P3D Re: My 3D Litmus test

["Greg Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxxxxxxx>

>Some subject matters are not well suited to applying this litmus
>test.  Images with "continuous depth", like a large field of
>smoothly cut grass, train tracks, or long corridors make it
>very difficult or impossible to perceive the airspace under
>normal viewing circumstances.  That has a lot to do with why
>I find stereo images with continuous depth of this sort quite
>boring.  Why not just shoot them in 2D?...

...Paul has always appeared to me as a very objective and acute observer who 
has been a great moderating influence on this list.  The second reason is
that I've recently concluded that the most satisfactory stereo images
I've taken are the ones that exhibit a continuity of depth between the
foreground and the background, precisely the sort of images which Paul
pronounced 'boring' in the above quote.

In contrast, I've found that images that are "planar", and which would
tend to exhibit the "airspace" Paul finds prefererable, tend also to
exhibit "cardboarding".  I find that a smooth depth transition is
preferable.  So having Paul question the value of these images is
frustrating, at the least...

Another strong possibility is that Greg and Paul have different perception
of 3D, which leads to their different preferences.

Over the years, the many discussions of individuals' 3D preferences appear to
me to offer strong evidence that there are considerable variations in the
way different people see 3D, for example in the degree of depth perceived,
the relative weighting of various cues, the judgement of size of images viewed
in 3D, and so on. While the possibility of this variation is sometimes
acknowledged, there seems to be little interest in systematically determining
the magnitude and scope of these differences as a worthwhile study in itself,
and many of the discussions seem to include the implicit assumption that
there's one true path to "ideal" 3D, which will give the best results for all
individuals.

John R


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