Between 1952 and 1953 my family lived in New York City. This was the peak of the 50's "stereo craze" where Hollywood was cranking out 3-D movies, camera stores had a variety of stereo cameras to satisfy market demand, and every news-stand carried a wide range of 3-D comic books. I was fascinated by stereo photography, but a young fellow in the 6th and 7th grade can hardly afford quality camera gear. I do remember haunting all the local camera shops, lusting after cameras I couldn't afford! I must have been a real pest, but I remember being treated very well in all those shops, probably because I showed real interest in the subject and had done my homework.
Our family had a Stereoscope (Holmes) viewer and I did have a Kodak Brownie camera that used 127 roll film. I am quite proud of the fact that I figured out, on my own, that I could take stereo pictures with that camera by shifting the camera between shots. I happily shot stereo with this improvised "system" - mostly black and white (due to financial constraints), but once I did get carried away and shot a roll of early Kodacolor print film. Much later in life I got a used TDC Colorist stereo camera and the matching projector, but by then the craze was over and it got harder and harder to get film processed and mounted.
Now, almost 50 years after my first experiments, you might think that
stereo photography was just a historical curiosity, but you would be wrong. Individual
stereo enthusiasts and stereo clubs in the larger metropolitan areas have kept the flame
alive and now we have computers, digital cameras, and the Internet and new opportunities
for stereo photography abound! I have set up this web-site to provide a number of useful
functions:
INFORMATION
A basic summary of some of the major stereo viewing methods, with an emphasis on computers and the Internet.
A summary, including web links, of the various approaches you can use to take your own stereo photographs.
An Experimental Digital Twin-rig Camera
Experiments with a digital twin-rig stereo camera using Kodak EZ-200 digital cameras.
One of the reasons I took a multi-decade sabbatical from stereo
photography was that it was getting to be a lot of trouble getting stereo slides processed
and mounted. The reason I got back into the hobby can be summed up in one word - computers!
With the current crop of home computers, scanners, printers, and digital cameras, it's
like owning a state-of-the-art darkroom - except you can keep the lights on! This page
will highlight many of the techniques I have developed or adapted in applying computers to
the art and science of stereo photography.
For those of you who may have visited earlier, the galleries here had
been completely reorganized. Clicking on the title link will take you to the page where
you can access the various stereo galleries on this site.
This RingSurfStereoscopic 3D
Web Ring Net Ring
owned by Dr. Ralph E. Taggart.
[ Previous
5 Sites | Skip Previous | Previous
| Next
]
[ Skip
Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site
| List
Sites ]
Ralph E. Taggart (taggart@msu.edu)