Using a Camera

Equipment

21st Century Update- Digital Cameras
One beauty of technology is the ever-increasing capabilities of electronics.  In 2001, I bought a Nikon Coolpix 885 3 megapixel digital camera.  That started a fundamental change in how I took 3D photos.  In reality, the technique itself is no different that with a traditional 35mm camera, but with memory becoming cheaper and cheaper, and the ability to reuse the memory once I offloaded the images to my computer, the number of 3D's I took proliferated.

The main problem with a digital camera lay in the fact that I still like to project the images at home using a slide projector, so I would still take a 35mm camera along so I would have slides (and high quality images that I sell in the shop on this site).  For purposes of this site, however, the Coolpix 885 more than met my needs.  If a picture didn't come out well, I just deleted it.  With a 3mp camera, as of 2004, I was using 1GB of compact flash.  One thing to remember is that you take two of everything, so you need twice as much memory as you would for a normal camera.

In early 2005, I upgraded my digital capabilities with a Nikon Coolpix 8800, which as a 10x optically stabilized zoom (for extremely crisp telephoto shots).  This camera is an 8 megapixel, high-quality work of art.  The noise thresholds are lower, the battery life is longer, and the optics are superb.  It is not an SLR in that the lens is not detachable, however the viewfinder is through-the-lens, so there are no boresight problems such as the Coolpix 885 had.

Traditional Equipment
I use a normal 35 mm camera to take my 3D photos. I have a Canon A-1 that I use for that purpose. I have a variety of lenses, and most of them do a fine job, but each has it's own special purpose:

• 16 mm (fisheye)- I haven't actually used this one, but you would have to be very careful because of the distortion this lens causes.
• 17 mm (rectilinear)- This lens has a 105 degree field of view, but due to the optics, there is no curvature of field. Nevertheless, there is a lot of distortion and care should be used with this lens. I have taken some of my best 3D with this lens. Place the camera very close to the object being photographed, move just a few inches, and you have a 3D with astounding depth. With my projection system, these appear to have the effect of popping out the screen and into the room. The Teotihuacan photograph in the galleries is an example. The eyes follow you around the room as you move.
• 28 mm (wide angle)- Great for scenics
• 50 mm (normal lens)- Most used
• 90 mm (portrait lens)- Most used
• 135 mm (telephoto)- Great for isolating an element. See 70-200 mm.
• 70-200 mm (zoom)- Great for isolating an element. The target must be fairly distant and you must use a long baseline at higher zooms, but the effect can be quite good. Try using this one in a canyon, isolating an object such as a pinnacle of rock to make it stand out from the background, or on a distant object such as a building or a tree.
• 600 mm (fixed aperture)- I haven't used this one for 3D, but the result could be interesting if the baseline is long enough. This lens is difficult to use as any motion is greatly magnified, and the depth of field is very shallow, so your subject should be far away with a backdrop much further away (i.e. an island in a lake with a mountain backdrop behind it).
  

Film
I've used various films to take 3D. If you want to take prints, any film will do. I always recommend the slowest film possible for the situation. Since my methods generally work best outdoors, ISO 100 or ISO 50 are good. I've used Kodachrome 25 and gotten great results, but that film type is being phased out- there are only a few labs in the country that will process them.

When taking 3D's on slide, I prefer Fuji Velvia (ISO 50)- it seems to work best outdoors. While Kodak films are either warm (red end of the spectrum- Kodachrome) or cool (blue end of the spectrum- Ektachrome), Velvia tends to do a very good job with all colors, especially greens, which is good for outdoors.

Films seem to change monthly, or at least yearly. Kodak is always introducing better formulations in the Ektachrome series. For print film, Kodak's Ektapress 100 is one of the best (it is available at camera stores and is as cheap as the Royal series).

Agfa makes a black & white slide film called Scala, and I think it would be interesting to do a series of B&W 3D slides, perhaps of older structures to create a mood of a forgotton era...

Of course, all of the above opinions on film types are my own- among photographers, one person's favorite film is another's most cursed.

Technique
You can take the photographs on either print film or slide film. Using print film requires you to master the cross-eyed technique, while using slides requires you to have at least some of the equipment described below. Both have their advantages. Prints can be taken anywhere, but you must teach others to view them correctly. Slides and a handheld viewer can also be taken anywhere, and the slides give you a better, clearer image.

To take the pictures, select a subject of interest. Make sure the picture is not too complicated. You do not want a subject that is too close to the camera. Distinct objects- (trees, vehicle, building) make good starting points. As you can see from the diagram at the left, the images in the foreground (the trees) will shift in relation to the background (the mountains). How much you vary your baseline (the distance between the left and right shots) will vary how much the trees pop into the foreground, while the mountains (effectively at infinity) stay the same, effectively being wallpaper.

If you have objects close to you, don't move very far (i.e. less than a foot for an object 20 feet in front of you). For most pictures, I move 2-3 feet.

In all cases, do not rotate the camera towards the objects in the foreground. This will introduce distortion in the left and right edges of each images and you will have trouble fusing the pictures together. Keep the camera parallel to the background for both pictures to obtain the best results.

You should be consistent as to which side you take first. I always take the left picture first, so there is no question when I get my slides back. If you aren't consitent, you can tell the slides apart by examining each slide closely. The slide with the foreground objects further to the right of the background is the left slide.

Below would be the results of the diagram. Note that the slides are left-right reversed for cross-eyed viewing.

For a pastoral mountain scene, with trees 50 feet away, move 2-3 feet between the pictures. If you are standing at a scenic overlook and you have no trees in the immediate vicinity, move further if you want to exaggerate the depth. I have moved 10 feet with little problem (if there are no foreground objects).

There are other things to take into consideration. If it is a very windy day and there are trees in the pictures, they may move too much between the two pictures and cause problems. If it is a day with a lot of spotty clouds and a lot of wind, moving on very long baselines may cause the clouds and their shadows to move too much.

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