Re: what's best for 3D portraits?

[P3D Tom Martin <tlmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Don Radovich writes:

>I'm going to very soon have an opportunity to do some stereo portraits
>and headshots.  Now, I know that if you get too close with a Realist
>you're gonna get an unacceptable amount of facial distortion.  One
>solution, I suppose, is to take the photos from a moderate distance (5-6
>feet?) and them make enlarged and cropped copies of the slides.  Has
>anyone attempted portraits with a Techo-Nimslo and its 30" and/or 12"
>close-up attachments.  What were the results?  Any other advice?

George Themelis responds:

>I recently got a lovely portrait of my daughter (head and
>a bit of soulders) with twin SLRs bottom-to-bottom and
>135 lenses.  Paul Milligan suggests 80 to 100 mm lenses.
>Twin SLRs are expensive and bulky but pay in the long run
>since they allow you to capture unique situations, from
>portraits to action hyperestereos.

Don, what George stared to explain in his reply posting is that you want
to use telephoto or longer focal length lens when shooting portraits.
Shorter focal length lenses, like those used for close-ups, cause nearer
objects to appear larger than objects further away.

In contrast, a longer focal length lens will make near and distant
objects appear more similar in size. This also removes the visual clue
that things are further apart because of there relative sizes. This is
good for portraits because body features will appear more natural. For
3D photography this is not so good because it will tend to flatten the
image. For this reason, most stereo cameras have slightly wider angle
lenses to accentuate the size differences and add to the feeling of
depth.

Most 2D portrait photographers will use a lens that is about 50% longer
in focal length than what would be considered normal for their film
format. For 35mm film, a focal length of 75mm - 80mm works fine without
causing too much flatting of the image. For stereo portraits, I
personally have used the standard lenses on my realist at 4 feet, and
then used a close-up mask to adjust for the window which worked just
fine. It just depends on your subject and how they are positioned.

Hope this helps.

Busier than ever, Tom Martin


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