Old Dog Photography

A while back I stumbled across a post on Neil Creek’s site about a contest based on a relatively low-tech approach to making 3D pictures.

Usually called the “cha-cha” method, it consists of taking two pictures of an object, using just a slight shift in your balance to assure that the two images are taken from slightly different positions. Then, you combine them with a little free software. Neil has a nice how-to write-up here, by the way.

One of the drawbacks of “cha-cha” 3D photography is that it doesn’t work well for subjects that move — like people, or trees in the wind, or your dog. Still, the beauty of “cha-cha” is that it’s simple enough to enable pretty much anybody with a computer and a digital camera to make fun 3D photos. I did some head-scratching over what the subject of my first attempt (and contest entry) would be, and came up with this — some kid-style Mardi Gras beads I brought home from New Orleans for the pup:

This image is presented in “crosseyed” 3D — cross your eyes until you see a third image, and the third (center) image is in 3D. If this is a bit tricky for you, click on the image to get to its Flickr page (for larger sizes). Some people (apparently about 10% of the population) still won’t be able to see this form of 3D, so I’ve also put a red / cyan version of the image up in my Flickr set of 3D photos.

Oh, and if you’d like to try this yourself, Neil’s contest is open through May 24th.