Modern Stereo Images

Peter Sinclair is a retired CBC technician with a 20 year interest in photography. Ten years ago Peter began experimenting with stereo techniques, especially the lenticular process which was experiencing a renaissance with cameras like the Nimslo. The 3D effect can be seen without special glasses or apparatus. For the past four years Peter has used computers to extend his stereo imaging to creating 3D images from 2D images. His company, Stereographic Arts specializes in creating stereo versions of the famous classic fine art, vintage stereo, nudes and novelty items in both lenticular and StereoJet formats. Peter printed all the images shown tonight from files or negatives which were created by others. You can find more examples on the Deep Focus Art site that Peter is associated with. The site makes extensive use of Flash so it make take a few seconds to load.

LENTICULAR IMAGES. Traditional Stereo Images consist of a scene photographed from two slightly different points of view (POV). One image is viewed by the right eye and the other by the left. For lenticular images, one or more intermediate images are required between the left and right POV. The print is bonded to a plastic cover with a series of extruded LENTICULAR lenses - 180 per inch. These lenses separate the left and right eye views to create the 3D effect. Each Negative is projected through the lenticular screen to create the print with a slight shift in registration between exposures so a slice of every negative appears in order under each lens. The lenticular images were created initially in the 1940s with a much coarser screen. The "flip" or "tilt" images were used mostly for advertising. Tilting the card resulted in a different image appearing.

In the 1980s the Nimslo camera appeared. This camera had 4 lenses to create four distinct POVs. The prints were prepared by slicing the four images and assembling the strips under a lenticular screen. The screens were still somewhat coarse. The latest lenticular images have very fine screens to avoid distracting the viewer. Special cameras for creating Lenticular images are still being made.

A 12 lens model called a Burdlo is made from three Nimslo camera bodies by David Burder in London, England. Looking like a panorama camera, it actually creates a "tight" portrait oriented image with a very smooth transition from one "image" to the next enhancing the stereo effect.

A 5 lens "twin lens" lenticular camera called the 3D Magic Pro 645 is made in China. It takes 3 shots per roll of 120 film with five separate images created for each shot. The prints are currently processed in China.

STEREOJET IMAGES. In 1980, Edwin Land of Polaroid established a private research lab called the Rowland Institute for Science. One branch of the research program addresses polarizing techniques. This branch created the StereoJet materials consisting of a transparent film substrate and special polarized inkjet inks. This expensive technique allows you to print polarized left and right images in high resolution and perfect registration on either side of the transparent film. The images can be viewed against a light box or projected with an ordinary overhead projector. By adding a reflective backing, the images can be viewed like ordinary prints. In every case, polarizing glasses are necessary for viewing the images. The images can be created with standard two lens stereo cameras or computer generated.

COMPUTER GENERATED 3D. Using a graphics program such as Photoshop, and lots of patience, you can transform a 2D image into two separate 3D POVs to be printed as a StereoJet or traditional stereo image. Each transformation takes about 15 hours of computer time. The operator selects the objects to be shifted back or forward in the 3D frame and after moving the selected piece completes the separation by filling in the missing portions on each POV using nearby portions of the image.

ABOUT THE IMAGES. Click on any image and in a few seconds you will see an enlarged view in a separate window. The pictures were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera. I used the polarized glasses as filters on the camera to separate the StereoJet images into the left eye and right eye images to make the traditional two image stereos on this page. They are set up for parallel viewing. To free view, stare _past_ them and when the third image forms, focus your eyes for close viewing _but_ keep looking to the distance (easy after a bit of practice). The original StereoJet images are excellent. The examples here suffer from light fall off in the over-head projector which darkened the tops, and the need to reduce resolution for faster downloading.

Bob Carter