• How to View- how to view the pictures on this site
• Take your own- want to learn how to take 3D photos?
• Links- Links to other relatedwebsites
• Glossary- a definition of terms
• Projection viewing for large audiences- how to enable a large audience to view your 3D photos

3D Photography has been around for a century and a half. It is simply a method of photographically recreating what you already do- perceive depth in everything you see.

Standard photographs are only 2-dimensional representations of what you see. 3-Dimensional photographs are taken from two perspectives (you have two eyes, hence two perspectives on a scene). By forcing each eye to see only one photograph, i.e. the left eye sees the left photograph and the right eye sees the right photograph, your brain will reconstruct the depth information from the two pictures and you will see a 3D image.

There are various ways of doing this, and this site is meant to give a demonstration of several forms of viewing them.

Here you will see over 3000 3D pictures from 38 countries that were either taken on 35mm slide or negative film, and with a digital camera.  There are also 3D images extracted from video, 3D images made on a scanner, and 3D photomicrographs made with a microscope.  Most of the images are in cross-eyed viewing format, and there are instructions on how to view them on this site.

In the Viewing section, you will learn how to view the 3D images on this page using the cross-eyed method (a majority of the shots).  To start viewing the galleries, just click on the regions of the map.

In the Take your own 3D section, you will learn how to take 3D photos using a camera or a scanner, and you will learn my 3D video method as well.  You will learn how to take 3D photomicrographs using a toy microscope.

In the Display them yourself section, you will learn how to project the 3D photos you have taken with a camera onto a movie screen in full stereo.  Complete details of the home setup are included.

If you enjoy 3D photography and would like to contribute, improve, or learn how to take them, join the 3D Photography Forum. It's an increasingly vibrant community of like-minded people that are friendly and helpful. Feel free to upload your own photos, and enjoy the photos of others. We are all better 3D photographers because of the Forum.

This site, the #1 Stereo Photography site on the Internet, is due for an upgrade. The original site was designed in the 1990's, using the technology of the day. That has since evolved to become much more flexible and capable.

To adapt, I will be co-developing a database-enabled site in cooperation with a local, Dallas-based company. The new galleries will look more elegant, and be dynamic and easier to maintain and update. The new system will be tag-based, and you will be able to switch navigation mid-stream. While looking at pictures in Germany, for instance, when viewing a castle, you can switch to a castle stream. Geo-location is also planned, replacing the old manual maps.

Finally, I have become a better photographer and a better 3D photographer. Many of the images on the present site do not meet me current standards. Many of the shots on the site have "window violations"- a common mistake, one of which I was rather stubborn to get. Happily, all of the photos on this site since 2004 have fewer violations. This will result in a net reduction in the number of images on the site, but they will be of higher quality. Every single image will be re-evaluated and re-composed in 3D format. Multiple viewing formats will be investigated- it depends on what technology I can use to reach the most users.

Keep checking here to see the status of the updates. Early on, the original site will still be what is available from this page. Gradually, the galleries will be swapped out, and the new Tag-generated navigation rings will get better as more content is available in the new format.

Update progress

Aug 09: First steps are redesign of the regional map galleries. This will be rolled out in the coming weeks. So far, US, Europe, Canada, Australia/Oceana maps have been renovated. Separated Central America from South America and introduced as a new region, and next is the South American map.