Red/Cyan 3D glasses are needed to view the photos in this post.
In my previous posts, I displayed my images of the Taj Mahal outside the visible spectrum, and in three dimensions. For the third post devoted to the Taj Mahal, I’m combining the two- this blog post is devoted solely to the 3D photos I took outside the visible spectrum.
Fair warning- I only have one full spectrum camera. For still life 3D photos, it isn’t a problem; for a famous site like the Taj Mahal, however, there is a lot of movement. I visited the Taj on a relatively quiet day before the real start of the tourist season, but there were still plenty of people walking around. As they kept walking between the time I took the left and the right photos, they stand out and are somewhat distracting.
Just to keep the photos in one place, here is the photo I took of the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort, posted previously. The A cropped and zoomed-in version of this photo is at the top of the post.
I took this(actually two photos superimposed, but I’m just going to refer to a 3d photo as a single photo) picture near sunset the night before from Agra Fort- the Yamuna river is on the left, behind the Taj. I used my Zomei 680 nm infrared filter for this photo- I would have loved to play around with some other filters, but had to keep up with the guided tour.
The next morning was the visit to the monument itself- here I did have time to experiment with different filters. I started with a Zomei 950 nm filter- due to the haze from the city, the sky wasn’t as dark in infrared as I expect. It was a perfectly clear day other than the haze- not a cloud in the sky.
I took this photo right after I entered through the Royal Gate(Darwaza-i-rauza).
I followed up with another 680 nm photo, from the same viewpoint.
At the centre of the complex, by the marble platform, I switched over to my Schott UG11 dual band filter. This filter eliminates visible light, but allows ultraviolet and a small amount of infrared light through.
I think this photo is the best of the lot(other than the photo I took from Agra). It just happened that there was a slight lull in the crowd- there were less moving people in the foreground, and therefore less movement error to detract from the 3D effect of the monument.
Finally, in a quiet spot near the Royal Gate, I combined my BG40 and UG11 filters to get a true ultraviolet photo(although a very small amount of IR light leaks in). I propped the camera on the floor below a railing for a steady shot, and took the photos
This was my first attempt at a 3D ultraviolet photo, and it went as well as I expected. I manually lightened the extremely dark trees, but the hazy sky and faded view of the Taj Mahal are the same in the original photo. Each of the two photos making up the 3D image needed a long exposure(8 or 10 seconds), so there is at least a half minute difference between when I started taking the left photo and when I finished taking the right. The movement of people has turned into a long vertical line that stands out, however, the exposures were so long that the motion blur almost fades away. As you can tell, there was no wind- the trees and bushes are perfectly clear.
… and that’s about it for the Taj Mahal for a while. There are a few more photos I’ll post eventually, but I’m ready to write about something else. It was an amazing monument, and I’m glad I saw it, but there are so many other amazing places to visit.
The above photos were taken with a Canon Rebel T3i camera, modified for full spectrum photography.
Parallel Views 