3D Photos

There are some great apps out there to create stereo photos with just a normal mobile phone camera and I'd like to highlight one of them because I find it invaluable to take stereo photos when I haven't remembered to take my stereo camera with me.

CrossCam

This app is one I have discovered only quite recently but it has lots of options and is really helpful to the user with some simple extras such as level indicator, which makes a huge difference when trying to get a good shot.

On the Apple store it is here.

whilst it is available for Android here.

Whatever OS you use it is excellent. You simply setup your shot, landscape or portrait, use the level icon to make sure you are roughly level, then take the picture, then move the camera to the left* by about two inches** and then take a second picture. the app then automatically aligns the pictures and lets you choose if you want to save.

*You can change it so you move right when you take the second picture which I personally find easier.

**The easy way to to do this is sometimes called the cha-cha method, but I prefer call it the rocker method. Essentially stand straight, lean to the left so your full weight is on the left foot and you are just lightly resting with your right foot, take the first picture, rock gently to the right so your full weight is on your right foot and take the second picture. that moves the phone roughly the correct distance if your target is around 2 metres away. Of course since you are taking the shots you can adjust this depending how far away the subject is. it is quite difficult to get close up shots. The for each 10 cm distance from the camera you need roughly 3 millimetres movement sideways when taking the shots.

If you are more advanced and have a second phone you can use two phones together to get both pictures simultaneously, something I have still to try, but that will be another post.