3D Photography

The subject of 3D photography seems to be coming up in my life a lot these days.

First, my husband has been interested in the subject for much longer than I have.  He’s one of those people who enjoys creating interesting and useful things with unexpected components.  A few years ago I remember seeing him connect two disposable cameras together with duct tape in order to create a (rather ugly) 3D camera of sorts.  I wasn’t particularly drawn to his contraption, but the concept did intrigue me.

Recently I befriended someone who actually owns a “real” 3D camera, and who also expressed interest in HDR photography.  Although I guess I knew that 3D cameras currently existed, talking to someone who actually owns a “real” one peaked my interest.

Now, I hope to have a 3D camera at some point.  There are currently a gazillion other ways in which my families money needs to spent these days,  but it could happen!

The basic idea behind 3D photography, is to create an image that stimulates both the left and right eye slightly differently, in the same way that we see the world.  Since our eyes are set apart from each-other, they are seeing the same scene slightly differently.  Our brain takes the information going into each eye and then in essence stitches it together.  So, an actual 3D camera has two lenses side by side, rather than one.

Anyway, 3D photography can also be created with a regular digital camera.  I haven’t tried this yet myself, but did find a few scattered tutorials on this in a Google search.  The tutorial I found which seems most promising is from a site called Open Tutorial, in case you are interested in checking it out.

A search for 3D photography on Flickr yielded some interesting results. If you have a pair of 3D glasses then enjoy!