3D baby photograph

What's so special about a 3D autostereoscopic photograph?

How about the simple reason that humans see 3D. Humans have stereopsis (the ability to fuse the image from each eye into a single image with depth). Humans see depth and experience the world every day in three dimensions. A single perspective regular photograph is a reference image that the brain must process referentially and interpret depth. We use visual cues in a regular photograph to interpret 3D. For example: one object blocking another object which implies it is in front. We look at shadows and perspective cues like lines converging as they go into the distance. Other cues like blurriness imply things in the distance. We draw upon our experience viewing the world in 3D to interpret 3D information from a single perspective photograph. In some ways it is akin to closing one eye. But it is worse because by closing one eye you can still see motion parallax which is a very strong depth cue in reality that is completely missing in a photograph. When we look at a regular photograph there is no confusion about whether or not it is real. We know immediately it is NOT real and we are forced to interpret it.

Think about this; even subliminally we prefer images that imply depth. One of the things that makes one photograph subjectively better than another photograph is its ability to infer depth and dimensionality. Photographers have gone to great lengths using light in dramatic ways to infer depth - to, in essence, fill in that which is missing. All along, photography has been about doing as good a job as possible to make up for what it is missing: depth. One doesn't have to read too many chapters of the book: "Fixing My Gaze" by neuroscientist Susan Barry, who acquired stereopsis later in life, to appreciate that we take the amazing gift of stereopsis vision for granted.

Put in simple terms, when we view a regular photograph we must draw upon memories and experience to interpret the photograph. When we view an autostereoscopic photograph by Almont Green we are experiencing and processing a dimensional image. We see it as we see everything else in the real world. The image itself becomes a memory that can ironically be used to interpret non-real imagery. When you look at an Almont Green photograph and move your head slightly you see a slightly different perspective just as you do in real life. You can examine and explore details in the same way you examine things in real life.

The answer to the question really is not about what is special to 3D photographs, but understanding the reason for 2D photographs. We have had to endure flat imagery because the technology for 3D has always been cumbersome, expensive, complicated and difficult to implement. We have had to settle for 2D photography because frankly we didn't have any tools capable of better. Like computers and cell phones, we were simply clueless that we are/were missing anything until after the technology became available. Viewing a state of the art Almont Green 3D photograph is like getting clued in to all that traditional photography is missing. It is as if you have been walking around all your life with a patch over one eye and that patch can finally be removed.

Almont Green 3D photographs fill in all that is missing with single perspective photographs. Almont Green 3D photography eliminates the need to endure all that is missing with outdated technology. We can finally open both eyes and see things as they are meant to be seen.