Truly 3d

TRULY 3D: Stereoview Photography

What are stereoview photos? To answer that question, let me begin by asking you a couple questions first. Is the earth flat? What about the moon--a photo of the moon, that is? More than likely you're not a member of the Flat Earth Society, but if you answered the second question honestly, then odds are you're an honorary member of the Flat Photo Society. As the Apollo 15 astronaut in the image below would attest: the earth isn't flat, but rather, is spinning like a tiny blue marble through three-dimensional space. However, when looking at this photograph of James B. Irwin on the moon, you might as well be a one-eyed cyclops. Like all typical portrait and landscape photos, it lacks realistic depth and curvature, the image looks essentially the same whether viewed with one eye or two.

David R. Scott photographer, Courtesy of NASA
This shortcoming was overcome however in 1838 when the flat, fledgling world of photography took a giant leap forward due to Sir Charles Wheatstone. In a paper to the Royal Society in England, Wheatstone argued that the key to our ability to see the world in three dimensions is our "parallax vision" in which both eyes (on average spaced 2 1/2 inches apart) each separately views a scene at a slightly different perspective. A stereoview is a double-image drawing or photograph that imitates our parallax vision and works in conjunction with a stereoscope, an optical apparatus that has two slightly magnified eye pieces to aid in focusing each eye--the left eye on the left image and the right eye on the right image. When looking through a modern stereoscope (Wheatstone's prototype perfected by Brewster in 1849) at a double-image stereoview, the two images become one, which magically springs to life with three-dimensional fullness and depth, giving the viewer the uncanny feeling of actually being there, in situ. Such 3d is convincingly genuine, NOT pseudo artificial 3d.*

The depth of a stereoview image, which often contains multiple layers of depth from foreground to background, prompts you to explore the scene via its separate layers and distinct details that traditional single-lens photography cannot capture. Stereo-photography therefore offers a more enriched and participatory viewing experience, including the phenomenon of not just being an outside observer but intimately entering into and becoming a part of the scene. With all these appealing advantages, stereoscopic 3d from its inception became tremendously popular, often touted as a way to see the world without ever needing to leave your house.

During the latter 19th and early 20th century, stereoviews were the rage until another visual medium--the television--was invented and mass produced, replacing stereo imagery as the most popular type of optical, home entertainment. Even today though a form of stereoscopy is still popular and sold in countless stores and gift shops: the View-Master. The View-Master utilizes a round cardboard disc comprised of seven pairs of stereoview images. This disc is rotated in a special viewer in order to progressively view each of the seven stereoviews. There is however a major drawback: size. View-Master three-dimensional pictures are only half the size of the 3d images available at this website. Large 3d images can be seen with a traditional Holmes-style stereoscope, but there's no need to buy such an expensive contraption. Just purchase the fine yet inexpensive 3d handheld viewer sold here to fully immerse yourself in the most wondrous, realistic form of photography ever invented.

*Stereoscopic 3d works by utilizing our "parallax vision" and therefore is based on our "physical" capabilities, but vision also has a "psychological," interpretative component. The ball / checkerboard illusion (see margin at top right) is an excellent case in point. The checkerboard and placement of balls in both illustrations is identical, yet in the lower image, the balls look as if they're floating. This is due to the visual cues elicited by the dark ovals beneath the balls, ovals that we interpret as shadows cast by the balls floating above. The impression of floating also accentuates the background / foreground division of the checkerboard, giving it a flatter, three-dimensional appearance. Moreover, the illusion of depth is evinced in both illustrations by the classic techniques of linear and diminishing perspective. The converging parallel lines of the checkerboard and the diminishing size of the squares in the background relative to the foreground are visual cues the eyes and mind interpret as exhibiting "depth."