Learnings: 3D Anaglyphs

3D Anaglyphs are photos that have a three-dimensional effect often used to emphasize a certain part of the photo. Now, the only 3D anaglyphs we consider legit are the ones that actually work, and using effect generators (such as your easily accessible apps on your smartphones) will be considered cheating.

Put your 3D glasses on! Oscar selfie 3D anaglyph style*. By yours truly.

3D anaglyphs can be made with Photoshop. This effect can be achieved by first making a depth map, that is, a black-to-white rendering of the picture. You paint those you want to appear in front white and those you want to recede in the background (remain flat) black. You can use a variety of shades of gray as a middle ground and/or to have a smooth transition that allows a popping out-of-the-pic effect. This depth map is then to be saved as a .psd file. This is essential for the next step which is displacing the red and blue channels to the left and right, respectively. By going to Filter>Distort>Displace, then typing how much do you want the picture to be displaced horizontally. Select the depth map .psd file and voila! You now have your legit and working 3D anaglyph.

Of course to be viewed with 3D glasses (not polarized)

Check out this moving 3D pic of rapper M.I.A. by Romain Gavras. Cool!

*issues with viewing to be blamed to the internet :p