Anaglyph Ghosting: Causes and Fixes in StereoPhoto Maker
Ghosting is the faint second image you see through anaglyph glasses — the right eye catching some of the left image and vice versa. Some ghosting is inherent to the anaglyph method, but most of what ruins pictures is fixable in StereoPhoto Maker. Work through the causes in this order.
1. Misalignment first
Every pixel of vertical misalignment becomes a ghost edge. Run auto alignment and re-export the anaglyph before touching any colour setting. A surprising share of “ghosting” is just geometry.
2. Brightness rivalry and gamma
If the two eyes’ images differ in brightness, the brain reads it as shimmer. SPM’s anaglyph gamma correction exists for exactly this; enable it and compare. Watch saturated reds and cyans in the scene itself — those hues cannot be fully separated by red-cyan filters no matter what the software does.
3. Try greyscale
A greyscale anaglyph removes colour crosstalk entirely and often looks cleaner for high-contrast scenes. SPM offers colour and greyscale anaglyphs (and Red-Green, Red-Blue and Amber/Blue variants if your glasses differ).
4. Glasses and screen are part of the system
Cheap glasses vary, and some screens leak more of one channel than others. Test your anaglyph with a second pair of glasses or a different display before concluding the file is bad.
5. Window violations fringe in colour
Objects cut by the frame edge at strong depth produce coloured fringes. Pull the stereo window back so the nearest subject is whole, or crop the pair tighter.
Perfect zero-ghosting anaglyphs do not exist — the method itself leaks. The goal is ghosting low enough that you stop noticing it, and the steps above get most images there.
If your glasses are the weak link, a fresh pair of red-cyan glasses is a cheap way to rule them out.
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