Lichen Stereo 3D and Deadnettle Pollen

[Biollantefan54]

Hey everyone, I made my first Stereo image using Zerene. I found some lichen on a stick outside and took this photo. I think the 3D effect turned out pretty good! I also photographed the inside of a deadnettle flower showing all the pollen.
Stereo Lichen by Joshua Coogler, on Flickr
DeadnettlePollen by Joshua Coogler, on Flickr
Flower by Joshua Coogler, on Flickr

[rjlittlefield]

Good job with the stereo!

Any chance of doing the other two stacks also?

--Rik

(BTW, there was a duplicate of this thread, so I deleted the other copy. The duplication was probably caused by some issues we've been having with server connectivity.)

[Sym P. le]

Awesome photos!

[Biollantefan54]

Good job with the stereo!

Any chance of doing the other two stacks also?

--Rik

(BTW, there was a duplicate of this thread, so I deleted the other copy. The duplication was probably caused by some issues we've been having with server connectivity.)

Unfortunately no, i accidentally deleted the files when making room on my hard drive! Luckily there are tons of lichen everywhere right now so I’ll try to find some different textures to photograph.

[Sym P. le]

There is another stereo on Flickr but it could be trimmed down in width.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/134685632 ... ateposted/

[Biollantefan54]

There is another stereo on Flickr but it could be trimmed down in width.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/134685632 ... ateposted/

How did I forget I made that one first! I didn’t like how it turned out because I didn’t include any background in the photo, I also forgot to crop before doing the stereo as well

[Sym P. le]

I downloaded it for myself and cropped out a 3:4 section. It works fine. I'd love to see the middle image in 3D, that would truly be outstanding, given the colour rendition.

[Biollantefan54]

I downloaded it for myself and cropped out a 3:4 section. It works fine. I'd love to see the middle image in 3D, that would truly be outstanding, given the colour rendition.

If you mean the pollen image that’s white and orange, I’ll check if I still have the files to make a stereo version. It was 308 total photos so it’ll take quite a while to process. If anyone is familiar with the process in zerene, how many version should I have zerene make for me to select from? I might be having it make too many but I’m not sure what everyone else does

[rjlittlefield]

If anyone is familiar with the process in zerene, how many version should I have zerene make for me to select from? I might be having it make too many but I’m not sure what everyone else does

I wrote Zerene Stacker and I make stereo from almost every stack I shoot. Here is what I recently wrote about the process of making stereo:

The method described by Pau, stepping shift from -5% to +5%, works well even when I don't know values for magnification and step size. It is the method that I used to use all the time.

However, what I do now for most studio stacks is to use the Stereo Calculator, described at https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/d ... wing_angle . That way I just enter values for sensor size, magnification, step size, number of frames, and a desired viewing angle, and the calculator crunches the numbers to come up with the corresponding percent shift. Typically I use plus and minus the shift value for 4 degrees angle off axis. That gives me 8 degrees between eyes, which corresponds to what a typical stereo microscope would give.

For some flattish subjects I increase the shift value so as to accentuate depth, and in case of troublesome subjects sometimes I decrease the shift value to reduce stacking artifacts. But most of the time I'm happy with what the calculator gives for +-4 degrees.

After I make a stereo pair in Zerene Stacker, I run that through StereoPhoto Maker to push the depth back as needed for pleasant viewing. Then I crop in StereoPhoto Maker, sharpen and adjust contrast in Photoshop, and use Photoshop to add a properly contrasting frame to help with the side-by-side fusion.

--Rik

[Biollantefan54]

If anyone is familiar with the process in zerene, how many version should I have zerene make for me to select from? I might be having it make too many but I’m not sure what everyone else does

I wrote Zerene Stacker and I make stereo from almost every stack I shoot. Here is what I recently wrote about the process of making stereo:

The method described by Pau, stepping shift from -5% to +5%, works well even when I don't know values for magnification and step size. It is the method that I used to use all the time.

However, what I do now for most studio stacks is to use the Stereo Calculator, described at https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/d ... wing_angle . That way I just enter values for sensor size, magnification, step size, number of frames, and a desired viewing angle, and the calculator crunches the numbers to come up with the corresponding percent shift. Typically I use plus and minus the shift value for 4 degrees angle off axis. That gives me 8 degrees between eyes, which corresponds to what a typical stereo microscope would give.

For some flattish subjects I increase the shift value so as to accentuate depth, and in case of troublesome subjects sometimes I decrease the shift value to reduce stacking artifacts. But most of the time I'm happy with what the calculator gives for +-4 degrees.

After I make a stereo pair in Zerene Stacker, I run that through StereoPhoto Maker to push the depth back as needed for pleasant viewing. Then I crop in StereoPhoto Maker, sharpen and adjust contrast in Photoshop, and use Photoshop to add a properly contrasting frame to help with the side-by-side fusion.

--Rik

Ah ok, thanks for all the info! I just checked and I don’t have the original images to create a new stereo image of it, but I’ll make some with the new images I take. And I was using a value of +-4% for the stereo images which I think worked well too

[rjlittlefield]

I was using a value of +-4% for the stereo images which I think worked well too

Quite possibly you were not far off 4 degrees.

Working the numbers, it turns out that whenever the stack depth is 57.2% of the stack width, 4 degrees off-axis and 4% shift are two ways to specify the same result.

People seem inclined to shoot stacks that are somewhere around that aspect ratio, and that's why the default settings of +-3% often work out well.

--Rik

[Biollantefan54]

I took some more photos, the tree outside my house is starting to bloom and I found lots of red flowers on the ground from it. I took a photo of it and then tried a stereo version with it presized 25% I think this one turned out very well!
treeanther by Joshua Coogler, on Flickr
TreeAntherStereo by Joshua Coogler, on Flickr

[rjlittlefield]

This looks good to me!

Yes, presizing (Options > Preferences > Preprocessing > Image Pre-sizing) is a good way to make the stacking go faster, especially if you have to try a range of shift values.

--Rik