November Artist of the Month
Art At The Kent Library
Sponsored by The Friends of Kent Librarywith Arts on the LakeShow Dates: November 1st-30th
Henry Hennings
My interest in x-eye 3 dimension pictures hit a high point many years ago [in the 1950's] when I was on a school trip and I found myself on the observation deck, high up on the Empire State Building in NYC. I had an early Eastman Kodak Brownie Hawkeye roll film camera which produced pictures about 4” x 4” from film that was mailed to the film processing lab and returned back to you with prints maybe a week later.
At the ESB I took one picture of the city from one corner of the observation deck and the usual stereo second picture from about 4 “ to the left …... and then I took the same picture from the other corner of the observation deck, about 50 feet away..... knowing even then that I was experimenting with cross eye stereo. Usually a cross eye stereo pair are taken only a few inches apart, the width of the space between your eyes.
The idea to take the third picture was to enhance or exaggerate the 3d effect by making the distance between the two pictures larger. I remember the experiment was a success but alas ….. the pictures have been missing for many many years.
Today you can do many interesting things much easier in photography. With inexpensive digital cameras or a cellphone camera and a modest computer with free image software you can do many things we couldn't dream of back then. You can also spend many hours researching cameras and x-eye stereo pictures on the internet and learn how to make your own x-eye images and view them on the computer and share them with others via the internet.
My hope is that interested folks will try out the x-eye viewing and eventually get comfortable crossing their eyes and possibly producing their own collection of pictures.
Some folks are worried about the strain on their eyes when they cross them to focus on the x-eye pictures. We all are refocusing constantly as we look at things that are close and far away and we usually don't realize that we are refocusing. I can focus on objects, like my hand. that are just a few inches from my eyes so I don't find any problem focusing on a spot [ my finger ] halfway to the computer screen image or a print at arms length away.
To be able to view an x-eye pair you need to focus your eyes at a point half way between your eyes and the x-eye images.....whether the images are held at arms length or on the computer screen or on the wall several feet away. One successful method to focus on the right spot to see the 3d picture appear between the 2 x-eye images is to place you finger about half way between your eyes and the images where you can see the finger clearly. And then slowly move the finger closer to the eyes or the images and you will see a third image [ the 3d image ] forming between the 2 original images.
If you can focus on your finger that is halfway between you and the images then you ought to be able to see the original images separating in the background and see a third image forming between the two originals as you keep focusing on your finger. Once you can do that you can lower your finger without changing focus and concentrate on the center 3d image and make fine adjustments like tilting your head from side to side to produce the clearest 3d effect.
This process can be used to view the 3d effect of any x-eye pair anywhere ….. in a book or the computer screen or on the wall. Practice will make it easier each time you try it and pretty soon you will be able to properly focus on the x-eye pair without needing your finger to get you started.
If you experience eye discomfort viewing a x-eye pair don't try to force the effort but try again after you give your eyes a chance to rest.
