Adding ‘real depth’ to photographs has been an aspiration sought  for almost as long as the photo itself and has resulted in multi-various styles of 'three dimensions', from stereo-photos to photos you can fly through and yes, you can create most of these yourself with the camera you already have. And that's where it all starts with your camera.

As with most photography, the better it is done at the camera stage the better the end result and the less you have to do to achieve it. So first things first: focussing for the most, as against maximum*, sharpness. If your lens is fixed it is out of your hands but will be pretty good any way. If however focussing is adjustable, switch to manual and then focus not on the background but on a point somewhere around a third of the distance from your lens to the distant subject. That way the background will stay in focus AND the things much nearer the camera will be in focus as well. That area in focus is the depth of field. Without getting too involved the smaller the lens aperture the greater that is. The trouble is the duller the weather the larger the aperture must be, so the brighter the day the more dimensional the pics.
*For maximum sharpness, you do not have to use a tripod but it can only help.
[All the afore going will noticeable improve your pictures whether you go 3D or not.]

Another ploy one can occasionally use when setting up photos is to have some bright coloured object(s) in the foreground because they jump out at you immediately give a disconcerting dimensional illusion. But all this is just preparation. None of it is as yet 3D! No, but that is what we are going to look at next.

We see 3D because we have two eyes set sufficiently apart to give us slightly differing views of any object we look at. Ignoring for the moment any contrived effects discussed previously and phenomenon such as perspective which can help create an illusion of depth, the only way we can do like in photography is by starting with two similarly varying views. So if you haven’t got a camera with two lenses (they did actually make such in the past), for still scenes we need to take two shots of the subject from the same position and the same height (I knew that tripod would come in one day) but around 6 to 7cm apart, to simulate the average distance between our eyes. For greater effect or with more distant subjects the separation can be increased. You can do it without, but a simple bracket to slide the camera from one viewing point to the other will make life easier and little more exact.

To ensure the maximum chance of success always take your views in the same order (e.g.) left then right and always name them Subject Left and Subject Right on your PC to avoid a later mixup that would cancel out the 3D effect. The best way of viewing these photos is with a Stereoscope (see below left) designed by one Charles Wheatstone  some twenty years before photography began, but I guess the chances of you having one of those is pretty small even though they were still around in the 1940s. The alternatives are to view them on your monitor or to print them out in the highest quality you can, again in the right order.  Not having a Stereoscope necessitates that the images are about the same size as those here-under and that the main objects in the two pictures are that magic 6 to 7cm apart if the 3D effect is to work with the naked eye.

There are ways two create the 3D effect, in both your nose needs to be central to your two images and around 50cm from them. Then either you stare at the left image with you left eye and the right with your right or you go cross-eyed staring at the left image with your right eye and vice versa -until the two images merge into a third and then focus on that one to see the  depth materialize... It may well help to cut a piece of darkish card say 50cm by 15 to place vertically between you and the centre of the pictures, but do try varying your distance from the images for maximum effect. It may take a little practice but trust me it works.

So what else can we try? Well remember those red and green glasses? We can create a picture made up of the two images we took for the above superimposed with the more effective colours now preferred (i.e.) red & turquoise and without the size limitation. Viewed through similarly coloured specs objects will both jump out and recede more than you can imagine.  It is not that difficult to do in a photo-editing program but it is far easier in a dedicated one, especially if it’s free, like Anaglyph Maker. And you can get the 3D glasses needed for around £1.50 a pair. However if  you have kept a pair in reasonable nick you can see how effective it can be by having a look at the image below right now. The effect is even better when it’s one of your own shots, but better yet, all round images and ones you can fly through.

Placing yourself in the middle of a scene that you can look round, all round that is, to see what’s behind you (particularly useful in thespian circles at this time of year) is another type of dimensionally aware photography. To do it you need a series of overlapping shots taken from a single spot and rotating say 30° between each, and two small FREE programs. The first AutoStitch combines our photos into a panorama without any joins The second will convert the panorama into a scrollable scene -anything up to 360° at which point it can become continuous! Below is an extreme example of AutoStitch can do with 57 pictures. Produce one pretty impressive panorama. You don’t of course need anything like that number but it does show what is possible.

BEFORE

AFTER

Having a seamless panorama that starts where it finishes we can now  -s-u-r-r-o-u-n-d- -o-u-r-s-e-l-v-e-s-  in it. We can be at the centre of things and make like we are turning full circle, more or less, depending only on how complete the panorama is. (Actually it will be our picture that scrolls round us, but the effect is the same. To do this we need the second program Wpanorama (click the link to download it for free!).
It comprises two modules, the basic program and a screen saver version sharing similar features like  continuous scrolling for 360° photos and back and forth for anything less (horizontally or vertically and  automatically or by mouse). And there is the ability to superimpose captions, add background music should you so wish, and to pin point a panorama’s location on a Google map.  It even supports scrolling an image across several screens and more -but I don’t want to spoil it all for you. Dialogue boxes are user friendly and HELP is extensive. 

By now you just might think the two parts to this a bit overwhelming so let me give a walk through. Basically the procedure is to link a number of photos into a joint-less panorama with AutoStitch and then to turn the resulting image into a slow panning movie of anything up to 360° with Wpanorama like this:

Run AutoStitch, click Edit then Options set the Output Scale (probably to 100%) and any other settings to suit and click OK. Next under File click Open and select your pictures, go to Stitch and Start. A minute or two later you will have your panorama. Now run Wpanorama and load your newly stitched image in to it. Click Capture, Make movie and then the TICK. The video -your rotating scene -is saved to the WPanorama folder in My Documents.  There are other possible variations along the way but basically, it is also as straightforward as that. If you are proud of your results you can up load them to their web site where you will find 100s of others you can download to fire and inspire you.

Then there are, it is said, photos you can fly through?
Yes, I know, I thought the same thing when I first heard the claim:

“Photosynth turns your flat 2D images into a three dimensional photographic collection in cinematic quality worthy of a movie. It is a totally immersive 3D experience, watch in awe as you zoom in and out of a photo or fly through a scene to see pictures from every angle.”

Microsoft are now so confident of their acquisition Photosynth that they will even let you play with it yourself; with your photos; and then let you show them off to others on their site. How does it do it? Well it works out the spacial relationship between any number of photos, from 10s to many 100s, taken from different positions and angles, and it then creates a 3D view with them that you can ‘move around in’!. There are lots of examples on the Photosynth site. It chooses the best pictures for the position you are looking from and it does it as fast as your PC will allow. 

If you then get the urge to create your own, be warned, the free down-loadable Photosynth generator can take  H-O-U-R-S to process just a few hundred shots. Once  your photos are uploaded, the match will be automatically given a value. The ideal is 100%. Don’t be surprised if your initial efforts rate only 10%-20%. I think it will take an awful lot of photos taken from just the right positions to reach anything approaching that ideal. The problem is that to create the scene, as well as the subject shots, an awful lot of boring fill-in shots are needed. Despite this, for those really interested it’s  fun. Go to the site and see. Have a go. There’s a down-loadable 10 page guide with Quick Tips on taking and viewing your photosynth, together with the sort of detail anybody wishing to take the matter more seriously will need. To be honest, for my part, rather than awe struck, allowing for all the time and effort, I have so far been under-whelmed. I think I prefer the other 3D techniques we have covered. Now is your chance to prove me wrong.

So after 3D what next? Well, I keep getting queries about what can be done with old black and white and colour negatives and slides. The answer is, if you’ve got the kit, the know-how and the time, lots. I guess I better tell just what’s involved in getting good results and what limitations there are whether it is for print or screen. And after that we’ll go into your ancestors colourful past...

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