Re: Orthostereoscopy

[P3D <PTWW@xxxxxxx>]

John B jumps on the Grand Canyon-bashing bandwagon with:

>Hyper (stereobase > normal human eye spacing) is the only way to see
>the Grand Canyon in true 3D.

"True 3D???"  What does that mean? Is that in the P3D technical
glossary?  ;)  ;)

What is with this picking on the Grand Canyon?  I defy anyone to view
my Realist slides of the Grand Canyon and assert they do not have depth
--DrT's wife and the stereo-impaired excluded ;).  For those unfamiliar
with it, I would like to point out that although it is about ten miles
between the North Rim and the South Rim of the GC, it is not merely a
straight ledge on one side, a bunch of far away stuff on the other side
of a straight ledge 10 miles away, and a flat canyon floor in between.
When you take stereo pictures at the GC, it is quite easy to compose
your scene with objects such as people, plants, and rock formations at
various distances along the z-axis while also including the far away
opposite rim.  Normal stereo pictures can also capture quite interesting
depth information in stepped erosion formations on the near side.

When you view the GC in person, the most compelling feature of it is
the magnitude.  It is impossible to appreciate how big (Grand!) it is
from a flattie or, IMO, an extreme hyper.  That 10 miles of airspace
between you and the far rim is very important to the emotional impact
of the GC, and shrinking it down so you can resolve depth in canyon
walls far, far away creates an effect that, while interesting, is so
different from the way that we perceive it in person, that calling it
the only "True 3D" representation of the GC makes no sense to me.

If "stereobase > normal human eye spacing is the only way to see the
Grand Canyon in true 3D" wouldn't it follow that those 3.5 million+
annual visitors would be equally impressed by a 65 mile long painted
mural?  I guess that's one answer to the problem of air pollution
destroying the view at the GC.

Paul Talbot, your virtual Grand Canyon tour guide


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