First photo in 3D

First 3d photo

Henry Collen (1797-1879) made a stereoscopic calotype portrait of Charles Babbage in August 1841. This is now lost. The Babbage portrait may be one of those referred to by Charles Wheatstone, writing in 1852:

It was at the beginning of 1839, about six months after the appearance of my memoir in the Philosophical Transactions, that the photographic art became known, and soon after, at my request, Mr. TALBOT, the inventor, and Mr. COLLEN (one of the first cultivators of the art) obligingly prepared for me stereoscopic Talbotypes of full-sized statues, buildings, and even portraits of living persons. M. QUETELET, to whom I communicated this application and sent specimens, made mention of it in the Bulletins of the Brussels Academy of October 1841.

Collen himself recalled:

In 1841, when I was one of the very few who undertook to make use of Mr. Talbot's process, Mr. Wheatstone not only had the idea of making photographic portraits for the stereoscope, but at his request, and under his direction, in August of that year, I made a pair of stereoscopic portraits of Mr. Babbage, in whose possession they still remain; and if I remember rightly, Mr. Wheatstone has previously obtained some daguerreotype portraits from Mr. Beard for the stereoscope. [H. Collen (1854) "Earliest stereoscopic portraits" Journal of the Photographic Society 1:200, quoted in Wade].

2 stereoscopic self-portraits by Dr John Adamson (1810-70) of the University of St Andrews were presented by Sir David Brewster (who had asked Adamson to execute them) on 26 March 1849; the process is not stated, but was apparently calotype. [Brewster; Pellerin pp43-8] The University of St Andrews Library Photographic Archive has an interesting stereographic portrait, said to be c. 1845, and inscribed on the front free endpaper is "Dr Lyon Playfair from JA" (John Adamson); a handwritten note below states '1st stereo portrait in the history of the stereoscope - Sir D Brewster of Dr Adamson'. Marc Boulay, Photographic Archivist at St Andrews, has confirmed that this image is a salted paper print of Dr John Adamson, thought to have been given by Adamson to John Lyon Playfair, who in turn is thought to have been the owner of one of the two albums at St Andrews in which the image is found. Boulay agrees that these images 'very well could be' those presented by Sir David Brewster. [private communication] NB there is a very apparent time lag between left and right images.

Brewster travelled to Paris in 1850, and presented one of his lenticular stereoscope viewers (made commercially from 1849) to Louis-Jules Duboscq (1817-86), who was the first person to produce stereoscopic daguerreotypes for viewing with the lenticular stereoscope. (Eder claimed that stereoscopic photography was first applied to daguerreotypy about 1845 in France.) Two such by Duboscq, from the George Eastman House collection (undated, but under the sub-heading '1850') appear in Grinde; another from the same collection, dated as 'ca. 1850), is at George Eastman House. These must be amongst the very earliest surviving.

360° cylindrical panoramas: In 1857 the French mining engineer Felix-Napoleon Garella (1809-58) made and patented a rotating photographic instrument with up to 360° field of view, using the same principle as the Cirkut camera of 1904. [Panoramic Photo; Nederlands Fotomuseum]

On 15 September 1891 Louis Ducos du Hauron (1837-1920) submitted his patent for the first printed anaglyphs - photographs consisting of two negatives (one in blue or green, the other in red) printed on the same sheet of paper to form a 3D photograph. [Pellerin pp121-3]. An anaglyph by Ducos du Hauron, dating from 1891-3, is reproduced on p132 of Reynaud, Tambrun and Timby.

In 1920 Louis Lumière (1864-1948) invented a process he called 'photostéréosynthèse', which involved taking six or seven shots of a subject, each focusing on a very thin plane with very little depth of field. Prints of each image on glass are then viewed sandwiched. Viewed along the sagittal (shooting) axis, perpendicular to the planes of the images, the 3D impression was said to be 'absolutely striking'. Examples are presented (in 2D) in Frizot (2000a) pp145-9]. See also Garnet Hertz's Photostereosynthesis Camera Controller.

Parallax barrier, lenticular and integral photographic processes are all autostereoscopic - meaning they can be viewed without special glasses or a viewer.

Frederick Ives (1856-1937) patented his 'parallax stereogram' process on 25 September 1902 (although according to Eder he claimed to have invented it as early as 1885). Using line screen barriers rather than the later linear lenticulars, it was the first autostereoscopic process. After the grant of the patent the Scientific Shop in Chicago published five of his parallax stereograms as stock images. Typical of these was his image of 'The Brigand', depicting a cowboy pointing a revolver directly at the viewer; this image is reproduced in 2D in Zone [a dealer online says the portrait is purportedly of Pat Garrett, who killed Billy the Kid, but I see no evidence for this]. A more sophisticated technique allowing multiple views behind a barrier screen was proposed in January 1915 by Clarence W. Kanolt (US Patent #1,260,682, of 1918), incorporating a large format camera which moved the barrier screen between exposures. Kanolt described the multiple stereo view images produced as 'parallax panoramagrams'. [Roberts]

Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921), at the Sorbonne, first proposed integral imaging in 1908. Integral imaging uses tiny spherical lenses, in a fly's-eye lens array, rather than linear lenticulars, allowing for parallax in all directions. The first successful experiment in integral photography was by P.P. Sokolov of Moscow State University, in 1911. [Sokolov; History of Integral Imaging] But later development of the simpler linear lenticulars, with only horizontal parallax, was to prove more commercially successful. [Roberts; and Frizot (2000b)]

Edwin Land's polarising sheet film was first used for the projection of still stereographic images of sculpture in March 1934. The vectograph was invented by Joseph Mahler (c. 1900-81) for the Polaroid Corporation, and uses polarized glasses to view a 3D photographic image embedded in a plastic sheet. It was announced in 1938 and shown at the New York World's Fair the following year. [Zone, A Brief Timeline of Polaroid]

One of the most seen vectographs was the large wall vectograph print advertisement that was displayed in Grand Central Station, New York, during the 1940s, of a candy roll of Life Savers. It was taken by Charles Debois Hodges who worked for Keystone using a Stereo Graphic camera before its processing by Polaroid. An image may be found at Dick Bolt on vectographs. Since the early 40s one of the most familiar vectographs has been that of the Titmus Fly, used in eye-testing. An anaglyphic version appears here.

The first transmission hologram was made by Dennis Gabor (1900-1979) in 1947, using filtered light. The first 3D transmission hologram using laser light was made on 19 December 1963 by Emmett Leith (1927-2005) and Juris Upatnieks (b. 1936), of the University of Michigan. It showed "partial reconstruction of several three-dimensional objects"; but Leith was adamant that "there wasn't a first hologram; it was an evolutionary process". Their first high quality hologram of a three dimensional object was of a toy train, made three days before Christmas 1963. [Johnston, pp109-10; Holophile includes a photo of an early (c. 1964) hologram of the toy train and a ceramic bird.]

360° cylindrical holograms were first described in print in 1965, in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, and had certainly been produced by early 1967. [Johnston, pp204-5]

The 1967 World Book Encyclopedia Science Yearbook contained what is arguably the first mass-distributed hologram. This was a 4" x 3" transmission view of chess pieces on a chess board. An article describing the production of the hologram and basic information about the history of holography accompanied it. A .05 watt Helium-Neon laser was used on a nine-ton granite table in a 30-second exposure to make the original. All copies were then produced from this original.

Holograms can be created without visible light. Ultraviolet, X-ray, and sound waves can all be used to create them. Microwave holography is being used in astronomy to record radio waves from deep space. Acoustical holography can look through solid objects to record images, much as ultrasound is used to generate images of a foetus within a womb. Holograms made with short waves such as X-rays can create images of particles as small as molecules and atoms. 

Spherical VR panoramas: Omnidirectional digital cameras such as the Panoscan can film multi-row panoramas, including cubic or spherical panoramas that include top and bottom views. They are viewed with players such as Apple's QuickTime, Flash Panoramas, or Immervision. Multispectral spherical panoramas are also now achievable; this is an example.

VR reconstruction: Although VR (Virtual Reality) is more generally used for simulation, it has been successfully used for the recording and reconstruction of real environments. The Virtualware company, for example, has reconstructed the natural cave of Santimamiñe, in the Spanish Basque Country, in VR, as may be seen in their demonstration video, apparently from 2007 or earlier. It is impossible to define a first here, as advances in computing power make earlier work seem less realistic - where do you draw the line? Moltenbrey provides a useful account from 2001, as does Veltman from 2005.

VR object movies: In contrast to panoramas, which are captured from one location looking out at various angles, objects are captured from many locations pointing in toward the same central object.

The simplest type of object VRs to capture are single row, typically captured around the equator of an object. This is normally facilitated by a rotating turntable. The object is placed on the turntable, and photographed at equal angular increments (usually 10°) from a camera mounted on a tripod. Capturing a multi-row object movie requires a more elaborate setup for capturing images, because the camera must be tilted above and below the equator of the object at several tilt angles. [QuickTime VR]

[NB Some of Muybridge's photography, from as early as August 1879, included images taken simultaneously by up to six cameras placed in a semicircle around the subject, the camera shutters being triggered at the same time. [Braun] The results could presumably be assembled as a proto-VR object movie, or perhaps as a lenticular, though it is not known whether this has ever been done. See Freeze Frame, for example.]

[The 1865 'revolving self-portrait' by Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820-1910—better known as 'Nadar') depicts 12 self-portrait photographs taken at 30° intervals around his circumference. Though clearly not taken simultaneously, the animation is surprisingly effective.]

Photosynth is a software application from Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington that analyzes digital photographs and generates a three-dimensional model of the photos and a point cloud of a photographed object. Pattern recognition components compare portions of images to create points, which are then compared to convert the image into a model. Users are able to view and generate their own models using a software tool downloadable from the Photosynth website.

The application's capabilities include being able to walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle; zoom in or out of a photo; see where pictures were taken in relation to one another; smoothly change viewing angle between nearby photos; and smoothly zoom in and out of high-resolution photos.

In use the experience is that of encountering associated 2-dimensional planes arranged naturalistically in VR 3-dimensional space.

Photosynth was first previewed from November 2006, and officially released to the public on 20 August 2008.

The most notable early photosynth aggregates 600+ photos of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, 20 January 2009. See Photosynth.

Volumetric displays: The Graphics Lab at the University of Southern California has designed an easily reproducible, low-cost 3D display system for displaying 3D objects in 3D. The display is autostereoscopic, omnidirectional, and interactive.

The Interactive 360º Light Field Display system works by projecting high-speed video onto a rapidly spinning mirror. As the mirror turns, it reflects a different and accurate image to each potential viewer. The system's rendering algorithm can recreate both virtual and real scenes with correct occlusion, horizontal and vertical perspective, and shading. See USC Graphics Lab.

This appears to be one example of swept-volume display, first described in 1966. It therefore comes under the category of volumetric displays, of which there are a number of types. These were first postulated in 1912.

In 2001 the Massachusetts-based Actuality Systems introduced the prototype of its Perspecta Spatial 3-D system, which is a volumetric, autostereoscopic display system, chiefly used in the medical market. Perspecta allows users to view moving objects from any angle with the unaided eye, simply by walking around them as you would if you were looking at real 3D objects. Perspecta consists of a rotating round white polymer screen resting on a box containing software, hardware, and an optical system. 25cm-diameter images appearing to float inside a clear sphere (field of view 360º horizontal, 270º vertical) are generated by slices of successive 2D images, rapidly projected one after another onto the screen, creating an illusion of a real 3D image. Perspecta Display 1.9 allows for full-colour imagery, and objects in motion. This is particularly effective with CT imagery, for example of breathing lungs. The Perspecta system was featured as a medical investigation tool in the CSI: New York autopsy lab in Season 4, Episode 1, broadcast on 26 September 2007. Actuality Systems was dissolved at the end of 2009, and intellectual property rights are now held by Optics for Hire. [Actuality Systems, Genuth]

3D scanning analyzes a real-world object or environment to collect data on its shape and appearance. The collected data can then be used to construct digital, three dimensional models. A number of different technologies can be used, including time of flight or triangulation laser scanning, structured-light or modulated-light scanning, and conoscopic holography—Wikipedia is good on this.

The earliest application was in Greg Turk and Mark Levoy's 3D scan of the 'Stanford Bunny', successfully created around Easter 1994. [The Stanford Bunny]

In 1996 a 3D scan of a 'Happy Buddha' statuette was recreated in 3D hardcopy, on behalf of Brian Curless and Mark Levoy, by a process of stereolithography. [Computer model and 3D fax of Happy Buddha] Stereolithography was one of the first commercial processes of 3D printing; Chuck Hull, founder of 3D Systems, invented the process in the mid-1980s, producing the world's first commercial 3D printer, the SLA1. [Lipson & Kurman, pp37, 73]

On a larger scale two different groups (from Stanford University and IBM) scanned (different) Michelangelo statues in 1999, the former using a custom laser triangulation scanner, the latter acquiring both geometric and colour details.

Yet larger projects have included Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the Kasubi Tombs in Uganda. In the former case, David Luebke and others scanned Monticello—Thomas Jefferson’s house—in 2002, using a commercial time-of-flight laser scanner, the DeltaSphere 3000. The scanner data was later combined with colour data from digital photographs to create the Virtual Monticello and the Jefferson’s Cabinet exhibits in the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2003. The Virtual Monticello exhibit simulated a window looking into Jefferson’s library. The exhibit consisted of a rear projection display on a wall and a pair of polarised stereo glasses for the viewer. Position tracking hardware on the glasses allowed the display to adapt as the viewer moved around, creating the illusion that the display was actually a hole in the wall looking into Jefferson’s Library.

3D printing can be used with other technologies. For example Cornell University CT scanned cuneiform clay tablets and printed replicas, which uniquely reproduced written characters in the hollow insides, otherwise unreadable without smashing the tablets. [Lipson & Kurman, pp18-20]

First 3D photo of a person, and first 3D portrait photo of a person

Henry Collen (1797-1879) made a stereoscopic calotype portrait of Charles Babbage in early 1841. This is now lost.

2 stereoscopic self-portraits by Dr John Adamson (1810-70) of the University of St Andrews were presented by Sir David Brewster on 26 Mar 1849; the process is not stated, but was apparently calotype. No image has yet been located. However the University of St Andrews Library Photographic Archive has an interesting stereographic portrait, said to be c. 1845, and inscribed on the front free endpaper is "Dr Lyon Playfair from JA" (John Adamson); a handwritten note below states '1st stereo portrait in the history of the stereoscope - Sir D Brewster of Dr Adamson'. Marc Boulay, Photographic Archivist at St Andrews, has confirmed that this image is a salted paper print of Dr John Adamson, thought to have been given by Adamson to John Lyon Playfair, who in turn is thought to have been the owner of one of the two albums at St Andrews in which the image is found. Boulay says this stereographic portrait is 'perhaps the earliest in existence'. [private communication]

Frederick Ives's parallax stereogram of 'The Brigand', 1903, is the earliest autostereoscopic photo of a human so far located. This image is reproduced in 2D at George Eastman House.

The first hologram of a person (himself) was made by Lawrence D. Siebert of the Conductron Corporation on 31 October 1967, using a pulsed laser of his design. [Johnston, p207 (a photograph of this image is on p208); Bjelkhagen.]

[The 1865 'revolving self-portrait' by Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820-1910—better known as 'Nadar') depicts 12 self-portrait photographs taken at 30° intervals around his circumference, in a quasi VR object movie. Though clearly not taken simultaneously, the animation is surprisingly effective.]

Examples of spherical VR panoramic portraits, of male and female artists, may be found at Bohonus. The portraits—by Seattle photographer Bradford Bohonus—included spoken commentaries by the artists. They date from no earlier than 1996.

The taking and realisation of a 3D-printed portrait was shown on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report on 8 June 2011, with Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot, creating a portrait of Colbert.

First 3D photo of a woman

The stereo daguerreotype Portrait of a woman with a dog, by Alexis Gouin (d. 1855), at George Eastman House, is the earliest surviving, so far located. It is dated ca. 1850.

First 3D portrait photo of a woman

The stereo daguerreotype Portrait of a woman with a dog, by Alexis Gouin (d. 1855), at George Eastman House, is the earliest surviving, so far located. It is dated ca. 1850.

A 1920s photostéréosynthèse of Yvonne Lumière by Louis Lumière appears (in 2D) in Frizot (2000a), p149].

Lloyd Cross created a multiplex hologram of a woman called Lesley ____ in the summer of 1972, based on 35 colour slides taken over 15 minutes. [Cross's draft 'Story of Multiplex']

Roger de Montebello's integral photographic portrait of a woman appears in the History of Integral Imaging. It was made in 1977 by his patented 'Integram' system.

Earliest-born person to be photographed in 3D

Insufficient information available. A stereo daguerreotype of an elderly woman, believed to be the mother or mother-in-law of Antoine Claudet, taken at Claudet's studio around 1853, appears here. As Claudet was born in 1797, she was probably born in the 1770s.

A 1920s photostéréosynthèse of Yvonne Lumière by Louis Lumière appears (in 2D) in Frizot (2000a), p149].

The earliest-born human being to be the subject of a lenticular portrait may have been the male subject of Ives's 'The Brigand' (see above), who appears to have been born no later than the 1870s. It may be more than coincidental that Ives's portrait went on sale in the same year as the release of the Edwin S. Porter film of The Great Train Robbery, which concludes with a strikingly similar image of a brigand pointing a gun into the lens. The two brigands have some facial similarities (not just the moustache!), so it's not impossible that Ives's sitter was Justus D. Barnes (1862-1946), who played the brigand in the famous scene in Porter's film.

Probably the earliest-born human being to be the subject of a holographic portrait was Henry Allingham (1896-2009). Both holographic and lenticular portraits of him were made at Spatial Imaging's London studio in December 2005. See Spatial Imaging Portraits and Manufacturing Talk.

Earliest-born man to be photographed in 3D

Insufficient information yet located.  It seems unlikely that Charles Babbage (1791-1871), subject of the earliest stereoscopic portrait photo, was the earliest-born, as he would have been aged about 50 only.

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