As part of our ongoing commitment to unparalleled 3D production, Parallax Film Productions is thrilled to share stereoscopic 3D stills and video footage of several castles throughout Europe and the Middle East. This exclusive online content was captured during the filming of our current production, Battle Castle, an action documentary about medieval castles.
In our second installment of Battle Castle 3D, we go inside England’s Dover Castle to experience the true depth of its magnificent keep.
These high-resolution stereoscopic 3D stills were photographed and rendered by our Director of Photography/Stereographer Sean F. White using the Dubois Optimized technique in Adobe Photoshop. Although the colours are not true to reality, this techniques improves the overall comfort of viewing the images by reducing ghosting and other retinal discomfort common with standard red/cyan images.
The original images are 5K resolution per eye. They’ve been resized to 2K for faster downloading and viewing on the web.
Stereographer/DOP Sean F. White details the process
I shot with either a pair of Canon 5D Mark II’s or a pair of Canon 7D’s with the cameras set to their highest resolution. Most of the images were shot with a side-by-side rig with our customized stereo remote trigger for perfect sync of the stills capture. The only exceptions are the interior shots at Dover Castle where I used a single Canon 5D Mark II on a slider bar for greater control of the interaxial distances (the single camera technique only works for static subjects and not recommended for exterior location work). The matching LEFT and RIGHT eye images were then converged and rendered into a 3D anaglyphic composite in Adobe Photoshop using the anaglyph Dubois technique described here:
http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~edubois/anaglyph/
http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~edubois/anaglyph/LeastSquaresHowToPhotoshop.pdf
Despite the loss of the “trueness” of colors with the Dubois technique, I’ve found that these final rendered shots are still undeniably more comfortable to view as a Dubois Optimized render than a standard red/cyan anaglyph image. There are stand alone application out there for converging 3D stills, some with option for Dubois Optimized, but I haven’t found any that work on a Macintosh platform and offer the image control I’m accustomed to in Photoshop. If you know of one, please let pass on the link.
Hope you enjoyed the tour. Next week we’ll travel to the wilds of Wales for a stereoscopic foray into King Edward I’s legendary Conwy Castle.
Ian Herring, President
