STEREOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE 97stead of depending upon your (probably inadequate) power of
description, the spectator can enjoy the same sequence of emotion
which you felt when making the slides. You do not have to em-
bark upon a long and boring dissertation. The slides tell more
than you could relate in a half hour. Try it and you will be con-
vinced.
A vacation, for example, could start out with the preliminary
preparations. It would include: (a) start, (b) the road back home
as you leave town, (c) a few sequence shots along the road, in-
cluding road signs to provide location, (d) camp entrance, (e) un-
packing, (f) the first night, and then start the actual record of
camp or hotel or any other vacation spot.
Many make a good start and then let the sequence lag, with the
result that the story is spoiled. Do not forget the departure, the
trip home, the arrival and the first evening at home.
In short, if you want to make the most of your stereo record
without it becoming burdensome, prepare a tentative scenario
which of course is always subject to alteration and addition at
any time.
In closing it is well to point out that the slide does not show
what you actually saw at the time of making the exposure, it
shows what you should have seen at that time had you used your
eyes! In short, do not become so preoccupied with your principal
subject that you overlook undesirable elements in the background
and surroundings.
These are the principal points of technique other than those
discussed in specific chapters in other parts of this book. You
should feel as free with the stereo camera as with the planar type,
and as long as you maintain the side-to-side level position, try to
get sharp definition and observe the normal technique for con-
ventional cameras, you can do about as you please and obtain
good results. Yes, you can even use unconventional angle shots if
you watch the background.
NOWWINDOW MAsKINc.-There are masks used occasionally in
stereo which are not used for the purpose of producing a specific
window effect; or perhaps, because the window is produced by
them, it might be more truthful to say that the window is not the
primary object of such masking.
Of course there is the fundamental mask which is used to elimi-