Parallax

I'm amazed sometimes reflecting on what photography is: the capturing of moments in time, slicing events and occasions into memorable sections that might otherwise fade in our memories.

It helps us to remember the fun times with our family...

and of the special characters in our lives.

If you think of a camera like your eyes, you realize that it's only looking at things with one of them. Thinking of this the other day while checking out some photos, it kinda struck me as odd and amazing. So when you look at a photo, both of your eyes are viewing a "single-eyed" image, even though it's quite obvious to anyone. It's not an original revelation I realize, but I think in a way this is part of the interest that we all find in photography. That of catching the moment with only a sinlge eye view.

So we're use to seeing the world in 3d, but the camera flattens everything out into 2d, which is especially obvious when you have the photo there printed out before you. So we go back to our pictures with our eyes that are made to view 3d, and view things in a 2d slice, showing somewhat more exactness and focus than our 3d eyes show us all the time.

More exactness?? Well, if you look at two objects, both at a somewhat closer distance, one being slightly in front of the other, and then you alternate closing, or covering one eye at a time, what do you notice? You'll see that one eye shows a different picture than the other eye, the left giving more or less, or at least different information than the right eye, and vice versa. So it's like you're seeing in "stereo" really. The spacing between our eyes allows us to determine depth and distance of objects. I sometimes wonder what depth would look like if our eyes were 1, 2, 3 feet apart. Sound a little too sci-fi for you? Well scientist use this to determine the distance of planets and other celestial objects by overlaying images of stars/planet taken from two different telescopes at different locations. It's called parallax and it's defined as: a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and it's an interesting concept to consider while you're taking photos.

When photography was still young, some had pinpointed and understood this concept of what a photograph shows us and what our eyes see. They had figured out that if you take two photos of the same scene from slightly different positions (one photo taken to the left and one to the right), you could view both photos at once through a pair of glasses that would present the image to you in a 3d manner. This was called stereoscopic photography.

Here's one of the earliest versions of a stereoscope.....

And here's a cool newer version that you might remember....

 

Check out this stereoscopic image below:

These two images of a bust sculpture of Tutankhamen were taken at just slightly different angles from one another. To see it stereoscopically, cross your eyes until there is a third image in the middle of the two already there. With a little practice you'll get that third pharaoh in focus, and it looks pretty cool (click on the image to see it larger).

Here's another one to try (don't get your eyes stuck) Click on the image to see it larger.

Again, not that this is some new revelation to our senses and understanding, but this is part of the history of photography. And it's interesting to see what we, as sensing perceiving self-aware creatures, started noticing after photography was invented. New movies like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland 3D, have shown us how impressive and far this understanding of vision can take our entertainment and senses, but that is a whole other tangent.

So the point? I'm only trying to show that perspective, and how we see, can make us better photographers, better appreciators of the world (not a word I know) and how we see things perhaps. That is all an artist is really, is someone who sees and conveys to others how they see.

So keep the idea of parallax in your mind the next time you pull out your camera, it may make you lean a little more to the left or right to capture your next shot.