TUTORIAL



1 - Introduction to Cosima (0.9b)

by Jørn Lang


1.1 About Cosima

Cosima is a specialized software for automatic mounting of stereo images. The program offers solutions to many mounting needs, such as mounting of video frames, scanned slides, beam-splitter images, digital cha-chas, images from double digital rigs, re-mounting stereos for magazines et cetera.

And it’s automatic. The present version of the program can be run in English or German.

Mounting of stereo pairs has long been a troublesome and time-consuming job for many stereo photographers. This goes both for mounting of slides and digital files. J. G. Ferwerda put it this way, in his book, The World of 3-D:

"Mounting is the difficult part of stereo, especially today"

And he continues...

"It is not the intention to discourage the reader, quite the contrary. As we hear from many stereo enthusiasts that they think themselves a poor hand at mounting, it is necessary to mention the fact that even the top stereo people all over the world have difficulty with accurate mounting, and yet they find much pleasure in taking photos."

J. G. Ferwerda, The world of 3-D, 1982.

Cosima now removes the tremendous threshold of stereo mounting. It makes stereo mounting attainable to lots of photographers who would otherwise find it too hard to get started with stereo.

The analysing power of Cosima in combination with the good work flow are its greatest advantages. Cosima will run batches of images automatically, based on your specifications of input and output images. If you like you can have a hand in the setting of the stereo window, but except for this you will not see your images before they are finished.


Norwegian mountains, photo by Jørn Lang.

1.2 Installation

First of all, download and install the needed files. See the step by step installation tutorial here: Installation of Cosima, IrfanView and customizing Windows Explorer.

After installation Cosima is ready for mounting of images in TGA-format, following the name pattern image_l, image_r. (In the unlicensed version, images larger than 640 by 480 pixels will have a text printed over the mounted images.)

Cosima will automatically mount TGA-files (a loss-less image format similar to flat TIFs). But usually, the images you have will be in some other format. When both Cosima and IrfanView, the free* image viewer and converter, are installed, you can use a large variety of file formats, including JPGs and TIFs.

*(IrfanView is free for private use.)

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Next section: 2 - Installation of Cosima, IrfanView and customizing Windows Explorer

Back to the Cosima homepage: www.herbig-3d.de/cosima/


Frozen lake, photo by Jørn Lang.