How to take good 3D videos & photos with the iPhone’s 3D camera. BONUS: Use it as 3D camera/webcam for your desktop device

How to take good 3D videos & photos with the iPhone’s 3D camera. BONUS: Use it as 3D camera/webcam for your desktop device

If your iPhone has two horizontally aligned lenses (in landscape orientation) on the back, you can record 3D video and take 3D photos. Note: Due to stabilization, it is better for iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max users to take Spatial Videos, but this guide will still be useful for taking 3D photos with your 15 Pro/Max. and use it as your computer PC 3D camera.

This guide was initially intended for using i3DMovieCam, but recently i3DMovieMaker integrated the camera features of i3DMovieCam; so we recommend using the Maker App directly, as it is an all-in-one tool which allows editing the recorded videos on the same App. With the Cam App, you’ll need anyway the editor if you want to edit, join, or export the videos right on the device.

Configure your iPhone

Once the App is installed, we’ll need first to set it up to match the cameras of our iPhone: touch the gear icon to open the settings (if using the Maker App, open the camera first -at bottom-right-).

You should habilitate Tap to switch full-screen anaglyphs, it will ve very useful later. The level indicator will help us to better frame the images.

The Zoom Ratio sets the zoom ratio for the left and right cameras as one dual camera. For example, if the telephoto camera in your iPhone is twice the standard camera (2x): set zoom ratio Telephoto lens: 2.0. Put 3.0 if your iPhone has a 3x telephoto.*

In the iPhone11Pro/12Pro/13Pro/14Pro, the main and telephoto trinocular cameras are aligned side by side. But on the iPhone15 Pro / Max, the camera arrangement has changed so that now the main and ultra-wide angle cameras are aligned. So if you have one of these models, turn on “Use standard and ultra-wide cameras” in the settings (you will need to restart the application for the setting to take effect).

The i3DMovie… camera interface

Once setup, we can close the settings and go to the main screen.

We will select quality settings and file format. In resolution, choose 1920×1080 (not needed in the Maker App).

For obtaining the best possible quality, we will use the Full resolution videos for each eye: select the icon Independent (Parallel) (on the Maker App it is the default behavior), don’t worry, we’ll be able to export later to other 3D formats. This is the best option always, as it allows having the originals in maximum quality to edit and be able to export to other lower quality formats, or easier nondestructive editing.

Know the basics

Then we could start taking photos & videos, but first note the red x = 0 and y = 0 texts in the middle, this will indicate the convergence compensation according to the distance of the subjects. Remember that the small distance between the iPhone lenses is ideal for close-ups, but not good for mid-large distances, if you want to capture landscapes, you can solve this by framing a person or object moderately near the camera.

To better understand this, touch any of the two images to enter in anaglyph full-screen. Here you will see each eye coded in different colors: one red and one blue. You should check if the vertical alignment is correct (usually they are correctly aligned unless you shoot too close subjects). If the vertical alignment is not correct, swipe with 2 fingers up or down until the red & blue images have the same vertical alignment. Once vertical alignment is correct, we can concentrate on convergence.

To adjust convergence, swipe the finger to the left or right on the anaglyph image. Try not to increase much convergence, contrary to general belief, the best images are the ones in which the blue & red images almost coincide. Moreover, when you compensate the convergence, the App needs to crop images to left and right sides, and that will add black bars on your 3D display.

Watch and carefully compare the nearer and farther subjects on the anaglyph image, close subjects have the red image deviated to one side, and farther subjects to the other. Practice on taking the same photo but with different convergence settings. If you make the red & blue images match on the nearer subjects, the 3D will be inside the display, and if you match the images on further away subjects, almost all the image will be outside the display. BUT don’t make images all outside the display, repeat, don’t try to make all the image pop out outside the display, it will be almost certain you will produce eyestrain.

Practice

The better approach is to have most of the image inside the display, and only some nearer elements popping out of the display. In certain situations, the subject will look better with all the subjects inside the display, others will produce a good effect with half of the image outside. The key is to practice with your firsts pictures, so you can understand the relation of images separation and distance of subjects.

Practice first by taking 3D photos with various convergence settings and check the results. When you have the knowledge of subject distances and deviation on the left & right images, you could start taking 3D videos confidently.

It’s important to avoid window violations: objects cut at the borders of the image which are nearer than the screen plane, that will make your brain gets annoyed because the 3D object is cut in midair by a farther object (the border of your display); make these objects at borders stay inside the display, so they won’t annoy the brain of the viewer.

Considerations for taking 3D video on the iPhone

i3DMovie… Apps are great, but don’t use the incredible stabilization you can get when recording video on the default’s iPhone camera. So, try to record in a support or stationary position, and if you want to move, use a gimbal to avoid a shaky image. If you use an iPhone 15 Pro or Max, record Spatial Video with Spatialify instead for more quality, stabilization, richer colors, and even automatic convergence settings; You will be able to export to other 3D formats later with i3DMovieMaker.

Remember to consider the distances of the subjects you’re going to record.

Once you recorded the pair of videos, for maximum quality and flexibility, import them on a computer program like Vegas Pro (here’s a massive discount on humble bundle), which has professional stabilization and stereoscopic alignments. If you don’t have access to any desktop stereoscopic video editing program, use i3DMovieMaker itself to export the videos as a 3D file right from the iPhone.

BONUS: Full-screen display & use as a 3D capture device for your computer

Long-tap the screen to switch between full-screen and normal view.
The full-screen display can be sent to a PC or Mac via Wi-Fi using an app called NDI HX Capture, which streams your iPhone image so it can be used with any conferencing or video editing program. Just open the App and start streaming the display of your iPhone, then go to the i3DMovie… App and long-tap the screen to put the SBS image on full screen.

You’ll need to install this program on your desktop device to receive the image from your iPhone. So it will act as a 3D capture device that you can use on any conferencing/video program on your PC. Telegram, Zoom, Teams, Skype, Vegas Pro, Pinnacle Studio, etc… The possibilities are endless.

*When set to 2x or more; Both the standard and telephoto lenses will have the zoom magnification you set. If the size of the left and right images do not match even after changing the setting values, use another software (like Vegas Pro or Stereo Movie Maker FF) for post-processing to adjust the size of the left and right images.

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