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How to view 3-D photos |
- STEREOSCOPE: This type of stereo photo viewer is often called a Holmes or Bates stereoscope. The traditional stereo view card format is 3.5 x 7 inches (89 x 178 mm) with an image area that is usually about 3.5 x 6 inches 89 x 152 mm) or slightly narrower. However, images may be taller than 3.5 inches -- for example, 5 inches high x 6 inches wide.
Thousands of these viewers exist today, forgotten in attics, basements, and flea markets. They were very popular before and after 1900.
- Inexpensive plastic "Lorgnette" glasses for viewing Holmes viewcards and online images are available from several sources. Two sources for many types of 3-D glasses are:
- <www.3dglassesonline.com>
- <www.berezin.com/3d/>
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- Right:
- A traditional type of Stereo View Card in the Holmes format.
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- (This 3-D image was made with the Leica Stereoly mounted on the Olympus digital camera.)
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| FREE VIEWING IN 3-D: You can free view these photos directly on your screen, or you can print a copy on paper. Either way, the image should be no wider than about 6 inches (152 mm). Images that are only 4 or 5 inches wide are easier for beginners. |
Free viewing takes some practice at first. It requires you to position each eye directly in front of a photo. (Do NOT cross your eyes.) Relax. Pretend that you are looking at the wall a few feet behind the photos. As your eyes relax, they should begin to converge to a distant point in space BEHIND the photograph. Then you should see three (or four) images. With a little practice, a central image may be brought into focus (or "fused") to see three dimensions. (If you normally wear glasses, leave them on.)
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Try this: Put your eyes very close to the two images (about 3 or 4 inches), then SLOWLY back away while keeping your eyes on the images. You can gradually fuse them into one glorious 3-D image with one dull flat image on each side.
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| 2-DIMENSIONAL VIEWING (flat): Following are two different modes for flat viewing. |
2-D SINGLE IMAGE: Cover either half of the image pairs and view the remaining half just as you would look at any other 2-D photograph.
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2-D FULL IMAGE: (See examples below) In this mode, the full image is considered to be a single composition. Both halves are part of the full image.
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| The photographs at left are 2-D Full-Image photographs. |
| While shooting them, I composed each to be seen as one large flat image. |
| Of course, they could also be viewed stereographically, although that was not my original intention. |
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| Many other 3-D photos function successfully as 2-D Full-Image photographs. This creates another dimension of interest.
(Let's see,.... would you say that 3-D + 2-D = 5-D?)
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 How I make a traditional-style view card mount |
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| HOW I MAKE A TRADITIONAL HOLMES-STYLE VIEW CARD (with digital methods): |
| The old tried-and-true method is to make the stereo photograph, trim left and right images with scissors, then glue the stereo pair in place on a mounting card. The methods I describe below use software to create both the image and its view card mount. The finished product may be a printed card or an image for screen viewing (posted online or copied to a CD). |
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| I begin with Adobe Photoshop and crop the stereo pair photos (in TIFF format). After cropping, I switch to Adobe Illustrator to "mount" -- or mask -- them with the traditional-style Holmes card. For that purpose, I created a page-layout template on which to "place" the stereo pair. One page (8.5 x 11) usually holds 2 or 3 view cards with centers aligned vertically down the center of the page. When the page is finished, I save the Illustrator layout to an archive folder. |
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- (1) To PRINT the page of stereo view cards for use with the Holmes viewer:
- Using the printer's settings for best quality and highest resolution, the Illustrator page layout is printed onto a heavyweight matte photo paper. The printed sheet is trimmed on both left and right sides to the finished width of 7 inches. Finally, the cards are cut out along their top and bottom edges, and I usually round the corners (to reduce the possibility of scratched surfaces). After trimming out cards, I often curve them like the curved mounts published after 1890. To curve the photos, I store them in a cylindrical container for a few days.
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- (2) To create a stereo IMAGE to post online:
- This is a quick method. (See number 3 below for another method.) Enlarge the archived Illustrator page layout to 200%. Use Grab (or a similar application) to select the exact area of the view card and save it to an archive folder as a TIFF file -- this resolution comes out at 150dpi. To create the 72dpi JPG image that will be uploaded to the web, open the TIFF image with PhotoShop, reduce the Image Size to 7 inches wide, then save it as a 72dpi JPG. This type of low resolution screen image is often not suitable for printing.
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- (3) To create a high resolution TIFF or JPG IMAGE:
- Export the view card image to PhotoShop either as a TIFF or PSD file (select the appropriate resolution). Open PhotoShop. The TIFF or PSD image may be cropped and edited. Save as TIFF or JPG file. Depending on image size and resolution, this image may be printed or posted online.
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| There are other digital methods that may be used to create stereo views on the traditional Holmes format.The software should allow a stereographer to create the template needed for masking the stereo images. If you choose not to create a template, you can use PhotoShop (or a similar application) to crop and print stereo view cards. |
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This page was created in October 2004
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