3D Glasses: The Better to See You With, My Dear

Even tribbles enjoy a good 3D movie now and then.

Whenever I advise people to get a pair of Red/Cyan glasses for viewing anaglyphic images someone invariably says, "I've got a pair of 3D glasses left over from the movies. Can't I just use those?" Unfortunately, the answer is no. There are many different types of 3D and each one requires its own glasses. One of my pet peeves is finding packages of inexpensive 3D glasses (usually in the party favors section of the big box store) that are labeled simply, "3D Glasses." They don't tell you what type of image they are used to view, so some little kid is going to be awfully disappointed when they don't work on the picture he or she wants to see. That disappointment might turn them off of 3D completely and they'll never know the fun they missed. So without further ado, let me try to explain the differences.

Let's start with Red/Cyan.

My campsite from a recent camping trip with my grandson

Above is an example of a Red/Cyan anaglyph.

You can tell if an image is anaglyphic by the fuzzy colored halo that surrounds objects in the picture. And you just thought your eyesight was failing!

Anybody up for "The Creature From The Black Lagoon?"

Paper glasses are the most inexpensive glasses to find for viewing Red/Cyan anaglyphic images. They cost pennies per pair. Usually they are sold in packs of 10 or more, but you can find singles for sale too. Since I paste 3D photos into my journals I keep a pair in each volume. They fold up flat, take up little space and are tops for convenience. But if style is your thing and you don't want to look like you just stumbled out of 1953 you can also get these in plastic in a variety of styles.

Buddy Holly is coming right at me!

 Plastic frames are sturdier than the paper ones, if I may be so bold as to state the obvious. The lenses are sturdier too, but they are usually made of acrylic so you must be careful not to scratch them.

These are my "Roy Orbisons."

They are proportionately more expensive than the paper ones, but not bank breakers by any means. You can usually find a good deal on surplus glasses left over from events and shows. These might have half a dozen pairs in them, sometimes with extra freebies thrown in.

Now you see 'em...

These clip on to your regular glasses and flip up.

Now you don't.

 That comes in handy when I'm editing 3D images on the computer.

Wanna see laser beams shoot out of my eyes?

But red and blue glasses are just as good as the red and cyan ones right? Cyan is just a shade of blue isn't it?

Unfortunately, red and blue lenses are greatly inferior to Red/Cyan. Color distortion is a factor with red and blue and the 3D effect is less pronounced than with red and cyan images. Ghosting is a major problem. You see fuzzy auras of color around the subjects in your picture. That type of blurry image can even set off headaches. That's not really the 3D experience we had in mind, is it?

Why is this so?

Well, it all boils down to a little thing called the Tristimulus Theory which points out that the human eye is sensitive to three wavelengths of light-- red, blue and green. Since we only have two eyes and not three we must find a way to squeeze all three colors into our eyes with just two lenses. The red and blue glasses don't do the job because they can't filter the green wavelength. Green just sort of hangs out in the picture with nothing to do but cause trouble. (There are some 3D images which require red and green lenses, but they have the same issues as red and blue.)

Remember the Martian eye from "War of The Worlds?" That thing would be perfect for viewing 3D!

Enter Cyan. Cyan is the combination of blue and green and allows both wavelengths to get into your peepers without having to elbow each other out of the way. The red lens filters for red of course. By using these two complementary colors we can see sharper images with more depth and truer colors. It's beautiful.


 Using the complementary color theory a newer anaglyphic system has been developed called ColorCode 3D which employs an amber lens over the left eye and a blue lens for the right. The left eye gets all the color information while the right eye sees a monochromatic image which provides the illusion of depth. That illusion is achieved in the brain as it mixes the information from both eyes into a single image. Viola! And we didn't even have to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

The upshot to all this amber and blue stuff is that colors are much truer and the image when viewed by folks without the funny glasses on is less distorted and easier on the eyes.

 Here is a link to a veritable cornucopia of 3D glasses available on Amazon.


In my next post we'll jump back in time and explore side-by-side Stereography the oldest method of achieving the 3D illusion.