We’ve received a handful of emails from JitterPic users looking for advice on how to create good-looking 3D effects. Here’s a public thank you for the emails. We appreciate so much your creative drive to take good pics! For all JitterPic users who share our dream of creating good 3D effects, here are a few thoughts and pointers.

3D Basics: To visually experience an object in 3D, that object must be seen through two side-by-side lenses. For example, we are able to experience our world in 3D because we have two  eyes. Each eye observes a given object from a slightly different perspective. The brain combines the eyes’ two observations into the single image that we “see.”  If we lose vision in one of our eyes we, theoretically, no longer see in 3D.

3D Photography: 3D effects in photography are achieved by using trickery to show each eye a slightly different perspective of the same photo. One form of trickery is the anaglyph–one of those retro-looking red and blue images (like this) that requires the use of red and blue lensed glasses. Another form of trickery is the stereoscope, a two-lensed viewer through which the user sees a slide (like this) with two pictures on it.

JitterPic uses the stereoscope model; in fact, the photo effect we create is called wiggle stereoscopy. Because the iPhone only has only one lens, you need to take the time to snap two separate pictures. The two pictures taken from slightly different (more…)