Stereo portraits with a single camera

One lens, not two -- but multiple light sources:

The technique, called photometric stereo, uses a fixed digital camera and at least three lights placed around it to illuminate the face from different angles.

The lights are synchronized to flash very quickly in succession, in a few hundredths of a second, so the person being photographed only perceives one flash. But the computer picks up digital data for all lighting angles.

A program written by Petrou and her colleagues analyzes the shadows and highlights, and then combines them into one three-dimensional image.

From Discovery News. Photometric stereo has been applied successfully to the recording of ancient artifacts, and inscriptions in particular. For stereo landscape photography, however (still a popular pursuit), you'll have to stick to the old techniques.

Posted by David on February 7, 2007 10:03 AM