THIRD DIMENSION SOCIETY

PARTICIPATION IN AND FURTHERANCE OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ART OF COLOUR STEREOGRAPHY       

This article assumes that you have used a single digital camera with an appropriate copying attachment to copy stereo pairs of slides or prints.  If you don't yet have StereoPhoto Maker, visit http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/index.html

QUICK GUIDE

Transfer the images from camera to a new ’Source’ folders on your computer.

Create two new folders for ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ images and copy relevant images from you’re your ‘Source’ folder.

Rename/number images in each folder adding  _l and _r suffix i.e. image001_l.jpg.

Tip: This naming protocol is recognised and used by SPM.  Batch renaming software is available on the internet.

Move all renamed left and right images to a new shared ‘Work’ folder.

Open SPM

Use ‘File’ ‘Open left/right images’ to import from ‘Work’ folder. 

Use ‘Stereo’ ‘Side-by-side’ to view images.

Use ‘Adjust’ ‘Auto alignment’ for image alignment.

Use ‘Adjust’ ‘Easy adjustment’ to manually correct alignment if required‘

Use ‘Edit’ ‘Crop’ ‘Free cropping’ to trim images.

Tip:  Select ’Keep aspect ratio’ if preferred. DO NOT RESIZE.

Use ‘Add fuzzy border’ if required. 

Tip:  Border need not be fuzzy. Useful when copied slide has rounded corners.

Use ‘Adjust’ ‘Auto colour adjustment’ to match left and right images.

Tip: Artefacts can appear on images in some cases.  ‘Edit’ ‘Undo’ and swap left/right view and retry if this is the case, then swap back.

*Use ‘File’ ‘Save left / right image’ to ‘Alignment’ sub-folder of ‘Work’ folder’ created by SPM.  The file names will remain unchanged.

 Use ‘File’ ‘Save stereo image’ to same folder if stereo pairs are required.  SPM will drop the _l and _r suffix if this protocol has been used for file names.

Carry out further manipulation of images in Photoshop or similar software if necessary.  Consider dust and scratch removal, colour correction, cloning or healing and so on.

*Note – For maximum utilisation of presentation software, left and right images should be used.  For quick prentation save side-by-side stereo pairs, all cropped to the same aspect ratio.

Barry Aldous