Alabama, and I took my 3D gear to try a few straight shots of old buildings, both in color and Infrared. I also thew some props in the trunk of the Z just in case... I first ran across the wonderful white little Franklin Church and old village with its huge enclosure of white picket fence, and great perspectives to play with. The first shot came out with great depth, but the picket fence comes out of the corner of the frame. Click here for a full screen version.

   I should at this point get a little ahead of myself to talk about the 3D software. At first, I was just trusting my eyes, and with the composite images, you pretty much have to do that, as the software only aligns single images with no layers. I was recommended StereoPhotoMaker by a 3D mate on Flickr, and since it is Windows software, I had to update my Parallel Desktop so it would run with Snow Leopard on my Mac in order to use it. It is reallypretty good and does a good job of aligning images both automatically and manually, but it is typically clunky Windows interface and the save function especially leaves a lot to be desired. I had preferred cross eyed images at first, but discovered that Anaglyphs actually had advantages over cross eyed images, AS LONG ARE THERE ARE NO REDS OR CYANS IN THE IMAGE, and were great with Black and White, and the typical desaturated images I tend to like. I also happened to do some Google research in French to see if anybody over there was doing something with 3D, and it turns out that these two French guys Etienne Monneret & Didier Leboutte have come up with a great program called Anabuilder, which works with both Windows and Mac, and comes in English. As its name indicates, it is mostly designed for Anaglyphs, but will accept and work also with side by side and cross eyed images. I found the auto align function is actually better than the one in StereoPhotoMaker. The image above was aligned with SPM. The version below was re aligned in Anabuilder. Click here for a full screen version.

    AnaBuilder also has an automatic "align all behind the screen" setting. All the manual adjustments are possible too, and it even has a Phantogram Builder function, Phantograms being my newest discovery and main interest now from an Artistic standpoint. The version below was pushed back behind the screen, but has a strong ghosting effect on the large post up front. Click here for a full screen version.

Post 15: The Final Image: "Stereoscopic Apparition of the Holy Spirit Hovering over Mary Magdalene in Contemplation of a Vision of an Otherworldly Hypercubus Crucifixion Induced by the Absorption of Laudanum"

I cut out Joseph, removed the floor inside the frame, added a dark sky with red clouds I lifted off a picture on Flickr by , added another globe as a "Saturn" way back and a monstrance near the foot of the cross, moved Adam's Chimp skull forward. Finally, I went to South Alabama to visit family, and shot my first outdoor 3D pictures. A red Barn cut out from its background was dropped in the distance. All the pieces were strengthened and sharpened wit Topaz.
 Perfect, I think I will leave it alone now and call it finished. How about a very special Dalinian title: "Stereoscopic Apparition of the Holy Spirit Hovering Over Mary Magdalene in  Contemplation of a Vision of an Otherworldly Hypercubus Crucifixion Induced by the Absorption of Laudanum". Click here for the full screen version.

Post 14: Playing with the image

Since MM would not go behind the frame, I decided to leave her in front, enlarge the black canvas, and move the frame back. I added a new floor, the lighted globe in the night sky, the mummified Holy Spirit dove hovering, Adam's monkey skull at the foot of the Cross, and the poppy pod on an old mini cushion/scapular embroidered with IHS. Then I made the canvas even wider, and added Old Joseph in a polio brace and crutches to keep MM company... It became too much, and the Hypercubus Cross was getting lost. Click here for a full screen version.

Post 13:Building the 3D image

I thought the image would look good in an ornate frame, so I shot one up close with a 28mm and added it in front. The problem was that Mary Magdalene stuck out in front of it, no matter what I tried: "WINDOW VIOLATION", that's a BAD word in 3D world. Well, what would you expect of MM the sinner... I reshot the frame even closer in sections and stitched them together, getting the effect of about a 20mm lens. Still, as you can see in the accompanying picture, MM keeps acting up! Click here for the full screen image.

Post 12:Using the Hypercubus Cross

I added the four little cubes to the Cross, changed the lighting in AfterEffects to make it glow, added a checkerboard floor made 3D with AfterEffects, and photographed Jesus and Mary Magdalene in 3D on a black stage. Mary was shot up close with a 28 mm, Jesus from a distance with a longer zoom. I assembled the pair on a black background, did a rough placement, and then adjusted them moving the left and right images in space forward and backward by sliding them sideways. There is actually a good deal of latitude. That's a pretty good start, and the depth is good. Click here to  look at a full screen image. Now I need to add to it.

Post 11: Hypercubus Cross Test

    I quickly realized that Photoshop CS5 3D capabilities were very limited, and went back to After Effects which I had used to build a virtual room when I was experimenting with Animation a couple of years ago. I had unfortunately forgotten most everything, and had to spent the whole day figuring out how to make a 3D Hypercubus Cross, obviously inspired by Dali's famous painting. I found some fantastic free textures on Flickr Creative Commons created by J.L.Jones under the pseudonym SkeletalMess . Thanks Jerry for sharing your wonderful work, also available with much much more on the Shadowhouse Creations Blog.
   I manipulated the textures, trimmed, rotated, lightened, darkened and recut them all to 1000x1000 pixels squares to make the sides of all the cubes. Well, the cubes actually have only the 4 visible sides.  I took two shots with the virtual camera moving it sideways some, and came up with this stereo pair. Click here for a full screen version.
 

Post 8: "Doctor Egas Moniz, Nobel Price for Medecine 1949, Preparing Jesus for Lobotomy by Administrating Electroshocks, Photographer Unknown""

This is a far more complex attempt at virtual composite 3D. Each part of the image is actually shot separately, and assembled in Photoshop. I started with the frame, and added stuff both inside and outside the frame, behind and in front of the frame. Click here for a full screen version, and view it full screen.

Post 7: "Saint Francis getting his Stigmatas", Final Version

I thought I could do more with the image, so I kept on working on the composition, and re photographed it with 3", 4", and 5" spacing. There is so much depth that the standard  3" spacing was enough, and more would make the image too hard to look at. I also shot telephoto close ups of all the major components in the image from the same perspective: hands, faces, dove, skull, heart, monkey, globes, key and poppy pod, and pasted them in place. I ended up enlarging the dove, and bringing it forward so it appears to hover over Saint Francis head. To get the full effect, click here for a full screen 1200 x 2500 pixels version, and make it as big as you can on your monitor.

Post 6: "Saint Francis getting his stigmatas"

My next image is a little more complex, and tries to push the 3D to the limit. The whole set up is almost 7 feet deep from the bobs up front to the dove all the way back, with the 2 plumb bobs only 24" from the camera. There is so much depth it makes it almost too hard to see. But I find the effect pretty amazing, as the single image has again on purpose not much illusion of depth. I may have to move the bobs away from the camera a little to make it easier on the eyes. I suppose the 3D purists police would give me a ticket for "window violation", but I love nothing more than breaking rules. Click here for a full screen version.

Post 6: Test 2

To see what difference the spacing of the shots makes, I tried that same image with about 5" instead of 3". The 3D effect is more intense, but in the end, it also depends on how far you stand from the monitor when you view the images. The further away, the more depth. I do like the increased depth and will shoot the next image with a 5" spacing. Click here for a full screen image.

Post 5: Depth Test 1

Just to see what kind of depth effect I can get on my shooting stage, I set up this basic image with no overlapping of the objects to get on purpose a  very flat look. Viewing the image in 3D with either the cross eyed or the parallel method with the viewer, really brings out a lot of depth. The 2 images on the left are for direct cross eyed viewing. Click here to get a bigger full screen image.

Post 4: Making a sliding rail

In order to shoot my stereo pairs, I had so far simply moved the tripod over a few inches, but the strength of the 3D effect depends on the distance between the 2 shots, and the further away the subject is, the further apart should the shots be. I want to make composite images, and will need to shoot multiple stereo pairs at different spacings to pick the ones with the proper perspective to combine in the same image. So I made a rail with a sliding plate to mount the camera on, either directly horizontally, or vertically with a 90 degrees bracket. A lever allows adjustment and locking of the parralax.

Post 3: Other Ways to see the 3D images

There is also a parallel vision way of seing the 3D images, but it only works on small images, and I can't do it. But I found that company called Berezin Stereo Photography Products that makes all kinds of 3D viewers, and I ordered from them their new 3DS Scope which allows the viewing of large pairs on a computer screen via mirrors. It works well for people unable to cross their eyes, but is not very practical if you have to wear glasses like me, as it is supposed to fit tightly against the face, and you have to hold it.
So I am going to try their 3D prism glasses, which are a little harder to use, but can be worn over prescription glasses.
I found another company called Anachrome selling all kinds of 3D equipment, and that have their own type of prism glasses.

Post 2: "The Cadaver Trial of Formosus in 3D"

I had just shot a straight (well, so to speak, meaning it is a plain shot, there is no Photoshop collage involved) composition based on the story of Pope Formosus and his infamous posthumous "Cadaver Synod" at the hand of his successor Sephen VI". So I went ahead and moved the tripod over a few inches and did a second shot. The 3D pair works fine as you can see. Click on the image for a larger version. Click here for a full screen FLASH version.

Post 1: What is Crossed Eyed 3D?

3D Hommage to Dali, Oil on Paper

Since the beginnings of photography particularly, but even before, Artists have tried to render the world in 3 dimensions. The reason why we see in 3D is that we have 2 eyes situated roughly 3 inches apart, and that each eye therefore sees a slightly different image. The brain mixes these 2 images and voila! Stereoscopic photography was invented around 1860. The standard two side by side images required a viewer, but if you reverse the images left and right, the 3D effect can be obtained simply by crossing the eyes until 2 images merge in the center and pop into 3D.

Dali experimented with 3D paintings back in the early 70's, and I painted a 3D piece in the late 80's in Homage after a visit to the Museum in Figueras.I used a system of mirrors to show it in one of my exhibitions. But you can just as well look at it cross eyed