Holostereosynthesis: An Improvement to Louis Lumière’s Photostereosynthesis Technique

In 1920, Louis Lumière, one of the fathers of Cinématograph, invented photostereosynthesis, a photography technique that could recreate three-dimensional images without a specific artifice. This method involved stacking six to eight photographs of the same subject, usually a portrait, recorded with a progressive shift in focus and observed together through transparency. This invention remained at the laboratory experiment stage, and only a dozen portraits of famous people from the time of Lumière are known. The final device is a complex assembly of glass plates mounted on a wooden frame, and it is fragile, bulky, heavy, and difficult to build and observe. Here, we demonstrate that we can replace the stack of photographic plates with a single reflection hologram. Experiments were successfully conducted using the digital CHIMERA holographic stereogram printing technique. This new method of holostereosynthesis will facilitate the restoration and dissemination of the historical portraits originally recorded by Louis Lumière and may also allow the creation of brand new images.