P3D Re: Democracy & Club Competition Projection

[roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John W Roberts)]

>Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 08:57:39 -0600
>From: fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)
>Subject: P3D Re: Democracy & Club Competition Projection

>>Fortunately for me, you're not (yet) an officer of PSSP. I've been thinking
>>of actually mounting and entering some slides in coming meetings, and I
>>don't need the additional anxiety of the draconian Dr. T laws to discourage
>>me from giving it a try. 

>Give me a break John!  Why is the "no adjustment" policy discouraging
>you (or anyone else) from trying projection?  

Having that policy at your Ohio club doesn't discourage me at all. Your attempt
to intimidate PSSP into enforcing that policy doesn't discourage me unless it
succeeds.

The reason is that I'm unlikely ever to see my slides projected unless they're
entered in a competition. I fully expect to mess up at least the first few
times, in terms of "projection quality" mounting, and when my (very possibly)
badly mounted slides show up on the screen, I'd at least like to see if
proper adjustment would make them worthwhile - to have at least a chance for
a little positive feedback, rather than just a loud chorus of "boos". I've
encountered (non-photographic) clubs where beginners were deliberately
discouraged by setting the initial goals unreasonably high, and I wouldn't
like to see it happen accidentally in a stereo photography club.

>The minor adjustments
>will not help you or your slides project better.  It will only hurt your
>eyes and those who submit well-mounted material in the first place.

I was one of those who did the adjustment at one of the club meetings. Perhaps
a third of the slides were mounted differently from the others (in terms of
benefiting from adjustments). It seems to me that if the "no adjustment" policy
were instantaneously implemented, it would result in *more* sore eyes. At
least this way, I eventually get to see everybody's slides "at their best".

Given this wide disparity in mounting, I would suggest that a club that has
been considering adopting a "no adjustment" policy start with implementing it
just for specific competitions, give it several times to see if it will work
for that club, then expand it from there, but always keep competitions open
for beginners, where adjustment is allowed. And any tightening of adjustment
policy should be accompanied by a lot of training opportunities.

>Another question:  Someone submits slides on a base that
>depolarizes light with the TDC projector which has the filters before
>the slide.  What does the club do:  1) Stops projection, pulls filters
>out, puts them infront of the projector, waits for judging, puts the
>filters back,

Of course. And if someone submitted an uninteresting photograph, the club
should send out a skilled photographer to take an interesting photograph to
serve as that competitor's entry. :-)

>"I did not know that 1/2 inch vertical 
>misalignment will cause such a problem in viewing", "I did not know
>that a bright sun in a dark sky at infinity will cause such ugly 
>ghosting"... "  WELL, NOW YOU KNOW!" :-)

I don't need public humiliation to know that I do not know (as yet) how to
mount slides for projection. I know how to mount prints, and how to mount
slides in slip-in cardboard mounts, and I can just enjoy them myself using
viewers. I'm intrigued by the notion of projection, and hope to give it a
try, but not if the bar is raised too high right from the start.

John R


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