Photography for 3-D lenticular imaging

3D Photography has been around for a century and a half. It is simply a method of photographically recreating what you already do- perceive depth in everything you see.

Standard photographs are only 2-dimensional representations of what you see. 3-Dimensional photographs are taken from two perspectives (you have two eyes, hence two perspectives on a scene). By forcing each eye to see only one photograph, i.e. the left eye sees the left photograph and the right eye sees the right photograph, your brain will reconstruct the depth information from the two pictures and you will see a 3D image.

Digital imaging allows amatuer photographers and hobbyists along with professionals to easily create stunning 3-d and animated images using a single digital camera. A solid understanding of photgraphic and digital imaging principals, practice, and experience will be the path to success.

The basic method for photographing for is to take many images in a straight line focused and centered on a focal point. An appropriate focal point is on a stable object such as the top corner of a park bench, a notch on a tree or the eye of a statue. Moving objects will cause sloppy source imagery and difficult to correct blurring in your final lenticular image.

Using a narrow aperture with minimal depth of field is advisable for a higher quality final image; the depth of field will be provided by the blending of the foreground and background image in the interlacing process.

For a realistic image aim to re-create the viewing angle of the lenticular lens although this may prove difficult in a real situation. Digital imaging wizardry allows some forgiveness, but careful setup in the field will save some work and prevent image smearing and other difficult to correct artifacts. A great number of clean images taken in the field gives more to choose from in post.