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Stereography!

cwoolpert

Member
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Joined
Feb 21, 2026
Messages
6
Location
Michigan
Format
Multi Format
Hi, I'm Colleen Woolpert from Kalamazoo, Michigan. I first saw antique stereographs in 2000, after being a photog for 10 yrs, and shortly thereafter began shooting my own 3D pics with a Sputnik medium format analog camera. I've since invented (patented on International Women's Day, yay!) a stereoscope called the TwinScope Viewer—inspired by my twin sister's struggle w/ depth perception—for stereograph display. I make each viewer by hand, nearly 200 since 2012. That year, I also produced the first comprehensive museum exhibition on the history of stereographs ("Sight Unseen: Stereographs from the OHA Collection" at the Onondaga Historical Association Museum in Syracuse, NY). Today I teach workshops, give presentations, do assignment photography (usually 2D digitally, w/ a Nikon Z6ii), and create artwork, installations, and exhibitions w/ a range of media, to promote the value of multiple perspectives. I'm happy to be here and look forward to meeting you!
 

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Welcome to Photrio.
A good friend of mine shares your fascination with all things 3D in photography and imaging - for many years he and his wife ran one of the most successful commercial holography businesses. His collection of 3D imaging equipment and materials is amazing. Special purpose for 3D Kodachrome movie film and projectors anyone?
You may already know of him - I'll alert him to this thread.
 
Welcome to Photrio, I also have a connection to Syracuse, NY and Onondaga. Had a good friend from there, though our conversations mostly were concerned with video games, 20-25 years ago.
 
welcome Colleen. a few months back I tried to sell my own 3D printed stereography camera adapter. I thought I could design something then get a Chinese manufacturer to make it. So I was just testing the market for a price. I will have to try again some other time because I was literally giving it away and no one on ebay would put even a tiny bid on it. So I think the main problem is the viewer. You can't sell even a funny 3D gag without some kind of viewer because cross eyed view or parallel view is apparently not everyone's cup of tea. I assume your's has a double wedge?
 
I just saw your "Art, Artists, and Embracing the Third Dimension" video. Very cool story! One of my goals for just being here was to somehow create images for my kids to remember this time and when I started looking into the camera adapters I thought how awesome would it be if I could make 3D stereograph cards for the kids. There is software for cropping and adjusting images side by side from single or double photos and my idea was to just have a viewer where you place the phone in front of you and you can do the cross eye or parallel view. Little did I know that we myopic people tend to have special eye twisting capabilities while everyone else is just puzzled and sort of nods back.
 
loccdor said:
Had a good friend from there, though our conversations mostly were concerned with video games, 20-25 years ago.
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The most important chip on the market these days, upwards of $35,000, each.
 
koraks said:
Welcome aboard @cwoolpert !


Ah, finally someone who caters to us 'depth-impaired', haha!

The photo of the installation looks really nice and I love the concept of the 'merging twins' as well!
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Thanks for your compliments! As for "depth-impaired," my twin sister's strabismus proved advantageous for her art, as she didn't have to translate from 3D to 2D (though with vision therapy, she can now see in depth). I made a short doc if you're interested: https://colleenwoolpert.com/Strabismus-An-Artist-s-Journey. Cheers
 
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Hi Matt,
Thanks for the welcome, and glad to meet you! Interesting about your friend...I do know a couple of people in the holography world, but no couples. Thanks for making the connection and best wishes in your endeavors!
 
loccdor said:
Welcome to Photrio, I also have a connection to Syracuse, NY and Onondaga. Had a good friend from there, though our conversations mostly were concerned with video games, 20-25 years ago.
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Nice to meet you! I'm originally from Michigan, have lived in eight states, but Central NY felt like home to me.
 
Hi, great to meet you. And wow, you watched one of my video presentations--thanks! Btw, I'm myopic too, but started needing close lenses a few years ago. Too bad you didn't find enthusiasm among your audience. For the benefit of people without stereoscopes or those who want to try "free viewing" stereo images, below is my method. Note: this is for "parallel" viewing of stereographs or other left-right stereo pairs. Parallel means the left eye looks at the left image, the right eye looks at the right image (don't cross the eyes or you'll get a 'pseudoscopic' effect, where background elements appear in front of foreground elements). Try this on a pair of images less than 7" in combined width (small screens like smartphones are easier): Look at something in the distance and then bring the stereograph in front of you while continuing to look "through" it. At this point, you may notice that the two images become three. Pay attention to the middle image, and it should pop out. Tips: practice on a stereograph w/a centrally-located subject, like my image below. Relax by taking slow breaths and blinking your eyes. If struggling, try again later and keep in mind that about 10% of the population can't see in 3D.

 
Hey, nice to meet you, a fellow stereoscopic tinkerer! Give it another go, huh? As for my lenses, they are plano-convex achromats. Best wishes!
 
cwoolpert said:
Hey, nice to meet you, a fellow stereoscopic tinkerer! Give it another go, huh? As for my lenses, they are plano-convex achromats. Best wishes!
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wait, so the person just gets to see the effect by being able to focus closer? I'm way way myopic. Like -11 in one eye . Or do you add an angle to the lenses such that you get a slight shift that centers the images without having to parallel or cross-eye your view? this is the software I use sometimes to correct alignment window and such: https://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/ I've got tons of photos of family doing family things. I'm planning an improvement to the design. My current design has a fixed angle that works most of the time for street and up close photography on a specific lens. but I see the benefit of a standard thread and adjustable angle. So that's what i'm going to do next.
 
Ah, that was really interesting, thanks for sharing! I had never realized the impact could be so profound on people. I do recognize what your sister says at the beginning, about realizing she sees the world differently, although for me that realization set in much later and I never attributed much significance to the notion. Btw, I did get the surgery (when I was 30 or so?), and it kind of helped for a year or so, then everything went back to what it was before. Visual therapy was never suggested to me; I guess the doctors involved weren't aware of it. My vision is kind of a running joke whenever I'm driving a car and my sister is along for the ride; she'll ask things like "can you tell how many lanes this highway has" and I'll say things like "yeah definitely, between 2 and 3.5 most of the time; I got this!"
 
Welcome to Photrio!
 
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