If you have a lot of 3D photos you’ve probably discovered it can be a pain to organize them properly, even previewing and doing some simple editing could be a job you are not willing to start doing as it is not very convenient. The free StereoPhoto Maker application is a useful tool, but in the hands of more experienced users for doing some adjustments on 3D photos, but it is not intended for organizing your photos or even not very convenient for previewing 3D photo galleries. And here comes another interesting free tool called Phereoshop, it is a simplified 3d photo organizer, viewer and uploaded by the guys behind the 3D photo website www.phereo.com (the software platform that the photo section of 3DVisionLive is based on).
While Phereoshop is essentially for organizing and viewing your 3D photos it also comes with some simple and easy to use adjustments for editing 3D photos, offering features such as color correction, stereo alignment and cropping of images. The uploading part is there just to help you get the photos you want to share online easier on the Phereo’s website, for that you would need to have a registration at the website of course. The software is compatible with 3D Vision, you just need to disable the green Nvidia warning the first time you preview a 3D photo and you should be Ok, and you can of course also preview in other formats if you don’t have 3D Vision. The software can sure take some more improvements and get more features, but even now it is something that might be quite useful for novice users in 3D photography. So it is something worth trying out…
Nvidia has chosen what is the best 3D video of 2011 from the clips published on their 3DVisionLive.com portal the one they’ve considered to be the most ambitious, compelling, and technically excellent. That video is Peter H. Chang’s Deus Ex Homine that is an impressive compilation of motion-controlled stereo 3D time-lapse photography taken in the San Francisco area, a video that was also featured here on the blog back in October last year. So if you have missed seeing it back then, then you should take a look at it now as it is indeed impressive and looks really well in stereo 3D mode. You may also want to take a look at the gallery containing the best 12 stereoscopic 3D photos that Nvidia has chosen from the thousands of 3D photos uploaded by users in 2011 in their stereoscopic 3D community website.
Snapily3D is an interesting application for the Apple iPhone and iPad devices that allows you to take 3D photos with the 2D camera that these devices have. The way it works is similar to how Sony does it with their 2D digital cameras using the 3D Sweep Panorama function to generate 3D images from a single sensor/lens digital camera, so essentially you move the device like you are shooting a panorama swiping it around the object you want captured in stereoscopic 3D. The application itself offers a quick and simple visual guide on how you need to shoot in order to get the 3D photo generated and be able to view it in 3D mode, but I can say that I’ve had some trouble at first in actually getting a useable image. Snappily3D records a burst of few hundred photos in a time interval of up to 15 seconds, the time you have available so to move your iDevice, then analyzes if the captured footage is Ok for generating a 3D image or not. If it is not enough you get an annoying message and I saw it a lot at first (it is worse on the iPad, better on the iPhone as it has a better camera), if it is Ok the program starts to generate the 3D image that apparently consists of 10 different views.
After your 3D photo is processed and saved you can view the result in pseudo stereo 3D mode or as it is called Gyroscope 4D Mode in the application, this uses the built-in accelerometer in the device so that when you move it to the sides it switches between the different views for the 3D photo it has generated. The Gyroscope 4D Mode looks quite Ok, but if the movement between the different views can be made a bit smoother it would’ve been even nicer. The other option available to view the photo in stereo 3D mode is to use a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses (multiple color filters are supported besides the traditional red-cyan), use the cross-eyed viewing method or the Hasbro My3D adapter for viewing. You can also easily share the photo on popular social media websites, send it by email or just save it in the Photos folder of your device… if saving mind what is the currently selected 3D viewing format as is is the one you get the image saved in. Saving the photo also leaves a watermark on it “Created with Snapily 3D” which in the case of the using cross-eye viewing method for example misplaced the position of the watermark in the two photos making it unusable. On the Hasbro My3D adapter viewing method for example the watermark is only placed in the right eye view, and another possible issue is the fact that even in the modes where you see the left/right views of the image you still get the accelerometer movement of the image, so there is some more to be desired from this application, but these things should be easily fixable anyway.
Another interesting feature that the Snappily3D application offers is the ability to print the 3D photos you have taken with the application on paper in 3D using Snapily 3D photo printing services (lenticular prints). This will cost you $3.99 per photo print and thanks to the fact that the software already creates the multiple views if the photos are looking good in 3D on the device you shot them with, they should also be very nice on print… at least regarding the stereoscopic 3D effect. The resolution of the 3D images is unfortunately a bit low, especially for print, with Snapily3D you get two options available – SD quality (480×320) or HD quality (960×640), these are pretty much OK for viewing on iPhone or iPad, but won’t be that great on print. Still it is worth trying out what will be the end result with a few photos printed in 3D.
The website Snapily also offers the ability for printing out larger 3D photos using lenticular prints, from photos in JPS or MPO file format taken with 3D-capable devices such as Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1, Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W3, Panasonic DMC 3D1, HTC Evo3D, LG Optimus3D, Sharp Aquos3D or LG Thrill 4D. But you should also be able to print stereoscopic 3D game screenshots for example or something that you have edited in stereo 3D format. Snapily supports 3D photo prints with the following sizes: 4×6″, 5×7″, 6×9″ and the prices for single photos in these sizes are respectively $4.32, $6.30 and $9.72 USD, although for multiple 3D prints you may get a better price. Have in mind that since we are talking about lenticular prints for 3D photos not all real stereo 3D photos may look that great when printed due to the fact that lenticular printing requires multiple views per 3D photo and normally 3D cameras shoot only two views. This means that the extra views required for the lenticular 3D print need to be extrapolated from the two views that you already have and that not always produce the best end results. You are of course welcome to share your feedback from Snapily if you have already used their services…
