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stereo photos (not from Evo 3D)

novox77

Leeeroy Jennnkinnns!
Jul 7, 2010
3,964
3,257
My local neighborhood 3D enthusiast has let me borrow a little piece of equipment that allows me to take stereo photos of stationary objects. It's basically a sliding track that you can mount your camera on. Slide to the left; take a shot. Slide to the right, take a shot. Then stitch the photos together in photoshop and... done!

So I made a cross-eye stereo pair (swapping left and right images allows for cross-eye viewing). The results were very nice (if you like 3D, that is). Here it is:

flowers3dn.jpg



Here's what you have to do to see this in 3D:

1) Note the two red dots at the top.

2a) If you're viewing this image from a desktop or laptop screen, keep your head about 3ft away (it's possible to get closer, but it means you have to cross your eye harder)

2b) If you're viewing this image from a phone, keep your head about 2ft away from the phone

3) cross your eyes to any amount you want. You'll see a total of 4 red dots. Keep your head level so that all 4 dots are along an imaginary straight, horizontal line.

4) vary the amount you are crossing your eyes until you get the two dots in the middle to line up and form one SOLID dot. You should perceive 3 red dots total now

5) maintaining that cross-eye amount, look down at the middle image. It should appear 3D. Once you're locked on, you can slowly move your head closer. Note that this will increase eye strain but you see a bigger picture.

Hope you all can see it!
 
Actually Works! :D
So I assume that this is how the 3D is going to look like on E3D (without crossing the eyes lol). Looks very nice!

Yes, very much so. A lot less eye strain than this cross-eye technique. And I'm also learning that it's much easier to lock on if I keep the two camera positions close to each other. Since the Evo's cameras are close together (much closer than what I used for this pair), it will be easier to see the 3D effect.
 
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:( I totally fail at the eye crossing technique. I can't do it without looking at my nose so I can't focus on the image when I do it.

Yeah, my wife has the same problem; she can't cross her eyes at will unless she has something to focus on.

Give this a try:

1) Put up your index finger so that it's just touching the bottom of the black bar, in the center of the two images.

2) put your finger roughly in the midpoint between your head and the screen.

3) look at your finger (focus on it) but pay attention to what is happening to the blurry red dots in the background.

4) slide your finger toward and away from you; keep focus on the finger, but see if you can see the 4 dots I mentioned before, in particular the two middle ones.

5) by focusing your finger and moving it front and back, can you get those two middle dots to overlap?

6) here's the hard part: once they overlap, you have to now look at the screen without changing where your eyes are focused. It's very easy to lose that and lock onto the screen.

Step 6 takes practice. From my experience, some people can learn to do this; some can't. It took me weeks before I could see my first autostereogram (those pictures full of dots). But once I learned how to focus without a reference point, I could see these stereo pairs in 3D.

I still can't raise only one eyebrow. impossible, I say!
 
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What helps me out is putting my phone (or image) directly in front of my face. Only an an inch or two away. Then, I slowly move the picture away from my face.

Actually, that's the technique for parallel-viewing, not cross-eye. The image I made is not designed for that. If you try to parallel-view this pic, it will appear to have depth, but it will be all messed up. I'll put up a parallel version in a bit. It may help those who can't do cross-eye.
 
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This one is for parallel-viewing, or focusing behind the screen:

flowers3d2.jpg



Instructions:

1) Put your face as close to the screen as possible and look at the black bar between the dots. Nothing will be in focus; this is normal; dont' try to focus on the screen, ever. just relax the eyes.

2) slowly, keeping the eyes relaxed, move your head back. observe the center two (blurry) red dots will start to come together.

3) keep moving your head back, keeping the image blurry (eyes relaxed) until the two blurry dots overlap into one blurry dot.

4) keep moving your head back and prevent the dot from splitting into 2 dots. The single dot should still appear blurry. Keep moving away until the dot becomes sharp.

5) now look down at the center image. It should be in 3D.


May take some practice. The key here is to keep your eyes relaxed and not to let them lock on to the screen.


 
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This one is for parallel-viewing, or focusing behind the screen:

flowers3d2.jpg



Instructions:

1) Put your face as close to the screen as possible and look at the black bar between the dots. Nothing will be in focus; this is normal; dont' try to focus on the screen, ever. just relax the eyes.

2) slowly, keeping the eyes relaxed, move your head back. observe the center two (blurry) red dots will start to come together.

3) keep moving your head back, keeping the image blurry (eyes relaxed) until the two blurry dots overlap into one blurry dot.

4) keep moving your head back and prevent the dot from splitting into 2 dots. The single dot should still appear blurry. Keep moving away until the dot becomes sharp.

5) now look down at the center image. It should be in 3D.


May take some practice. The key here is to keep your eyes relaxed and not to let them lock on to the screen.



Thanks! This is really the only way I can do it :p As an additional tip for people who want to try the "parallel viewing" method: To practice, just try to relax and zone out. Don't look at anything, and let your eyes lose focus. It should be natural for them to go parallel, and you should see double. This will just help you understand what it's supposed to feel like. Also realize that this is how you see those magic eye illusions.

magic-eye.gif


here's a pretty neat "magic eye." It's not your traditional style, but I like it because it doesn't look like TeleTubbies vomited all over the screen.
 
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Step 6 takes practice. From my experience, some people can learn to do this; some can't. It took me weeks before I could see my first autostereogram (those pictures full of dots). But once I learned how to focus without a reference point, I could see these stereo pairs in 3D.

So you can do both parallel and cross-eyed? I'm jealous/inadequate :p It just feels so stressful trying to do it. Kind of like the first time I tried to put in contacts at like 11 years old. So stressful...
 
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So you can do both parallel and cross-eyed? I'm jealous/inadequate :p It just feels so stressful trying to do it. Kind of like the first time I tried to put in contacts at like 11 years old. So stressful...

when you have a bunch of people next to you who are like, "wow that's so cool!" and I'm sitting there like, "I don't get it," it was motivation for me to spend hours staring at the silly dots when I was alone.

When it popped into view, it was totally by accident. I saw "something" but then lost it. That made me more determined to get it. At least I knew then that my friends weren't just jerking my chain.
 
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I can't do it on a desktop monitor for the life of me. As soon as I tried it on my phone, I was able to achieve both cross-eyed and parallel. I'm not sure if this is the case with anyone else, but with parallel, the 3D effect was more pronounced, but the cross-eyed version was much sharper. <Goldmember> Isn't dat veird? </Goldmember>
 
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I'm not sure if this is the case with anyone else, but with parallel, the 3D effect was more pronounced, but the cross-eyed version was much sharper.

Yep. The cross-eye photos are larger, which means there's more pixels to resolve the image better. Also with cross-eye, you're farther away from the screen, so you are likely far enough away to achieve a "retina" display.

With parallel, you have to be close to the image, and it's already small to begin with. So it will look pixelated. You're close enough to see each pixel more clearly.
 
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Ah, these are fun. I like this one!

The picture is just a tad bit too small to do any serious manipulations with, but for kicks:

fused.jpg


The middle image is the view from "in between" the other two.

Edit: It just came to my attention that crossing your eyes for this series can potentially yield two 3-D images simultaneously. Interesting...
 
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The middle image is the view from "in between" the other two.

That's pretty damn awesome. It's as if I took another pic at the center of my slider.

BTW, this is my setup:

3dsetup.jpg


Note the colored dots on the slider. In this pic, the sliding mount is in the center. It's 1/4" to the yellow dot, which nets a stereo base of 1/2". Each dot beyond yellow is another half-inch, so you'd be adding a full inch per dot to your stereo base. Red dot gives a total of 2.5" stereo base, which approximates the interocular distance (avg distance between adult human eyes)
 
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