P3D Re: Masks from Harry Richards

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am another Harry Richards happy customer!  I see him in every
NSA convention and buy lots of goodies from him.  I have even
managed to sell him some stuff too :-)  He is an active member
of SSA (Stereoscopic Society of America, in both slide and
print folios) and an excellent stereo photographer!  Lately, he
has been using his RBT camera with great results!

I have bought and used Harry Richards' round masks and they work 
very well.  Some time back, Harry put a few free masks in the Alpha 
folio of SSA.  In the next round, many of us had used the mounts for 
very creative cropping (horses picking through the round window, 
flowers sticking out, etc.)

A few comments on creative cropping:  It might be hard to digest 
this,  but many times showing LESS is BETTER.  It is a natural 
reaction to try and show EVERYTHING.  But with experience and trial 
and error it will be clear that many times showing less gives better 
results.  I use masking to improve composition and remove distracting 
elements from the picture.  All my entries in the "Through the Window" 
Detroit competition were masked and did very well.

If you use aluminum mounts, you can "double-mask":  Overlap and 
translate one mount over another to achieve the desired cropping.
Works very well especially for vertical only or horizontal only
masking. 

For more creative masking there are paper mounts around that come
with different shapes, like Harry's masks.  Harry uses RBT mounts
and he has given me some hints on how to mask using these mounts.
He uses a simple paper hold puncher to punch holes in the paper
masks to fit inside the RBT mount.

Bill Davis made many interesting comments regarding cropping in
his last post.  Among other ideas, he writes:
 
>Cutting each mask into two separate right and left might be a good 
>idea, allowing freedom in window placement. 

I second this recommendation.

Through the years I have bought paper masks in different sizes and
I plan to offer a nice selection for sale in sell-3d.

It's time to consider creative masking of slides, before these
computer guys beats us all in the head! (Masking is sooooo easy 
using computer manipulation!)  Also, those print guys can mask
using a pair of scissors!  (I am so jelous!)

-- With unmasked respect, George Themelis


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