More Lenticular Musings

[P3D <LeRoyDDD@xxxxxxx>]

Grant and Elliott ask questions about lenticular format images...

     Having purchased my literary toolbox at "Turgid and Convoluted  'R' Us",
I'm not surprised my glorious, complete, near-mystical and almost perfect
understanding of the lenticular format did not transfer completely to the
printed posting. :=)
 
"My Nimslo has 30 mm lenses.  How does this affect the two inch depth  of the
3x4 print?"
     The focal *length* of the lenses is not an appreciable factor. The lens
*spacing* of merely 3/4 inch is. The small size of the print forcing the
infinity(or far point) spacing to be only a fraction of an inch is the
other... probably the major... factor.

"Would it help if I were to use four close-up lenses?"
     Nope. If you use *one* closeup lens(plano-convex is most practical)
large enough to cover all lenses you can get more "deepness" in the print.

"This information tends to support the viability of lenticular photography as
being most suitable to tabletop work (if I've read it correctly)."
     Umm... no not really... that pesky problem of getting you to read my
mind using the medium of language. :=)

"The best table top work uses many more than 3 exposures-- the ImageTrack
lenticular rail is designed to make up to 7 exposures to build a photo."
     IMHO, the only advantages to using more than two images in a lenticular
presentation is to allow a "look-around" effect and to give more than one
viewing position.

"Three image standard 3D-Wizard lenticulars lose stereo very quickly as you
look into the background."
     I think that often, in addition to the technical limitations of close
lens separation and small image size, the typical lenticular print is taken
without care given to the stringent compositional needs of this format.

"Thanks for the info, and please set me straight if I have it wrong."
     Well, as above, a little not to my taste, but I don't think wrong.
     My general rules for good lenticulars are (1) Shoot close... due to the
close spacing of the lenses, by twenty feet stereo parallax is much
diminished, by 50 feet it is essentially visually gone; (2) Give more care
and thought to the unique composition needs of the format... objects in front
of the main subject is one of the most important; (3) Print your good images
as large as you can.

"I've been playing with a Pen FT to make tabletop lenticulars, and would like
more control of the process."
     Wow! The closeup technique using one large plano-convex lens suffers
from the lens axes crossing behind the focus point... which can give more
parallax than the system can handle, but it is instantaneous. Someday, I may
use my double exposure modified Nimslo to do closeups with smaller than 3/4
inch lens separations.
     Reel 3-D probably still has the Nimslo book which covers the double
exposure mod and the large lens closeup method.

LeRoy Barco
LeRoyDDD@xxxxxxx



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