Customer Reviews

Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Many of the reviews here complain that the anaglyph conversions are misaligned. This is somewhat true of a few pictures. The real problem is that the 3-D glasses provided with the book are just plain terrible and the images suffer considerable 'bleed-through.' Use standard red/cyan 3D glasses and most of the pictures are magnificent.

Harold Lloyd was a good 3D photographer and managed the 3D very well, only too well I cannot say the same on whom prepared the photos for the book.
I worked several years using stereo photos, I take stereo photos for hobby and I must say that the 3D photos in the book are bad formed and printed.
Often they are misalligned and the colours of the glasses "lens" don't match with the printed colours.
You may try to use green-red glasses, or perhaps it should be better if the two stereo photos were printed side by side (as in the "3D-Hollywood") and not so badly merged as in this book.

Yes, some of the 3-D effects might have been done better... but this book has some great pictures, 3D and non-3D, very nicely reproduced, with good content by his granddaughter about Harold Lloyd (at one point one of America's most popular and successful silent screen actors). She writes about his lavish estate, and his obsesson with photography of all types (scenic, travel and nudes). I thought it was fascinating. And he was more than a rich actor who snapped a few (thousand) pictures. These are excellent photographs, the models are pretty, shot with care and a sense of story and playfulness. If you are a pin-up fan you will certainly enjoy this book.

Lots of great photos and some good stories, but the the 3-D reproductions don't look/work very well. Compared to a book like the excellent Civil War in Depth, the 3-D is terrible. Side-by-side images is a much better way to reproduce stereo photographs than the botched red/green separation in this book.

Lloyd was a facinating and diverse man. Besides film and 3D photography, he also enjoyed painting and magic/mentalism as hobbies - all of which I shared until the 3D bug bit me hard as well.

Any 3D person who peruses eBay is familiar with the type of "nudie" 3D slides of that era. Because of his Hollywood connections, the beauty of Lloyds models stand very well above the standard stuff (in what other 3D collection can Betty Page seem only second-string?). Some of these girls were actually established, professional LA models who never posed nude for anyone else.

Lloyd's artistic sense also shines through, and the props, settings, color, composition and depth rise above nearly all the others in the genre. The book design itself is also a treat (and interesting to actually read!)

Ignore the complaints. Virtually any anaglyph book I've seen came with inferior glasses. Any dedicated 3Der who actually minds the glasses is also likely to have a good, substitute pair on hand. Registration mistakes are uncommon only in the more exclusive, pricey 3D portfolio books - which this book doesn't pretend to be. While I'd love to eventually see a well-made, high-end, dual image book, this is still worthwhile for any 3D, glamour or retro fan, especially at the low prices offered.

The anaglyph conversions were poor, to put it nicely.
(Honestly, I've seen better in TV Guide.)
I'm a stereo aficianado, and was quite disappointed that none of the original stereo photos were included.
Also, not all of the photos were 3-D, and I found it quite annoying to be putting on and taking off the glasses every third page or so.

No glasses came with my copy so no grumbling about how crummy the 3D effect is. Iconic images from the golden age of the American pin up girl featuring many known and unknown models. The main hook here is Harold's use of 3D photography to add a new dimension to the experience. Apparently he never took any of his hobbies lightly and amassed tens of thousands of nude photos which luckily were thoughtfully preserved. The results here range from something you might see in a life drawing class, home made nudie shots of granny that grandpa took to the fun, seductive joy of Bettie Page's smile. Pages 112-125 almost veer into an Ed Wood style wackiness with the devil, blood and an aggressive tiger rug!

The use of props to keep things tasteful is one of the most amusing aspects of this book. Creative use of pine cones, flowers, mink stoles and feathers abound. Wicker bull heads get my vote. The photos themselves are sweet, playful and just a little naughty.

The art direction of this book is clever, lenticular cover and entertaining chapter headers designed to keep the spirit of fun going. Text discussing Harold's creative approach to 3D photography (and strippers!) is done with affection and warmth.


Certainly if you're into old school beauty this book is for you. I think one of the most, if not THE most significant things about this book is that it is a time capsule of an era...a time when women actually looked like real women. Their bodies are normally and healthily proportioned, curvy and soft. It is a far cry from today's harsh, emaciated farce culture of what feminine beauty is. Plus the tone is fun, sexy and a little wacky. I think we take sex way too seriously these days!

This book would also make a terrific gift for those into retro pin up art and who also like a little gimmick to go along with it (3D effect). This would essentially cover just about everyone I know. :D

I expected this book to be as good as Harold Lloyd's other 3D book (3D Hollywood). It was not.
This book uses 3D anaglyphs (viewed with 2 color glasses) instead of 3D parallel pairs. Color saturation in anaglyphs is not as good as 3D parallel pairs. Another problem is that many of the stereo images suffer from "windows violations". This is where the eye is forced to diverge to look at distant objects while trying to focus at the media surface where the images really reside. There are also images where an object appears in one color but is blocked (and does not appear) in the other color. Both circumstances make it difficult to focus the eyes when viewing the image.

On the other hand, the ladies are very pretty.

this is a pretty good book,dig the pictures&the concept along with the storys.the texture of printing the pictures isn't done as well,but the inital pictures&whatnot are cool.a interesting book nevertheless.

Harold Lloyd may have been a brilliant man but they clearly didn't know much about 3-D photography back then. The stereoscopic displacement just doesn't work quite right--the image never really aligns well, and many of the images resist being resolved by the eyes.