Get
into 3D Photography!
by
Philip Steinman
May 11, 2004 edit
I discovered 3D
photography by seeing a 3D polarized projected 35mm slide show at the Southern
California Stereo Club in the summer of 1998. They handed out polarized glasses (not those silly red and
green anaglyph glasses) and the 3D photography was just so beautiful that I
joined SCSC. It was there that I
discovered that the stereo slide was the ultimate still visual
medium. The shows are open to the public and I encourage others to
attend the monthly slide shows every 3rd Thursday of the month at 7:30pm at the
Wilshire United Methodist Church, 711 South Plymouth Blvd., just off Wilshire
near Crenshaw, west of downtown Los Angeles and south of Hollywood.
Come and watch high quality 35mm stereo slides projected, it's
breathtaking!, and talk to some true stereo photography buffs.
The
SCSC website is at www.la3dclub.com
To start taking
your own 3D pictures and enjoying them I recommend getting a classic 3D film
camera! For 3D photography you need
a picture for your left eye and one for your right eye. Notice that each eye sees slightly differently,
combined they give you stereovision depth in three spatial dimensions—width,
height and depth. This added
perception of the depth dimension makes stereo vision so rich and special.
To obtain a stereo image you could use a simple 35mm point & shoot by
taking a left image shot, then moving the camera over horizontally almost 2
inches and taking a right image shot. You
just have to hold real still, keep the camera on the same horizontal plane, and
don't shoot any moving subjects! But
with a 3D camera you get 2 lens and 2 shutters that fire together, and you can
photograph movement and anything else in stereo!
So what do I recommend? I
recommend buying into the Realist format of 3D photography.
This format uses standard 35mm film and each image is 5 perforations wide
(24x23mm). So with each stereo pair a
Realist format camera gives you two 5 perf film images, as opposed to a single 8
perf film chip (24x36mm) in the
traditional 35mm SLR camera. The
Realist yields up to 29 stereo pairs on a 36 exposure roll of film!
This is by far the most popular and widely supported form of 3D
photography today, and has been since it took off in the 1950s.
It is the most highly recommended format to start out with.
These cameras include the Realist, Realist 45, Kodak Stereo, Revere or
it’s pricier cousin the Wollensak with F2.7 lenses, Iloca Rapid, TDC Vivid,
TDC Stereo Colorist, Stereo Graphic, and Kindar.
All these cameras, the Realist being the most common, are readily
available on ebay in the stereo
camera category
Go
out and shoot your first stereo images
with a budget of little more than $100 all you need is this..
1) A vintage
Realist format stereo camera with high quality standard F3.5 lenses.
2) Berezin Stereo’s
popular Radex 3D Viewer, item #360. This
Realist steal the light plastic viewer is only $3.20
3) A standard roll
of 35mm slide film to start shooting
your 1st roll of 3D! Prices start
at $3.09 a roll for Fujichrome Sensia RA 100 at Adorama,
B&H
Photo, and Canoga
Camera. Two popular choices are
Fujichrome
Provia RDP III 100F ($3.99/roll) and Fujichrome
Velvia 50 ($4.29/roll).
4) For simplicity,
you can mail order your exposed film roll for processing and specify Stereo
Mounting to:
a)
Dennis Petti of the Ohio Stereo Photo Society offers his
process & mounting service for only $20.
email dapbay@yahoo.com phone
440-899-0486 2051 Columbia Rd.,
Westlake, OH 44145
b)
Rocky Mountain Film
Lab (303) 364-6444 for
$32.50
5) I prefer to
mount my own slides. It’s easy to
cut film into L and R pairs and slip the individual film “chips” (ie L shot
or R shot) into a stereo mount. If
you want to mount your own slides, then you can obtain E6 standard slide film
processing at many locals labs. In
Los Angeles A&I does the most volume and they charge $8.
Inform them that you want your roll processed normal, left uncut, and
sleeved. You will then cut the roll
yourself into L and R film chip pairs and place them into mounts.
A&I
also offers E6 Mailers for only $6 each (minimum order of 5).
6) If you need to
buy stereo mounts, I recommend Berezin
Stereo’s Slip-In Stereo Mounts, item #256, 76 mounts for $15.
You may also want to get his Light Box and a Slide Cutter (better than
scissors). Alternatively you can
buy the mounts from Paul Talbot at Rocky
Mountain Memories in Texas. He
has an excellent Illustrated
Slide Mounting Guide on his website which will guide you through mounting
your first roll.
After you shoot your first roll of film, process and mount it, share your
favorite stereo images with us at an SCSC meeting.
You will find many stereo aficionados ready to help you with any
questions you may have. When you
join the stereo club, SCSC members are encouraged to share their 3 favorite/best
stereo images in our slide show exhibition-competitions, held five times
annually. We have a special category for beginners, so try it!
If you still haven’t bought a stereo camera, just go out and shoot a
roll of 35mm slide film with your current film camera.
Have a look at JRS Design’s Stereo
Short Course on shooting stereo cha-cha with one camera.
If you shoot slide film with your current 35mm camera, have the lab both
process and mount your film, and bring your results to the Stereo
Club of Southern California. Any E6
processing film lab can mount 35mm slide film shot with a standard SLR camera,
it’s the stereo camera user that needs special mounting. If you're not
in Southern California, the National
Stereoscopic Association has a listing of 3-D
Clubs Worldwide. Find one near you.
Places
to Buy 3D Equipment
1) ebay in the stereo camera category, also try the search word REALIST
2) SCSC’s Annual
October Auction of stereo goods in Los Angeles always includes stereo
cameras, viewers, and a whole lot more.
3) America’s
largest monthly camera show: The Buena Park Camera Expo is the 3rd Sunday
each month at 7530 Orangethorpe Ave., Buena Park, where you'll find 20-100+
stereo cameras. See http://www.cameraexpo.com/
4) Samy's Cameras used/vintage camera section in LA's largest camera store on 431 S. Fairfax Ave (South of 3rd St.) 323-938-2420.
After
you have shot your first roll of stereo images, you can move on to
Understanding and
Appreciating 3D Further:
1) Browse 3D
websites: you can read more about
The Realist Stereo Camera from Ray Moxom http://www.oz3d.info/sscc/library/realistcamera/realist.htm
and especially, Dr. T’s, http://home.att.net/~drt-3d/toys/realist/
with simple steps for loading film in your realist and a picture taking
routine.
Paul Talbot's Illustrated Guide to Stereo
Slide Mounting at http://www.rmm3d.com/3d.encyclopedia/mounting/mounting.html
Rocky Mountain Memories 3D Encyclopedia
http://www.rmm3d.com/3d.encyclopedia/index.html
Dan Shelley's 3D links serve as a springboard http://www.dddesign.com/3dbydan/3dlinks/default.htm
DrT's review of the Red
Button Realist Viewer http://home.att.net/~drt-3d/toys/RedButton/index.htm
DrT's Free Stereoscopic
Information http://info3d.home.att.net/
2) Read 3D Books:
There are some terrific books on 3D. DrT's
book for the Stereo
Realist Camera $35 is a favorite. This
is a new (c. 1999) and quintessential book for the Realist Camera.
If you are the studious type, you might want to buy this book first to
read about all your options with the Realist camera, and get a head start on how
to pick out a good one! Over 230
pictures in 125 pages, covering: How to Use the Realist, Different Realist
Models, Realist Accessories and Techniques, How to Repair the Realist, Unique
Realist Modifications Plus... Basic Photographic Concepts, Requirements for
Stereo Photography Mounting, Viewing, Projection Practical Guidelines &
Advanced Stereo Techniques. See his
website at http://home.att.net/~drt-3d/catalog/index.htm
He's always selling something on ebay as drt3d-com.
3) Buy a high quality 3D viewer; one
with achromatic glass lenses, for about $100. The vintage Realist ST-61
Red Button Viewer, Kodak’s Kodaslide II, Revere, TDC Deluxe and Brumberger, or the new Lifelike viewer at http://www.berezin.com/3d/viewers.htm
4) Light
Meter. Classic stereo cameras are
all manually operated with no built in light meter, so you must determine the
proper aperture and shutter speed. You
can use your 35mm SLR camera's meter to give you a reading and then apply the
settings to your manual stereo camera. Or,
without any metering, you can apply the basic Sunny 16 rule of thumb: F16
aperature with shutter speed at 1/ASA of film.
So with 100 ASA film you can use your camera as a “point and shoot”
for most subjects on a sunny day by dialing in f/16, 1/100, focus set at 15ft
7ft to infinity should be in focus.
Adjust exposure to
available light:
Shutter f-stop
Rating Light
Conditions
1/100 f22 +1
Extremely bright w/ sand or snow
1/100 f16 0
Sunny and Bright, distinct shadows
1/100 f11 -1
Weak sun, soft shadows, side light
1/100 f8 -2
Cloudy bright, no shadows
1/50 f8 -3
Heavy overcast, bright shade
1/50
f5.6 -4
Dark shade
1/25 f3.5 -7
Bright interiors; Max exp. handheld
If you want to buy a light meter especially for your vintage stereo camera, my
favorite is the new retro Voigtlander
VC Meter There is also the vintage Leica
MC Meter. These small meters fit on top of your camera and work great.
5) Precision Mounting. As you view your stereo slides, you may notice that some are comfortably viewed and a few others cause eye strain. Precision Mounting can help you precisely place the film chips in the stereo mount for optimum viewing. This is essential for stereo slides that are to be projected, as any errors in mounting will be much more noticeable during projection. My favorite guide for mounting is the Alignment Gauge Set for Mounting 3-D Slides available as item #267, for $7 from Berezin Stereo. If you are ready to precision mount your top 3 slides for stereo projection in our local exhibition/ competitions, I recommend getting RBT Mounts, as these plastic mounts have a channel tab system that makes adjusting the stereo window effect easy, among other things. Because the RBT Mounts are more expensive at 70 cents each than the 20 cent cardboard mounts, I use them exclusively for my better images. You can bring 3 of your favorite RBT Mounted slides to SCSC's stereo slide competition/exhibitions held every September, November, January, March, and May. See the Competition Rules web page for details.
