Tutorial – Anaglyph Images

Click for larger

With the rise of 3D film and television, the art of adding the third dimension has spilled into photo editing, with many editorials in fashion magazines adopting the appearance of anaglyphs. This is a very very basic method that I’ve come up with of re-creating that style. Remember to click each thumbnail for a larger preview.

Step One
To start we need to find our image. The one I chose of Alexa Chung was originally in grey scale, but if yours isn’t its probably a good idea to put it into grey scale (CTRL+SHFT+U in Photoshop). Also, I’ve found the best results occur when there is strong contrast within the image, so I duplicated the base and set that layer copy to “hard light”.

Step Two
Once our base is prepared (and merged into the one layer), we’re going to add some colours. With most anaglyphs, there are only two colours present, red and cyan. So what we’ll do is duplicate the base image, turning off the duplicate for a second. Create a new layer, fill it with #FF0000 (red), and set it to multiply. You’ll get something like this. Now, go back to the base duplicate we made a moment ago, and repeat the same process, only filling the layer this time with #00FFFF (cyan). You’ll get something like this. You should be left with a similar workplace to the image on the left.

Step Three
To finish our anaglyph, we need to merge the layers. So, set the top layer to “screen”. You’ll notice that when you do this, the image goes back to grey scale. Now, select the top layer and simply nudge it to whatever direction you desire. There is no rule as to what colour should be on which side of the image; if you wanted to create a “true” anaglyph, the red would prominently be on the left, and cyan on the right, but because my image isn’t necessarily meant to be viewed with 3D glasses, it doesn’t really matter (if I use this technique, I’ll often mirror the lighting of the image and have it so that where the shadows are, the red is. I did that a bit with this image). If the left/right thing confused you a little; my image has cyan prominently on the left, and red prominently on the right (therefore, not a “true” anaglyph). It also doesn’t really matter how far you need to nudge the second layer, because like I said, these images aren’t necessarily for 3D viewing, just to look like that.

But like I said, this is a very basic method, and as you can tell in my image, there’s still a bit to do (cropping, etc). But basically, for basic image editing, this is an alright technique to imitate anaglyphs. This isn’t a technique used to create real anaglyphs so please don’t try to use it like that.

Variation – Click for larger

Remember that these steps are only a guideline and you can change them however you wish. And if you want, e-mail me what you’ve made with this tutorial, I’d love to see your results!