Techniques for Stereo images

A question that Alanrockwood asked in another thread that I was hoping to read some feedback on is in regards to techniques for stereo shots. I'm a newbie at stereo photography and stumbling through what gives a nice stereo image. I've tried to put something in the foreground and something in the mid- and/or background to add depth and emphasize the stereo effect but it is a lot of guesswork for me.

What type of images do you shoot with your stereo cameras?
What elements do you try to get in the frame?
What do you look for when shooting with your stereo camera?

'Da newbie wants to know.

hi OptiKen

i have shot stereo/3D from time to time
i used a white realist which was fun, i also currently use
an ancient polaroid portait camera ...
when i shoot stereo
i tend to pay attention to foreground and background and DOF ...
elements aren't necessarily important but the whole image needs to
be harmonious ... not sure if that makes sense or not, but if there is
something you want to accentuate make sure the SS and FStop do that
if it wasn't a stereo image. blur the backgorund, make it detailed
do what you need ... the stereo aspect of the image just accentuates what you
already did !
i have seen handfuls of stereo movies. some were bad, some were really not very good.
when i saw Martin Scorsese's direction of HUGO, it blew my mind. not because it was a great
movie about a great subject and he interpreted it well, but becasue he didn't use the stereo/3D effect
as just DOF or for stupid stuff like something falling on the camera, or jumping out at the audience
but he incorporated it into he cinematic DOF/storyboard, which is something other stereo storytellers (recent )
failed to do ...

have fun, its a great way to see .. in 3D !
john

3-D composition is a different animal than flat ... as a general rule, try for something near and far, yes, but not too near. The best stereo is 30-times the distance between the two lenses, which means about 10 feet away. So a shot of three people 8 10 and 15 feet away will show good stereo separation.

I've found that good stereo composition depends as much on the light as the placement -- good modeling light from the side makes any situation look better in 3-D. If you shoot people, line them up nearer-to-farther rather than all in a line flat ahead of you. Something off to the left 5 feet away, something in the middle 10 feet away, something else farther away further back, and so on. Try to avoid things coming into the frame from too close because they violate the 3-D window (what's that? Imagine looking out a window at the scene -- the window frame is what you are looking through at the edges of your 3-d picture.)

Water tends to look plastic and frozen in 3-D. Things really far awy don't make good 3-D all by themselves because there's so little difference between the left and right view that they end up flat, but if you have foreground stuff that helps. I shot the statue of liberty through some trees, for example.

You can find a number of examples, and links to other educational stuff, at Brian May's web site. The lead guitarist of Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody) is a huge fan of 3-D and has shot it for years. His web site has some good basic information as well as a lot of good examples.

it is http://www.londonstereo.com

Some recent 3-D movies have been good. We saw "Ant Man" in 3-D and I thought they did a pretty good job.