P3D Re: Good Old Henry, tra la la la la...

["Greg Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Dr. George A. Themelis <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


>Is it hot here or is it just me? :-)


Nah, it's just you. :-)

>Historically, realism has been the strongest selling point
>of stereo photography, supported by the actions of those
>who, as consumers, brought stereo in great heights in terms
>of popularity.

And that "realism" aspect is very highly oversold, IMO.

>>As has been pointed out here countless times, stereography only comes
>>slightly closer than conventional photography to duplicating reality.
>
>*** slightly closer *** closer and this was pointed countless times???
>Where was I when this was pointed out?  Sorry, I strongly disagree.
>Going from one (single) two-dimensional (flat) 2d image to two
>(a pair) of three-dimensional (stereo) 3d images is a TREMENDOUS
>LEAP!  Even mathematically speaking, 1 + 0.1 (your "slightly") is
>nowhere close to 3!  Q.E.D. :-)


OK, you forced me to do it.  What has been pointed out countless times
here is the lack of many of the other depth cues besides stereopsis:
(lack of) motion parallax and (fixed) accomodation being two of the
biggies.  And all the various strange anomalies that come from freezing
reality in the blink of an eye (specular reflections or lights which are
visible to one eye but obscured in the other, producing retinal rivalry,
perfectly frozen ripples in water making it look like plastic, etc.).
These have all been discussed here numerous times.

>There is third point of view that some don't seem to see... And
>this is the "layman's" point of view.  The person who wants to view
>stereo images as the next best think to "being there"... This is the
>consumer that bought the stereo views in the late 19th and early
>20th century or VM reels, in the mid 20th century, or the 3Discover
>today.  And this is also the photographer who used or uses stereo
>photography to record his life, his family, his environment, his
>MEMORIES.  No, he is no artist.  He/she is mainly interested in
>a realistic visual stimulus or precious memories.  This point of
>view is (has been) held by the majority, I believe.


But George, the vast majority of VM reels (at least, those that I have
personally seen) are extremely well photographed, and some stunningly
so.  They are NOT "snapshots" such as a layman might take.  The same is
true for 3Discover, and for at least a large fraction of stereoviews as
well, although from what I have seen there is considerably more
variability there.

You yourself have commented on the lack of artistry in the collections
of Realist slides you have purchased.  I suspect that one reason that
the stereo fad died out was that Joe Average found out that he
*couldn't* get VM-quality images just by clicking the shutter on his
Realist.

     -Greg W. (gjw@xxxxxxxxxx)





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