The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Welcome to the 3D Phonograph Image Gallery! This was actually started on a phonograph related Facebook page, I thought it was a pretty cool idea and could make a nice series here at the forum. Making an image like this isn't too difficult if you have a photo editing tool and some spare time.
-It would be awesome to see some of your phonographs in 3D!

I will start us out... here is a 3D picture of my 1924 Player-Tone Type 14. To view the image in 3D cross your eyes until the two images overlap. Once they have overlapped you can refocus the image and it will appear 3D as though you are standing in the room looking at it! Make sure your eyes stay level, it won't work if your head is tilted. Note that your eyes won't focus in until the two images have perfectly overlapped, it may take several moments to do this. -It's the same as a stereoscope image, only the two sides are reversed for free-view by crossing your eyes. A close up of the Player-Tone's turntable: 1917 Edison Amberola 50: 1922 Victor Victrola 50 portable: -Instructions for taking your own "cross-eye" style 3D phonograph images:

With a steady hand or a tripod take the picture that you want to make 3D. After taking the picture carefully shift the camera horizontally to the left or right an approximate distance of 3 inches ~roughly the spacing of your eyes (you can move it more than 3 inches for a 3D image that really pops). Now take that second picture with the camera in its new shifted location.
Take these two images and set them side by side as seen above using a photo editing software (I used Microsoft Paint). Place the left-shifted image on the right side and vise-versa. (opposite from a stereoscope image since your left eye will be looking at the right image and right eye at the left during cross-eyed free view.) Now test it out and see how it looks; should look as though you are actually standing right in front of the machine!

I don't know if this will catch on or not; it would be neat to have a couple 3D phono images to browse through.

Have fun!

Drip Pan Gem 3D

I have been making stereoviews for several years. I find that it's a great way to photograph... phonographs... These can be "free viewed" by viewing cross-eyed. The best way is to download the image and then open it in a photo editing program - when open, zoom the image out until it is small enough to view cross-eyed, then zoom back in to the ultimate viewing size. Actually, in previewing these, I am not having any trouble free-viewing them as is...

Player-Tone - RE: Reversing the left and right images for free-viewing... I think that reversing the images makes them lose the 3D effect... just my opinion...

Hey , didn't your mother tell you not to cross your eyes or they would stick that way!

Curt A wrote:Player-Tone - RE: Reversing the left and right images for free-viewing... I think that reversing the images makes them lose the 3D effect... just my opinion...

Personally I don't agree, I think the visual response is much better with the images reversed when viewing cross eyed. Reference the following picture:

The top image has reversed sides for free-viewing,
The bottom image has normal sides as you would find with a parallel stereoscope slide.

-Maybe it's just me, but the top image is easier to see and has a better 3D effect.
The bottom image makes my eyes feel funny.

Here are some detailed instructions on how to view these reversed "cross-eye" format stereo images:
http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase/ihelp.html

Of course knowing what to do and actually being able to do it are two different things; it may take some practice before you see the full 3D effect.

For whatever reason, the top image is easier for me to focus on, too. I wonder what role the dominant eye might have for each individual?

Neat post, by the way!

Fran

Thanks to Mike (Player-Tone) for starting a thread that combines two of my passions, phonographs and three-dimensional imagery. I like when hobbies converge.

I started shooting 3D photos over 40 years ago, using a Stereo Realist camera. In those days, Kodak would return a roll of Kodachrome slides already mounted in special cardboard stereo mounts. When Kodak discontinued stereo mounting and then later Kodachrome altogether, I switched to Ektachrome film and mounting the pictures myself. Now film has been nearly displaced by digital, most photo processors have abandoned E6 chemistry and traditional mounts are becoming more scarce and expensive. It became apparent that I had to move on.

I recently bought a Fuji W3 digital stereo camera, which sadly, is a discontinued product. They are great cameras and show up regularly on eBay. There is also a great software program (free) called Stereo Photo Maker at http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/ which allows you to output your pictures to many electronic and printed formats. I highly recommend it.

There are two styles of free-viewing side-by-side pictures, parallel and cross-eyed. The tradition antique stereopticon cards are the parallel type. I learned to view those free-style before I ever heard of cross-eyed viewing. Many people cannot master free-viewing either type, so I will probably post my 3D pictures here using the Anaglyph method, which requires those red and cyan glasses to view. The glasses are not that hard to come by.

My other 3D related hobby is collecting and viewing through stereo microscopes. I use them to examine phonograph stylii and record grooves.

RE: Amberola pics

The bottom image is my favorite and looks great in 3D. Apparently, eyes vary and we both see things differently. The top image is out of focus to me...