2005/06 Meeting and events reviews/pictures

Meeting of Dec 7, 2006  (Nov 30 meeting was postponed to this date due to snowy weather)
Dozen people came to see digital projected presentations of
- promotional stereo slide show for the upcoming NSA/ISU 2007 Boise Idaho convention
- Wanderung Outdoors Club - A kayaking trip in Desolation Sound (Sep 2006) by John Asbacher
- Stereo Space - amazing 3D views from outer-space by Bernd Simson
- A selection of nudes by Rolf Eipper

Meeting of Aug 31, 2006
   Fifteen showed up to see Bernd lead the group through digital workflow with special emphasis on 3D Pix. Bernd gave a live demonstration of instant 3D Pix where a stereo image of the group was immediately printed on capture to the 3D Pix format (details of the setup are here). A variety of 3D Pix products where on hand for sale at discounted prices.
   The twin 30D Canon cameras where demonstrated doing hyper-stereo of the group with images being auto-aligned in StereoPhotoMaker.
   In our 3D tidbits break, Dragan overviewed his simple technique for easy Phantogram creation plus a simple stereo slide duplicator. Also Peter (among several of his tidbits) showed the recent Tool music cd "10,000 days" that features a stereo viewer folder with stereo prints.
   The last part of the evening where two shows. Bernd had a digital projected show of 30D images (including the group images just taken). And Rolf had a slide (analog) show of folio slides.

Meeting of Apr 27, 2006
   About ten people came to view Bernd's digital showing of "Grading end-of-term papers in DR, Dec 2005". Of special interest, we also played with a variety of stereo adapters on digital slr's (Canon 30D and 5D) and where able to view the immediate results digitally projected in 3D. A new member, John, brought some of his first close up work which we previewed (print and digitally projected). Bernd finished the evening with an overview of his new imaging web site that includes a 3D gallery of his work.

Holiday Dinner Meeting of Jan 26, 2006
   Holiday dinner meeting at the Alpen Club

Meeting of Oct 27, 2005
   A dozen people came for an evening of analog (non-digital) shows. Rolf gave a full show of his spring04 Easter Island trip. In addition Ernst Schait presented a selection of slides (with 35mm twin projectors) of trains, railways, Germany and Vancouver scenes. Of note among the various discussions there was a quick demo of StereoPaint (2D3D conversion software) and Google Earth.

Meeting of Jul 28, 2005
   Only a few people (half dozen) came on this warm summer evening. We watched "Art in Depth" by James Long, a hi-res Power Point presentation that James sent to us of his 2D3D conversions. Then we viewed a digital presentation of Italy, a May 2005 trip by Bernd Simson that included stops in Rome, Florence, Tuscany/Chianti, Cinque Terre and Venice.

 Meeting of Apr 28, 2005
Over 20 people showed up for this action packed evening of 3D that began in film and ended in digital.
    Presentations opened with twin slide RBT projections of a Folio held by Rolf and selection of slides by Dragan Smekal. Then Gary and Rolf team operated the ViewMaster projector to present old ViewMaster reels brought by Dragan. A break ensued with people perusing the great deal of equipment and prints that were brought by members. Of note, there were multiple twinned digital cameras, many samples of stereo adapters, stereo prints and even a anaglyph computer game (Stereo Space Combat) to try. Peter Lowery led a brief interlude of 3D TibBits that included twin digital cameras purchased for $10. This opened into the digital part of the evening which began with a surprise presentation of Cascade Stereo Club’s competition finalist images from the web.
    Then as promised, Bernd Simson led a workshop/talk on beginner’s digital stereo. The following details some of the important points.
Digital Capture
    It began with an overview of simple approaches for digital stereo capture (twinned cameras, stereo lens attachments, single camera cha-cha technique, digitizing film). Bernd then took several cha-cha pictures of the evening group (free hand, sliding on as counter and then using a Bogen slide bar (available from Lens & Shutter)) for his demonstration. In addition a few stereo images from the web using Google image search with key words as “3D stereo Paris” and samples from Jack’s twin digitals and a special image from John Asbacher using a cell phone camera.
Digital Prep
    Right/left images from the capture where organized into separate directories and given matching file names. This organization was done in Windows explorer but it was noted special software such as the free IrfanView or ACDSee would be of real help here. Thumbnail views set two across help in sorting which image is left or right.
    Then demonstrated was quick and easy processing to a jps format using StereoPhoto Maker. The processing included quick translational alignment and cropping. (noted, further processing could include rotation, color, density balance). Translational alignment was done by simply select a location on the image to appear at the screen plain and precisely overlapping left/right views at that point.
    Of note, StereoPhoto Maker saves images based on what it shows on the screen. Stereo jps format is side-by-side cross-eye view (right image on the left). To save jps, have the cross-eye view showing in StereoPhoto Maker and select save stereo twin. Then select the jps extension.
Digital Presentation
    The results was then shown digitally projected using Stereo Slideshow. The quality of group cha-cha images taken earlier was surprisingly exceptional.
    Noted: presentation software handles the formatting to the desired output such as to stereo cards, anaglyph prints or to twin monitor views. A question of how to include a spacing (septum) between left/right views is handled by the presentation software.
    Stereo Slideshow only recognizes jps files (as does several other presentation software). Stereo Slideshow is multi-monitor aware and will work with one, two or three monitors. With this early version, if a problem occurs simply erase the config file to force it to regenerate a default file.

Holiday Dinner Meeting of Jan 27th, 2005
   Over 20 people came for dinner at the Alpen Club. There was a lot of activity with passing viewers and other stereo items around the table. As usual, medium format by Gary Cullen stole the show startling people with its vivid imaging. Of novel interest, Peter Lowery brought the 3D M&M candy dispenser and Rolf brought a toy anaglyph projector. I'm hoping to include some pictures of the evening here shortly.