God love admiration                                                                 
You saying God vain? I ast.                                         
      Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing.
I think it [annoys God] if you walk by the color purple in a field
somewhere and don't notice it.                                                
                                                Alice Walker, The Color Purple

INTRODUCTION

         We have two eyes, not just one like the Cyclops of Greek mythology Thus we have excellent depth perception in our everyday lives. We would object strongly if asked to go about wearing a patch over one eye. But when we go on holiday we come back with collections of single photographs.

CyloW
A Cyclopean individual – is this you?

         A normal photograph is just one picture - a one-eyed view which does not show distances. You can as easily take two pictures, a left-eye picture and a right-eye picture. Lay this stereo-pair side by side, see the left-eye picture with the left eye and the right-eye picture with the right eye, and a usual binocular (two-eyed) impression is obtained in all its glory.

         This webpage is to show how to see stereo-pairs. Anything essentially three-dimensional is best viewed in stereo. Examples are given here. They are easy to take; they provide a faithful record of three-dimensional details and cross-eye viewing is instantaneous. There are many potential applications.

         Most people are capable of seeing stereo-pair pictures without the aid of a stereoscope. No special abilities are required. Stereo-pair pictures allow one the excitement of seeing the hitherto unseen: -

Izzy
Alice has made a discovery

Newspapers and journals and bookshops should regularly show cross-eye stereo-pairs, and children should compare their favorite stereo cards. Here are great commercial opportunities.