Lemonade: Day 9 - Barry Rothstein on 3D

We're making Community Lemonade in Long Beach, CA.  Come and make lemonade with us!

!  I'm on a 100 day odyssey for community and creativity in Long Beach, CA.  We've got such an amazing city, and I'm a huge fan!  I want to share it with you!  I'm seeking out the creatives and the facilitators of creativity.  The art and the locations that inspire art.  Bringing them to you, here in this blog, and to others, on the streets of Long Beach.

I call it .

Today was Day 9 of Making Lemonade.  I visited with 3D photographer, Barry Rothstein

I desperately hoped, when I started this project, that I would find a 3D photographer that lived or worked here in Long Beach.  3D has been one of my interests since I attended just a few meetings of the Los Angeles 3D Club back in the early 2000s.  I was thrilled to find Barry Rothstein, who is an accomplished phantogram maker and has published several books.  Barry is so cool... He immediately knew what I meant when I talked about making and makerspaces... he said "I'm a maker!"  On my way out to visit with Barry, I grabbed my antique Kodak Realist 3D camera...  I was excited to be able to prove my geekiness.

Barry Rothstein lives in a beautiful 1917 craftsman home in the Rose Park area of Long Beach.  From here, he photographs, edits, publishes and sells 3D image cards, postcards and books that use multiple forms of 3D.  He also holds 3D competitions, and exhibits at conventions and fairs around the country. 

His specialty is phantograms, which use a special technique of digital editing to make the image pop out at the viewer.  Many years ago, Barry had the foresight to secure licensing from the two patent owners of printed phantogram technology, which makes him perhaps the only one licensed to print and sell phantogram images.

Types of 3D

We talked about the various types of 3D photography.  Here I will summarize, with references to Barry's work, where available.

Stereographic 3D - In the 1830s, before the invention of television and moving pictures, the stereoscope came into being.  It gained overnight popularity when a stereographic image of Queen Victoria was displayed at the Great Exhibition in London.  Cards with two images side by side could be purchased and viewed with these hand-held stereoscopes.  Each image pair had a left and right eye perspective.  The Viewmaster that we have all known and loved is a transparency stereoscope.

Red-Cyan Anaglyph - These are single images with different treatments for the red and the blue/green color.  They are what you might visualize when you think of 3D.  The left eye uses a red filter and blocks out the blue and green color.  The right eye uses a cyan filter and blocks out red color in the image being viewed.  The image is fuzzy when viewed without the red-cyan glasses.

Crossview 3D - These are two-image presentations that can be viewed without a stereoscope.  The viewer slowly crosses his/her eyes to bring the two images together.  It takes a little getting used to, I've heard.

Phantograms - Phantograms are a specialized, more dynamic (pop-up) presentation of red-cyan anaglyph.  Phantograms will appear to 'rise off the page' as if they are really there.  I tried looking at a few and it's true!  When you look at a phantogram from different directions (using your red-cyan glasses) the image appears to move.

Barry's website provides generous amounts of information on do it yourself (DIY) 3D.  I have provided some of those references here for you.

How to make your own 3D image

How to make your own Phantogram

Results of the 2012 Intergalactic Phantogram Competition

Also, a community of 3Ders  The Stereo Club of Southern California

Barry gave an impromptu demonstration of creating a red-cyan 3D anaglyph.  The video attached to this post is of that demonstration.  If you have Adobe Photoshop and download the software in the How to make your own Phantogram instruction, you may try the demonstration.  Images to be used are included in the photos, or you can take your own photographs.

And it turns out that Barry was the 3D photographer which was featured in the summer issue of Makezine!

You can find Barry:

• at the Orange County mini-Makerfaire in Irvine this Saturday (A must-visit if you are interested in making and have never been to a Makerfaire!)
• At the 3D Con July 25-30.  This is the annual meeting of the National Stereoscopic Association (NSA).  It will be held in Costa Mesa this year.
• At the World Makerfaire in New York in September

I left with a lot of 3D information, including some on 3D video that I have not discussed here.  I also now have a nice addition to my 3D collection: some comics, a Phantogram book and some 3D postcards.

And tomorrow...

Day 10: Cultural Alliance of Long Beach

Tomorrow I will visit the CALB at their monthly meeting.  CALB is a non-profit which seeks to enable artists in Long Beach.

Want more lemonade? 

Items Needed

Nothing!

Need to contact me?  info@handmadepenguin.com

Trish Tsoiasue writes as herself about creative and maker topics for the Belmont Shore Patch and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin Blog.