P3D Mounting of Stereo Prints, Part ??

[bill3dbw3d@xxxxxxxx (Bill C Walton)]

Perhaps my original posting on this subject would have been a bit clearer
if I had quoted all four pages of John Dennis' fine article, but that
sure would have made a VERY LONG posting.  There are probably  as many
ways to mount prints as there are members of P3D and no doubt all of them
are effective and will do the job.  

I have a different system than most folks but . I will not say "This is
the way to do it"  It works for me and some others seem to like it.  I am
constantly modifying it (hopefully improving it at the same time) to make
it easier to get "an improved product" so to speak.  And apparently
Robert Linnstaedt feels about the same way. For many years I mounted my
stereo card images butted together in the middle of the card, because I
THINK it looks better that way than with a little bit of space between
the images.  About 4 years ago Paul Wing joined one of the stereo print
folios in which I am the secretary.  Every one of my entries came back
with a note by Paul that said more or less"  Your images are great, but
they would be so much better if you would leave a space between the
images so that they will view better in the stereoscope as they won't
overlap"  Hey, I am not to smart, but after reading Paul's comments (he
has only been making prints and slides since the 1940s and maybe before)
for a couple of years I decided maybe he was right.  Sure enough, they do
VIEW better with a spacing in between the prints, although I THINK they
LOOK better with the images butted together.  So now I mount with a space
between the images, but I have 2200 or so that I did the other way and I
still enjoy them.  

One thing that Robert Linnstaedt wrote that I wonder about -"When using a
QVu cropping is automatic"  This is true in that cropping is provided but
I THINK a better statement would be "When using a QVu cropping is
automatic, but the stereo window may be incorrect unless everything in
the images is behind the window or a close-up QVu mount is used
Many times, when it is an extreme close-up, the cropping provided by the
QVu close-up mount is insufficient.
It has been my experience in viewing others stereographs mounted in Qvus
(I don't use them), since they were 
produced in the 1980s, that many stereographers take it for granted that
the cropping provided by these mounts is always correct.   

A little aside:  My stereograph of President Clinton is now on the NSA
web site at   //nsa-3d.org   

BILL C WALTON
bill3bw3d@xxxxxxxx


------------------------------