by
Duncan Miller

Inspired by an article by Pavel Martynov on mindat.org I have been experimenting with taking stereoscopic pair photographs of an otherwise rather uninteresting mineral specimen, so that it can be viewed in 3D. It is really simple. All you need do is rotate the specimen through five degrees, without otherwise changing its relationship to the camera, and taking two photographs of it. Then you swap the righthand photo for the left one, and view the pair by squinting. You can practise this by looking at the end of your nose. (If you look ‘through’ the page by diverging your eyes the image will be in reverse, with the crystals appearing hollow.) The full description of how to take such photos and view them, with some wonderful examples, is available here:

https://www.mindat.org/article.php/1566/Minerals+in+3D%3A+learning+to+use+crossed-eye+method

 

Stereo pair of fluorite from Okorusu, Nambia, 55 × 30 × 25 mm.