CHAPTER 21STEREO PROCESSINGOLOR IS DEFINITELY one of the factors of stereo relief. But at
C the same time stereo in monochrome has had a life of more
than a century and it would be foolish to expect monochrome to
disappear over night, In fact, there will be a demand for mono-
chrome stereo for years to come, for reproduction, for record work,
for experimental purposes and certainly among the old guard
who have given years to the gold toned paper print and to the
thiocarbamide tone transparency.
It is demonstrably true that no stereo paper print can equal the
quality of the monochrome transparency; and it is equally true
that the monochrome transparency can never equal the quality
of the color transparency. Despite this, there will be hundreds, if
not thousands, of paper stereo prints made in this country during
the next 12 months and for years to come.
It is a fact that diminished parallax is deliberately used with
only moderately close-up subjects to diminish the relief-we could
never understand why. It is just as difficult to understand why
anyone should still be content with the diminished relief, the
silhouette form, which is common to the paper print because it
lacks the gradation of the color transparency. But just as long as
these things are done, there will necessarily be interest shown in
stereo processing.
It may be added, however, that if monochrome is used, it is
highly advisable to do the processing yourself because the tech-
nique is much different from that used in the average commercial
processing laboratory.
In modern photography it is usually assumed that the emulsion
sensitivity, as indicated by the ASA rating, the time and tempera-
ture of the developer are all unalterable factors. This is not true.
Of course, the actual reaction of the emulsion to the impact of
light is substantially stable, but the amount of such reaction neces-
sary to produce a usable negative varies widely, according to the
development used.
It is known that in the usual developer, all tones both light and
dark appear at about the same time, and that the highlights grow
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