Making 3D Images in Photoshop

3D Anaglyph Images in Photoshop

Make any of your 2D photos into 3D with this simple method.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could see your photographs in 3D as they were in real life. Well, here is a simple method by which you can make 3D images out of your photographs using the popular Adobe Photoshop photo editing software.

The method makes anaglyph images out of any photograph. In this method he images are separated into two colour layers of cyan (blue-green) and red. the layers and superimposed but offset from each other a bit. The image can then be viewed in 3D using anaglyph glasses to produce a depth effect. Many of you may already be having anaglyph glasses for playing 3D games. These can also be used for viewing these photographs.

Anaglyph glasses which can be used for viewing the Images in 3D

Although the 3D image used in this tutorial has been made using the newer CS4 version of Photoshop, the same method can be used even in older versions of Photoshop as the steps are all the same and use only simple tools and methods available in nearly all versions.

So turnover to the Method and get ready to go.

Firstly you don't want to mess the original image so try out whatever you want with a copy.

So go to the menu and duplicate the image.

Step 1. Image > Duplicate

Now remember that we have to create two superimposed images of different colours.

So next duplicate the layers.

Step 2. Right click on the background layer in the layers panel and duplicate the image.

Now we have two layers on top of each other. Time to change their colour properties.

The layers are presently in full RGB colour. We want the top layer to be composed only of Red colour, so to make it fully red we will strip the top layer of the blue and green colours. In order to do so.

Step 3. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels

Here first select the green channel and

Step 4. Change the green channel output levels from 255 to 0

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 732x555.

Step 5. Next select the blue channel output levels from 255 to 0

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 750x660.

Now the top layer will look a dark red colour. However this layer is fully opaque and we want to be able to see the bottom layer also through this layer.

In order to do so:

Step 6. Go to the layers panel and change the layer properties from Normal to Screen.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 735x670.

Now move to the bottom layer and remove the red colour from it as we removed the blue and green colours from the top layer.

Step 7. Next select the red channel output levels from 255 to 0

the bottom layer will now be in Cyan colour (Green+Blue)

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 735x674.

Now we have got the two layers in Red and Cyan colours. Superimposed exactly on top of each other they give a full colour image. but we want them to be offset from each other a little bit so that they give a stereoscopic effect when viewed from the anaglyph glasses.

So to separate the two layers from each other:

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 739x647.

Step 8: Select the move tool from the tool bar and click on the top layer.Then from the keyboard left or right arrow move buttons <- -> nudge the top layer a bit. Press the keys 5 to 10 times depending on the amount of depth you want.

Step 9: Flatten the Layers into each other. To do so go to Layer > Flatten image

Now you will have your anaglyph image almost ready. However because we have nudged the top layer a bit. A small part of the bottom un-anaglyphed layer will be seen on the left or right side.

In order to remove this:

Step 9: Crop the Anaglyph image from the monochromatic layer using the crop tool.