Take 3D Photos

When you are going to be manipulating images so that they are 3D, there is a particular way of shooting the photos to improve your chances of success. Read this article to learn how.

Steps

1. Choose your subject. Some of your options are still life and shots like pictures of flowers. Keep in mind that wind can make taking good 3D shots extremely difficult. Tiny leaves and narrow vertical objects are often difficult and unrewarding 3D subjects. People are also good subjects because they tend to pop out in 3D photos, but only if they can sit or stand perfectly still.
   • Macro shots are fairly difficult to make 3D. Macro (extremely close) shots of flowers and other objects can be glorious, but they're more difficult to process, because even very small differences between the two shots in distance to the subject will produce significant differences in image size of the subjects, and resizing one image to match another can be challenging.
2. Place the subject in a setting with a lot of angles and depth (not in front of a flat wall), and about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} from the camera. To emphasize the 3D effect, select a scene, where are objects of different distance from the camera. The scene can't change between taking of the two pictures (the left one and the right one). If it changes then the two pictures don't show the same scene and creating of 3D photo is impossible.
3. Take two pictures of the subject. Take one shot, then move the camera over slightly and take another. The general rule of thumb for re-positioning the camera right-to-left (or left-to-right) is 1/30th the distance to your focal point (i.e. for a primary subject 10 feet away, 1/30th of 10 feet is 1/3 of a foot, or 4 inches). Some artists prefer a 1/50 ratio. Of greater importance is to take care to keep the distances from the camera to the focal point and subject of your photos consistent.
   • When you only need to move the camera slightly, you don’t even need to turn your camera to keep it in the center. Put your feet square on to the subject. Put your weight onto your right foot, without lifting your left. Take the first photo. Put your weight onto your left foot without raising your right, and take the second photo.
   • Always take photos in portrait orientation.
   • Using a tripod is extremely helpful, but not really essential. Using both a tripod and slidebar will make processing your images much easier, and your success rate much higher. Even so, it's not always practical to carry a large tripod with you, and small ones are often not suitable for the circumstances of what you're shooting.
   • If you have a natural horizontal reference in your picture (i.e. a waterline or rooftop), you can use it your advantage, especially for lining up two hand-held shots.
   • With a digital camera, it's helpful to scroll back and forth to review the two shots immediately. The best indication of a well shot pair is that when scrolled back and forth you'll notice only a slight rotation of the subject.
   • You can also use two cameras. Try fastening two camera together with some type of separator, like a block of wood or a metal bar.
4. After this, you can edit the images in 3D.

Tips

• If you're using a film camera, be sure to opt to also receive digital images when you have your film processed. Scanning photos for this purpose adds a level of lost quality and consistency.
• Be consistent. Consistency is the key when shooting 3D images. There are always two images to a 3D image, one taken from a "left" perspective, one from a "right" perspective. I always take the right-side shot first, then the left. Some artists do it the other way, first left, then right. It doesn't matter which you choose, but it's important to be consistent, so that based on the assigned file number of the shots, you'll always know which is the left shot and which is the right.

Related Articles

• Make a Twin DSLR 3D Camera
• Make 3D Images Using StereoPhoto Maker
• Make Your Own 3D Glasses
• Draw in 3D
• Create 3D Television
• See Coins in 3D (Without Special Equipment)

Sources and Citations

• 3ddigitalphoto.com - Original source, shared with permission.

See also

• Make 3D Photos
• Make 3−D Videos

What links here

• Make 3D Images in Photoshop