138 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
this beam will have the same position in space it exhibited to
direct vision and so becomes far more effective than when used
in the planar photograph. Anything which has definite visible
form, whether tangible or not, will have that form reproduced.
CoMPosITIoN.-Among the usual elements of composition, the
value of unity, harmony, and balance are as important as in planar
photography, but it must be remembered that the pictorial “steel-
yard” must now be applied from side to side as usual and also
from near foreground to far distance as well, something entirely
new in pictorialism. The patch of sky or the dark cloud no longer
has its power of balance, because it is in the far distance and its
“balancing weight” is much less than in the planar picture.
Composition in stereo is more difficult and more complicated
than in planar pictorialism, but for that very reason it has poten-
tialities which the planar form could never exhibit. To make use
of a mathematical analogy, one might say that the planar pictorial-
ist is limited to addition and subtraction, while the stereographer
has the possibilities of division and multiplication as well.
Stereo composition is at present largely unformulated, which
perhaps is just as well, for too much formalization of composition
creates a stiffness and artificiality which has very little in common
with esthetics. However, enough has been said to point out the
general path to be followed.
The point of great importance in relation to stereo composition
is that such a thing actually exists and must be taken into con-
sideration. Once aware of the necessity for three-dimensional com-
position, the stereo pictorialist will lose no time in attacking the
problem.
Strangely enough, among present-day stereo enthusiasts the
shibboleths of the old pictorialism are still regarded as being po-
tent. The result is highly amusing, because more often than not
the attempt to compose according to the planar standard simply
results in a stereogram which actually is inferior to one in which
no attempt at composition has been made. For example, haze or
atmospheric perspective included in a stereo no longer suggests a
soft and mysterious distance. The distance is there in all reality,
but the haze often appears to be simply the washed-out tone of a
poor print.