Digital Cameras and 3D

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been playing with a Quick Take 150 digital camera for a couple days.
I've had fun and feel that digital cameras are a great way for teaching 3D
photography. Depending on your camera, the resolution for image viewing is
at least satisfactory. The digital process from taking the image to viewing
it on a screen is so short and sweet that the closely timed feedback from
shooting session works as an excellent teaching medium. You can freely
explore toe-in, toe-out, window placement, and all kinds of other effects
and then repeat the same experiments a short time later. Keep the images you
like and throw out the ones that didn't work. Very quickly a photographer
can develop or sharpen skills at using the camera for 3D work. Really fun no
matter what your *favorite* camera is.

The biggest problem I noticed was that while using a single camera and
weight shift technique I was hampered by the length of time it took for the
flash charge to build up. I'm used to aligning my views through the
viewfinder as I transfer my weight or take a few steps. The solution was to
size up the view from the full range of movement I intended and take the
first shot. Hold absolutely still on that position until the green light
came on. Then I was free to snap as soon as I felt the right distance had
been traveled and alignment was correct. This was much easier than moving
and trying to hold the *new* position while waiting for the green light. A
little practice at observing identity points in a scene helps to maintain
alignment.

Digital photography can eat batteries like ordinary cameras eat film.
Interesting tradeoff! Actually I'm getting more mileage from the second set
of batteries by carefully shutting the camera off as soon as I'm finished
shooting a pair. I especially make sure to disconnect it from the computer
as soon as the image transfer takes place. There is a plug-in power pack
available which I don't have, but would be almost essential for economic usage.

This camera has a close up lens attachment but everything I tried with it on
the camera resulted in excessively blurred images. A camera equipped with
better lenses would not have such a problem.

Flash is interesting. Since it's built in to the camera it moves as you
shift your weight to the new position. Since it's to the side of the lens,
normal shots have shadows extending off to the right. Since they move
identically with the lens for each shot, the shadows attach themselves to
the central depth of each object as if painted in mid air or like a fin on
the object. I accidentally discovered an interesting effect that this makes
possible but I won't say more on that until I do some more experiments and
get some good samples to show.

A solution for flash is to use the camera on it's side (portrait framing) so
that the flash is above the lens. Then the shadows are cast behind the usual
typical objects and aren't as noticable that way.

The ideal teaching tool for 3D photography would include a good operational
slide bar and two digital cameras attached to it. That way, even if you use
manual triggering, at least you aren't waiting for the flash to recharge
inbetween times. Some method of further diffusing the flash is useful for
indoor work. If you are working with several persons, make sure each has
their own rig. If you are taking the images back to the *lab* to view and
discuss, the 16 frames of hi-res storage fills up fast! (different systems
will have different numbers)

I got some great stereo shots and had a lot of fun. As you can imagine some
of the images will be showing up soon on my web pages. Stay tuned. 

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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