CHAPTER 1: How To Create 3D Anatomy Photos

The 3D photographs featured in this atlas were obtained using stereoscopic photography, following techniques similar to those described by Dr. Neil Patel in the 3D temporal bone atlas. Please see the “How I Do It” section for fundamentals on stereoscopic photography technique. In addition, in order to account for the lower depth of field and greater color palette seen in the soft tissue anatomy of the head and neck, the following adaptations were created for soft tissue anatomical dissections:

  1. The distance on the macro rail between the “left” eye and “right” eye photo needed to be narrowed to approximately 10 mm, rather than the 15-25 distance used temporal bone anatomy

  2. Due to the darker color of muscle and other soft tissue, the mounted flash ring was utilized on the brightest setting

Image Post-Processing

Please see Dr. Neil Patel’s YouTube guide on the fundamentals of how to create an anaglyph image. Additional details on the protocol utilized for this particular atlas are as follows:

  • Raw images were first imported into Photoshop. An ideal anaglyph utilizes the red and cyan color profiles overlaid to create a 3D image. However, the raw photographs needed to be adjusted to prevent undue eye strain due to the bright reds and blues in the cadaver images. On the 3D images, the contrast channel was opened, and the level of contrast was decreased, and the brightness increased.

  • When images contained bright reflections, or very bold vessels or musculature, these areas were individually selected and muted to prevent jarring contrast in the anaglyph image.

  • The background was eliminated to prevent distraction from the main cadaveric image. 

  • The right and left “eye” images were then altered into red and cyan color palettes to create an anaglyph image.

  • Images that had multiple dark veins (creating a wide, dark image on the 3D anaglyph) were adjusted by eliminating or minimizing some of these areas in the anaglyph. A wide, dark swatch of color was often unduly intrusive on the 3D effect of the final image. 

  • For the 2D photos, the desaturations made on the different structures were reversed and minor channel adjustments were made to give a clean and crisp view of the cadaveric anatomy.

  • Labels were then placed on the 2D images to aid the viewer in identification of anatomical structures encountered during the surgical procedure.