# Holy crap, it worked. (Stereo photo) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 20, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236 "2004-10-20T16:33:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/1 "2004-10-20T16:33:03Z")
I was strolling through the park yesterday with camera in hand, and decided to try something I’d seen on the internet a few times: [Stereo photography.](http://www.kottke.org/03/01/fun-with-stereographic-photography) Snap a picture, verrrry carefully shift the camera to the right about an inch or so, and snap a second. (There are also cameras made with two shutters just for this kind of photography, but this method works all right for still scenes.) It gives you a pair of photos that are nearly identical, but with about an eye-width’s change in perspective. If you lay the photos side by side, and cross your eyes so that the two images overlap, you see a 3d image. I shot 3 or 4 sets of photos like this, brought them home, dropped them into Photoshop to align them, and crossed my eyes (and my fingers.) [Holy crap, it worked.](http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/evilmeteors/detail?.dir=/b947&.dnm=7f72.jpg) What I do to see this one as 3D is, I cross my eyes to make the gray tree toward the center of the picture overlap as close as possible, and suddenly the picture will “pop” and be easier to focus. I’m disappointed that Yahoo photos shrank it down so small. When I have a moment I’ll fix up a couple more photos and set up a real web page with larger versions. I just thought I’d share this one as-is, because it’s still pretty darned cool! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/2 "2004-10-20T16:51:43Z")
I hate things like this. They make me feel like I’m missing out on stuff. I’ve never really “got” the point of 3-D pictures. Stuff on TV or in photos looks pretty much the same as the real world, only it doesn’t move and it’s all in focus. Hmm… ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/3 "2004-10-20T16:54:44Z")
I’ve considered picking up a stereoscope at an antique shop and collecting/making my own cards for it. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/4 "2004-10-20T17:01:27Z")
I used to use these to trace elevations with… two aerial shots and a stereoscope. It’s kinda like Elaine Benice’s boss and that picture; nothing, nothing, nothing, then Pow! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/5 "2004-10-20T17:05:08Z")
Bet you didn’t know your keyboard worked as a Magic Eye, did ya? Try it. Look down, cross eyes, repeat until it pops into a weird 3-D deal. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/6 "2004-10-20T17:09:43Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > I used to use these to trace elevations with… two aerial shots and a stereoscope. It’s kinda like Elaine Benice’s boss and that picture; nothing, nothing, nothing, then Pow! Do you mean plotting contour lines? I’ve always wondered how that was done - could you elaborate please? I asked about it on the boards before but never got a satisfactory answer! From what I gather, you use some kind of projected dot and move it over the surface, right? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/7 "2004-10-20T17:12:16Z")
It’s been a long time but if I remember correctly it follows the precept of like elevations being in focus. ---
**Author:** ![Time\_Like\_Tears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@Time\_Like\_Tears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Time_Like_Tears)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/8 "2004-10-20T18:27:47Z")
I have never been able to cross my eyes. I even tried bring my finger closer and closer to my face to see if I could make it stick, but the instant I tried to see the pictures, they straightened out again. ☹ I miss out. ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/9 "2004-10-20T19:00:51Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > It’s been a long time but if I remember correctly it follows the precept of like elevations being in focus. I think that’s right. Been a long time, but I used to use it to measure tree height from aerial photos. There was a little gizmo that attached to the viewer that projected a floating dot over the picture. You read the dial when the dot appeared to float next to the top of the tree, then the ground, and you figured out the height from the readings. And when the answer revealed the tree was 87,000 feet high, you just took a guess at a reasonable tree height, and wrote that down instead 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aragowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/da6949/32.png) [@Aragowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aragowyn)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/10 "2004-10-20T19:34:21Z")
I saw your 3D forest! Kewl! It was harder than seeing 3D Lisa & Chief Wiggums, maybe because my monitor’s darker than normal. If you don’t want to set up a website, there are some free image hosting sites around that don’t shrink your pics. [ImageShack](http://imageshack.us) is one, but each pic has to be less than 1 MB. Gonna try my own stereophotography when I get home now. Learn something new everyday! I don’t get the Magic Eye with the keyboard. Is it basically seeing the letters labeling the keys are alternating (i.e, D alternating with J, F with K, G with L and H with ; )? ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/11 "2004-10-20T19:39:30Z")
Ok. [Here’s](http://www.geocities.com/evilmeteors/) a quick page with 3 stereo photos (sorry about the Geocities ad. It’s the free webspace I get with my Yahoo email.) I hope some other people can view these, because I find them fascinating and I thought they’d be interesting enough to share. My father couldn’t get them to work for him either though. The best advice I can give is, don’t put your face right up to the monitor. The closer you are, the more you have to strain to cross your eyes enough to make the images overlap. If you’re a couple of feet away, it’s easier. ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/12 "2004-10-20T19:51:48Z")
Didn’t your mother ever tell you that if you do that, your eyes might stay that way!! :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/13 "2004-10-20T20:08:57Z")
I’ve tried doing this, too, and I agree that it’s really cool, at least when it works. I can’t see these things crossing my eyes, though; I have to do it the other way (“diverging”?), that is, swapping the left and right pictures from how you have them. I tried to do a really cool one of the Cincinnati skyline recently, but the only things in the scene that ended up looking 3D were two bridges. I’ll have to try that one again sometime. Your 3D forests are awesome, though! I also found some web page somewhere that gave fairly simple instructions on how to turn these into pictures that can be viewed with those red-blue 3D glasses, which I have done a few times with success. If anyone’s got the 3D glasses, I have an example [here](http://www.pbase.com/image/35304263.jpg). (If you are wondering about the ransom note in the picture, it is one a friend and I placed on our math teacher’s desk in 9th grade. It’s for a kidnapped pen.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/14 "2004-10-20T22:44:06Z")
I’ve been doing this for years. On vacation, I always take 3D shots of interesting things. I’ve got Newgrange in Ireland and the Lincoln Memorial n Washington D.C. in stereo. A bit of advice – don’t just go for a measly inch or two between shots. Be bold and move it a w feet! Especialy f you’re shooting large object that’s some distance way, putting more space between shots will exaggerate the parallax and give you impressive 3D effects – more than you see with your eyes, because it’s as if your eyes are several feet apart. Things that look flat in real life acquire tangible depth. ---
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/15 "2004-10-21T02:03:37Z")
Dear og! You are evil to tipsy people! 😛 My brother used to do this stuff on Mario Paint. He’s always been good at doing creative things like that. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/16 "2004-10-21T02:32:16Z")
Just out of curiosity, do you have to take two seperate photos, or would a double exposure work? ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/17 "2004-10-21T02:51:50Z")
I wish I could see the effect you’re talking about. It sounds like it would be so fascinating, but I’ve never been able to see 3D in photos. I lost a credit in high school and received a failing grade in Geography because I was unable to discern the stereoscopic effect of topographical maps with the special glasses (or any other way). I can’t find the hidden pictures in those multicolored posters, either. Actually, the first time I saw 3D that seemed ‘real’ was in the Terminator exhibit at EPCOT in Orlando. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/18 "2004-10-21T05:06:26Z")
> [@PigBoy](#): > > I tried to do a really cool one of the Cincinnati skyline recently, but the only things in the scene that ended up looking 3D were two bridges. I’ll have to try that one again sometime. As you cross the I-75 bridge across the Ohio River, if you look up at the very top of the hill on the Kentucky side, there are (or perhaps were, now) two little 1950’s vintage houses with a flagpole between them. My great uncle lived in one of them for nearly 50 years. He, his wife, and his in-laws next door had THE BEST view of the Cincy skyline that exists, no exaggeration. We have a number of photos, but no 3D ones, unfortunately. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > A bit of advice – don’t just go for a measly inch or two between shots. Be bold and move it a w feet! Especialy f you’re shooting large object that’s some distance way, putting more space between shots will exaggerate the parallax and give you impressive 3D effects – more than you see with your eyes, because it’s as if your eyes are several feet apart. Things that look flat in real life acquire tangible depth. I will have to try this - though in the middle of the woods, with some of the trees just a few feet away, I was afraid too much distance between photos would make them too disparate to overlap effectively. But you’re absolutely right - for big landmarks, the effect would be striking. I’d love to see some of your shots. > [@asterion](#): > > Just out of curiosity, do you have to take two seperate photos, or would a double exposure work? These needed to be two separate photos. I don’t know if there’s a way to separate two images from a double exposure - how would you determine for sure which parts of the image belonged to which exposure? Thanks to all who’ve replied here, and an apology to those who can’t work them out - I wasn’t trying to tease. I hope you can at least enjoy the photos as they are; it’s durned pretty around here right now, the fall color should peak in a few days… ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/19 "2004-10-21T06:32:42Z")
I keep trying to cross my eyes to look at the photo but apparently have forgotten how to since I was a kid. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236/20 "2004-10-21T15:56:57Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I keep trying to cross my eyes to look at the photo but apparently have forgotten how to since I was a kid. Weird. Try defocusing the image by focusing on a closer object like your finger then trying to cross the images on the screen. Works for me on stereo images and magic eye pictures. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crap-it-worked-stereo-photo/270236.md?page=2)