What is Stereo Photography?

Stereo photography involves taking two slightly different pictures of the same scene, so that viewing them in a certain way produces a 3-dimensional images, using one or two cameras, or a purpose built twin lens stereo camera. (I use all three methods) The results are known as a "stereo pair" Any camera can be used to take stereo photographs. I will show you how  below.

Above is a "stereo pair" I took of my daughter with my digital Canon using the "Cha-Cha" method. Notice that the first photo (left) appears to be slightly shifted with respect to the other photo (right).  It is these small differences that generate the sense of depth when the images are viewed in stereo. Identical pictures would hold no depth information!

When and How  Did it all Start?

Stereoscopic photography is as old as photography itself, and even pre-dates photography as artists were producing three dimensional works long before photography was invented. The first ever photographs were made around 1838 and within less that 10 years, stereoview cards were being made and sold. Through the years, stereo has seen highs and lows in popularity among the public. From 1860 to 1920 stereo views were essentially the home entertainment of the times. At one time, Keystone, based in the USA was making 25,000 cards per day. Millions of stereo views and hundreds of thousands of "stereoscopes" were sold during this period of time. Stereoscopic views, seen through the stereoscope allowed people to travel to foreign lands in the comfort of their living room.

View-Master is another popular stereo system, (it was my curiosity into how this wonderful view through the Viewmaster was achieved) It is actually the most popular stereo entertainment system of all times and the first that brought colour into stereo. With colour and depth, “it’s like being there!” It is estimated that over one billion reels and a hundred million viewers have been sold since the system was invented in 1938. You can still pick up reels and viewers in Shields Market and on E-bay.

The “Golden Age” of do-it-yourself stereo was the period between about 1950 and early 1960's. Two main factors were Kodak's Kodachrome 35 mm film and the David White Co. of Milwaukee manufacturing their Realist stereo camera using this new film with its beautiful colors.
From 1947 until the mid 60s David White manufactured about 130,000 Realist cameras, which was about half of all the stereo cameras made during that period. Other brands included Revere, TDC Colorist, TDC Vivid, Kodak Stereo, and other lesser-known brands. These cameras are still used by many stereo enthusiasts today including myself. I use a Realist and Kodak -stereo (see below) and also a more modern Loreo. These are of course "film" cameras using the 35mm format. Larger format film, can also be used in a few Russian cameras which can be found on E-bay too.
Below are my Kodak-stereo (top left) below my David White 3.5 Stereo Realist. On the right a twin rig of two Nikon 4600s mounted on a sliding bar. Below is a Bogen Slide Bar on a Manfrotto slide bar. The Bogen slide bar is used with one of my other cameras and is on shown here for illustrative purposes.

Stereo photography in the 1950s was a complete system, which included things like stereo viewers, stereo projectors, books, and commercial stereo mounting. Stereo mounts, commercial mounting and even modern stereo cameras, viewers and projectors are still available today, but only through small number of manufacturers and resellers. All of these items can be found for sale on E-bay.

Isn't it amazing that some of these 40-50-year-old cameras are still used to make great stereo pictures? Most of these cameras use closely matched “Cooke triplet” three element lenses, which gave, and still give, good results. Here are a few things that you need to know about classic stereo cameras if you decide to use one of them:

• They have manual controls (no batteries, light meter, or automation).
• The apertures usually go from f3.5 to f22.
• Top shutter speeds are around 1/100 or 1/200 second, a bit slow for today's standards but sufficient when used with slow speed film (recommended for fine grain).
• They can use any 35 mm film (positive or negative) but the image size for most stereo cameras is 24x23 mm (known as “Realist Format”), which is smaller than the standard 24x36 mm full-frame size.

The film format issue is usually not a problem. Currently manufactured stereo mounts, viewers and other supplies are available from a small number of companies. If you shoot slides, you can cut and mount your own film (just have the film returned uncut) using the standard stereo slide mounts, which are 1 5/8 by 4 inches (41x101 mm), Unfortunately, Kodak no longer offer a stereo slide mounting service, though you may find a few places in the USA who still offer this service. The prices however, understandably, are quite steep. For commercial prints, there is at least one company that specializes in printing Realist format negatives (again in the USA), or you can work with your local developer to explain the format and size of prints you want. I scan my negatives onto my computer using a dedicated scanner and print via stereo software sets of stereo pairs in the style of Holmes Cards. (see below)

More Later..........

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