Taking 3-D Pictures – Part 1

Here’s my home made rig for taking 3-D photos with the Nikon P-300. I countersunk and glued a ¼” hex nut into the bottom of an 8” x 3” piece of ¼” plywood, and screwed an 8” long piece of wooden yardstick to the top, making a slide base for the 4” wide camera. The scale on the yardstick allows me to easily move the camera exactly 65mm (2 ½”) between the first and second shot.

This also keeps the camera on the same horizontal plane which is a cardinal rule of creating stereo pairs. Since the camera is not attached in any way don’t go off and leave it perched on the slide like this or it will likely end up on the ground – possibly in more than one piece!

Taking stereo pairs (pictures) this way is actually quite simple. Just take a photo. Move the camera over 65mm (2 ½”), and then take another shot. 

Some photographers prefer the “Cha-Cha” method which dispenses with the slide and requires that the photographer simply hold the camera in the usual method, take the first shot, take a baby step to the side (presumably 65mm) and take the second shot. This method would seem to involve a higher risk of failure for obvious reasons.

In any case whether the “Cha-Cha” method is used (assuming successfully) or the slide method, there’s one real drawback to doing it this way. Only subjects that don’t move in between shots can be photographed in this manner. That generally rules out cats, dogs, people, cars (unless they’re parked), trees& flowers (unless there is no wind at all), and just about all the other things we most like to photograph. Statues, monuments, buildings, mountains etc. are all fine subjects of course.

To shoot stereo pictures of moving subjects requires that both the left and right image be recorded at the same exact time. That means either a stereo camera, single camera with a splitter/lens installed, or two cameras rigged to actuate the shutters simultaneously.  More on this in a later post!