Anaglyphs

- and how to create your own with Adobe Photoshop -

Here are a few of my favorite anaglyphs.  

Baby    Car Cemetery    Earth    Giraffes    Footbridge    Building    Jet    New York    Statue

Important !!  You will need to buy a pair of Reb-Blue 3D glasses to view them - available at  http://www.3dglasses.net/ :

How to Create Your Own Anaglyphs:

• My Equipment
• Overview
• Detailed Instructions, using Photoshop 4.0 or 5.0
• Detailed Instructions, using Photoshop LE version 2.5
• Notes

Equipment:

• A point and shoot camera, or a Digital Camera
• A color flatbed scanner (if using a standard camera)
• Adobe Photoshop

Overview:

• Get images of the same subject from two points of view that are separated horizontally by 2 1/2 inches.
• Remove the red component from the right image.
• Remove the green and blue components from the left image.
• Superimpose the images using a blending mode that combines the RGB color values from the two images.
• Move/rotate the images for the best effect.
• View with red-blue glasses (with the red filter on the left).

Detailed Instructions, using Photoshop:

• Using a normal 35mm camera or digital camera, take a shot of a scene with objects at approximately 6', 15', and 50'. This is to provide contrasting distances.
• Take a second shot of the same scene but with the camera moved 2 1/2 inches to the right, keeping the focus line parallel to the original.  The idea is that you are taking one photo from where each of your eyes view from !!
• Get the images developed into prints and scan in both prints. Or if Digital camera, just import the images.  Position them both in the same place on the scanner bed and use the same clipping rectangle for both so they will have the same pixel size.
• Open both images in Photoshop.
• I crank up the saturation on both images in an attempt to compensate for the washed-out appearance that the 3D glasses give:
  • Activate the left image (click its title bar)
  • Open the "Image" menu.
  • Select "Adjust"
  • Select "Hue/Saturation"
  • Crank the (Master) saturation up to 60 and click "OK"
  • Repeat for the right image.
• Get rid of the Red component of the right image:
  • Activate the right image (click its title bar)
  • Open the "Image" menu.
  • Select "Adjust"
  • Select "Levels"
  • Select the "Red" channel.
  • Change the second Output Level to 0 (now both Output levels are 0)
  • Click OK (now the right image is Blue-Green)
• Get rid of the Green and Blue components of the left image:
  • Activate the left image (click its title bar)
  • Open the "Image" menu.
  • Select "Adjust"
  • Select "Levels"
  • Select the "Green" channel.
  • Change the second Output Level to 0 (now both Output levels are 0)
  • Select the "Blue" channel.
  • Change the second Output Level to 0 (now both Output levels are 0)
  • Click OK (now the left image is entirely Red)
• Put both images into a bigger window (as separate layers) to facilitate rotations:
  • Copy the right image into the clipboard:
    • Activate the right image (click its title bar)
    • From the "Select" menu, choose "All".
    • From the "Edit" menu, choose "Copy".
  • From the "File" menu, choose "New". The file size will default to the size of the image in the clipboard. Choose units of "pixels" in the right-hand combo boxes and add about 200 pixels to both dimensions. Choose "transparent" for the "Contents". Click "OK".
  • From the "Edit" menu, choose "Paste". You should now see the right image centered in a larger rectangle.
  • Copy the left image into the clipboard:
    • Activate the left image (click its title bar)
    • From the "Select" menu, choose "All".
    • From the "Edit" menu, choose "Copy".
  • Paste the left image onto the big window:
    • Activate the big image (click its title bar)
    • From the "Edit" menu, choose "Paste". Now your "Layers palette" shows two layers. "Layer 1" is the right image. "Layer 2" is the left image. (You can rename them if you want.)
• Change the Blending Mode for the Top Layer (the left image):
  • In the "Layers palette", activate the top layer by clicking on its name.
  • Change the Blending Mode from "Normal" to "Screen". (The Blending Mode appears in a drop-down combo box in the "Layers palette".)
  • Now the big window should show the colors of both images and you should be able to see some results when viewing with red-blue glasses.
• Rotate and move the two layers for the best effect (while viewing with your 3D glasses). The 2 images should be offset horizontally but not vertically and they should not be rotated relative to each other.
  • To Move a Layer:
    • Activate the layer by clicking on its name in the "Layers palette".
    • Activate the "Move tool" on the "Tools palette".
    • Use the arrow keys to move the layer around. Holding down the shift key while arrowing produces bigger movements. Mouse-dragging also works but is less precise.
  • To Correct the Angle:
    • Activate the layer by clicking on its name in the "Layers palette".
    • From the "Layer" menu, choose "Transform" and "Rotate".
    • Use the mouse to grab one of the little corner handles of the image and drag it.
    • When finished rotating, double-click the image.
• From the "Layer" menu, choose "Flatten Image" to flatten it into a single layer.
• Crop the image, excluding parts where the two original images don't completely overlap:
  • Activate the "Crop tool" on the "Tools palette".
  • Click and drag the "Crop tool" across the image to make a cropping rectangle.
  • Adjust the cropping rectangle by dragging on the little mid-edge handles.
  • You can move the entire rectangle by mouse-dragging on its middle.
  • Double-click on the middle of the image to finalize the cropping.
• Save It.
• You are done.