Stereo Montages (long)

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It has been a while since we discussed photography & techniques so I would 
like to give a few details about my stereo montages.

I have been experimenting with double exposures and sandwiching images on
and off but James Paradise's presentation (1997 PSA convention St. Charles
IL - see earlier report) on "montages" got me thinking about getting
serious with STEREO MONTAGES.

A few weeks ago I decided to shoot pictures of the moon, thinking that a
nice big moon could improve a lot of boring pictures.  I mentioned using a
400 mm lens.  WOW!  Expensive piece of equipment!  Well, I don't have such
lens.  But I do have a common 80-210 zoom and a cheap no-brand 2X extender.
So I used the zoom in 210 with the extender to get 420 mm :-)  Oh, yes!  I
also have a tripod!  That's important.  You might ask, what kind of
resolution do I expect from a zoom lens and a cheap extender?  Basically, I
don't expect anything!  All I want is the outline of an overexposed moon. 
It's a photographic prop. In the future I will experiment with even bigger
moons (another 2x extender?), suns, and other interesting objects and
patterns.

I was watching the moon rising slowly in the east, day after day, and was
waiting for a clear morning (this is Cleveland, remember?) to photograph
it.  One Saturday I got out with my camera on tripod and shot one roll (all
pairs of identical pictures, bracketing exposures and compositions -
basically the location of the moon in the picture)  I tried to overexpose,
but only one pair was sufficiently overexposed for montage work.  So I
wasted one roll for one useful pair and some experience.

Here is how I go about making a montage:

First I mount and align each image in a thin Albion mount.  The Statue of
Liberty was placed close to the window (of a 5p mount) while the moon was
pushed back as expected (in a 7p mount for more freedom).  How much back? 
Sorry, I did not measure anything.  The moon should appear behind the statue
but not far enough to have excessive deviation or ghosting when projected. 
It does not have to have maximum deviation.  Better be conservative.

Once I have each picture mounted and aligned on thin Albion mounts, I
simply slide one over the other while freeviewing the result over a
fluorescent light.  When I am happy with the composition I tape the two
mounts together, trim the edges to have the image centered and of standard
length.  By partially overlaying the mounts I cropped the image vertically
because the tall statue looks better in "portrait" than square or
"landscape" format.  When done, I put the taped mounts in glass and EMDE
binder.  Done!

When you "sandwich" images not taken with such application in mind, the
result is usually an underexposed picture.  In the past I copied the
combined image to improve exposure and correct the color balance.  James
Paradise said that it is better to plan in advance and overexpose the
shots.  He demonstraed how he is shooting patterns and mentally try to
match new pictures/patterns to old ones.  He is happy when he gets the
boring uniformly clouded white skies because he knows these are the best 
for montages!

Doing these montages is obviously more difficult (more exciting too!) 
in 3d than 2d.  Some cropping might be required.  This is easy with thin 
aluminum mounts and Jon Golden can tell you all about doing this
with RBT mounts too!

One thing I learn from this experiment is not to throw away any boring
image (I could have thrown away the less than interesting Statue of 
Liberty shots)  Throw away the technically bad and keep the boring
ones for possible future use.  Also, always keep an eye open for textures, 
and objects to use in montages and unique ideas.  Many times these do
not even have to be in 3d.

I plan to write an article in Dalia's magazine "Inside 3-D" and show the
results that prove that I actually do take the pictures and create the 
images I am talking about!!!

My procedure is "analog" and anyone with patience and practice can do 
with equipment they already own.  Larry Berlin has mentioned that he
specializes in 3d textures and will hopefully tell us how we can use
computer equipment that some people already own (others dream about
them) to make this job considerably easier.

George Themelis


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