Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-30
BY A. J. WEDDERBURN
Curator Of Photography
The Smithsonian Institution

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Curator Of Photography
The Smithsonian Institution
If you are still-camera
fan you should be able to adj
just quickly to taking three
dimensional pictures with the
stereo camera. BY combin-
ing natural color with depth
, gained through stereo pho
Biography you can be assured
Of some rather spectacular
results in the way of slides.
Some care will have to be
taken when composing a
stereo shot. Instead of just
'picturing the scene in the
usual way with the camera
aimed broadside or directly
at the subject it will be more
effective depthwise to find
something in the foreground
that will lead into the back
ground. A three quarter
angle view with an object or
objects extending from the
extreme front all the way to
the principal-interest center
will be much more effective
In stereo shooting.
On the other hand don't
soverdo this to the point where
the scene is stretched out
from close in front Of the
camera to inflnity. This is
bad from the viewers stand
point and is technically a vir-
tual impossibility.
An Example Of Balance
For an example of a typi-
cal well-balanced stereo shot
you might frame your picture
so that the nearest object is
roughly 6 or 7 feet from the
camera. while the farthest is
about IS feet away. In such
a case the lenses would be
focused on a point about IL
feet from the foreground OBJ
ject or approximately one
third from the foreground.
BY stepping down the lenses
both foreground and back
ground objects would be in
focus.
Stereo shots, indoors by
flash lamp light, should be
made at l/25th of a second.
This is necessary to insure
that the full light output of
the flash reaches both lenses.
But even so, most action will
be stopped because the dura-
ton of the flash is much less
than the 1/25th second ex-
posure time.
Color, of course, is the
medium to use when shooting
SD pictures. Type F Koda-
chrome together with No. 5
or No. IS clear flashbulbs
make a good combination for
indoor color stereo photogra-
ply. With this combination
you will not need any color
correction filter and the COR
rect guide number would
be IS.
To figure the right lens
opening for whatever distance
you are shooting you simply
divide the distance into the
guide number, IS, to get the
lens setting. AS an example,
let's assume that your subject
Is about IL feet from the
camera. Divide the guide
number, IS. by IL and you
would find that the proper
lens opening to be f:8. And
for a subject 6 feet away
your aperture would be f:l6.
A Chart viii Help
To save time and make it
easier to adjust from one set
ting to another as the dis
tances change from shot to
shot you can type UP or print
a small chart which will show
at a glance what lens openings
should be at various distances
and fix it to the back of your
Hash gun.
II your stereo camera has a
color load of the Type F film
and you decide to move out
doors for few shots you can
still make your daylight shots
without changing film by
using an csc conversion filter
over each of the lenses. But
be sure to remove these filters
when you 60 back to fash
bulbs.
In a reverse situation where
your camera is loaded with
daylight color film and you
wish to make some indoor
X shots. lust switch over from
n clear bulb TO either No. 5B or
No. 25B blue flashbulbs. How
ever, 1t must be remembered
that with these bulbs you will
then be using another guide
number of SIS. This will mean,