easy print mounting in archival pages

[P3D Emil Volcheck <volcheck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Folks,

I'm interested in quick, idiot-proof ways to mount stereo pictures,
and I think I've found one way to do this for prints.

The prints I received from Photo Works from Realist format film
are square images on 3 by 5 paper.  I put them in archival plastic
3 by 5 print pages from Century Photo in California (a mail order
photo storage supplies company, similar to Light Works, a company
previously mentioned on this list).  Sleeves are not tight -- photos
can wiggle, and rotation can destroy the stereo effect.  But since
these images are centered on paper that is too long, the sleeve is
tight enough to keep the rotation to probably half a degree or less
(I estimate 1mm over 125mm length).

The plastic pages hold four 3 by 5 photos in a 2 by 2 grid for each
side of the page.  Turning the page to landscape orientation, I put
pairs across from each other arranged right-left for cross-viewing.
I prefer left-right wall-eye viewing, but the length of the photo
paper keeps the images too far apart for me to fuse them wall-eyed.
If you understand the cycle of 3 prints in Colardeau format, you don't
have to sort and match prints first.  In this manner, you can "mount"
stereo prints as fast as ordinary prints.  I'd like to hear if this
makes sense and whether it works for anyone else.

Stereo prints in an album are great because you can pass them around,
and people can see the prints without a viewer.  If I had an easy
cross-view gadget, the format I describe above would be perfect.
However, I rather like the View-Magic over-under viewer, so I tried
to arrange the prints in my album in over-under fashion.  This works
only mediocre for two reasons: 1) photos in sleeves in this orientation
can shift slightly right-left, and this destroys the stereo effect
since View-Magic prints must be exactly vertically aligned.  As long
as the album is standing upright and the pages aren't turned vigourously,
the photos will be aligned in their sleeves.  However this is not
robust.  2) View-Magic requires 4 inch vertical separation from top of image
to top of image.  The separation of Photo Works images (with their own
top/bottom borders) in my Century Photo pages is 3-3/4", so there is a
little retinal rivalry, although this is pretty good if I hold the viewer
a little further back from the page.  My wife, who doesn't free-view,
was able to see the stereo pretty well.  However this is not a stable
configuration, in contrast to the above cross-view method which
is robust against both rotation and right-left shifting in the sleeve.

I might consider asking Photo Works to print on 4 by 6 paper and trying
the same thing with Century Photo plastic pages for 4 by 6 prints (they
also make them in a 2 by 2 array, 4 prints to a side, but they are
significantly more expensive).  However, I expect that I would get vertical
separation of slightly over 4 inches, which would also be bad for
View-Magic format.  However, 4 by 6 Realist prints mounted directly
on paper might qualify for APEC, since these could be seen with a
View-Magic viewer, just like twin 35mm prints.  I think it is easier
to paste 4 by 6 prints together top-bottom aligned than to do this
for 3 by 5 prints with space between them to get the 4 inch vertical
separation.

Please help me work out the best way to do this print mounting!  Has
anyone tried something like this before?

Are there good cross-view devices for pictures with about 5-1/2"
separation from left border to left border?

Are there plastic pages for 3 by 5 prints that load from the side rather
than from the top?  or that have 1/4" more vertical separation (in landscape
orientation) than Century Photo pages?

Thanks,

                                --Emil Volcheck



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