P3D Re: Math, Base, Truth, the whole deal.

[Bruce Springsteen <bsspringsteen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Let me ask another *rhetorical* (not requiring literal response)
question. When did the math vs intuition discussion become polarized
and unpleasant? I missed it, and have been laboring to reconcile the
false dichotomy in my posts.  It is as fallacious to say that someone
has over-analyzed the issue as it is to say they have over-intuited an
issue.  Analysis and intuition are different skills which work in
concert, or separately, depending on situational demands and personal
style.  Not a cause for rivalry or irritation.  But don't take my word
for it:

"The discord [over proper separation of views for a good stereobase],
however, is only apparent; a stereograph is an artistic work, in which
judgement and taste ought to have precedence over calculation; but the
conditions of the desired relief once determined upon, it is no longer
possible to hesitate over the separation of lenses."
     -F. Drouin, "The Stereoscope and Stereoscopic Photography"
      London, 1894.  (available in reprint from Reel-3D) 

In other words, sometimes you need the math, sometimes you don't.  Our
great-grandparents are talking to us.  Are we listening?

Andrea and I are off-list friends, so I use this next example without
fear of offending.

If I am taking a picture of a pretty green praying mantis baby on a
flower, I can use no math, or the simplest possible rule of thumb,
take several shots, and get a lovely pair out of the effort which is
stereoscopically successful.  (Assuming I have the taste and other
photographic skill that Andrea has - a big assumption!)

However if I am vain and wish, for example, to make a double-exposure
to include myself standing next to said bug on his flower, looking him
directly in the eye and horrified at perhaps becoming lunch - I will
have more control over the composition, therefore improving my chances
of realizing my artistic idea with a convincing perspective, if I have
a good grounding in the geometry of parallax and scale that the recent
discussion has been about.  In fact my chances of succeeding without
the math are pretty slim.  

Now you may accuse me of being a sensationalistic artist, lacking in
good taste and decorum - but I think you cannot say my efforts are
less creative or over-analytical because I am using some difficult
math towards a very precisely visualized image.  The proof, as we all
know, is not in the pudding recipe OR the lack of one, but in the
eating.  Or to revive the wild-west analogies (I know you all hoped I
was off that) - the cowboys and the ranchers can be friends, they can
even help each other out and be nice.

And I still have specific questions about some of the rules of thumb.
Dare I ask them?

Your friend,
Bruce

 
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