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More Wet Plate Progress: Even Development at Last!

March 13, 2024  •  Leave a Comment

ReneeReneeVoigtlander Petzval 364mm f/4.7 (1865) 15 second exposure

Yesterday, I had a breakthrough in how I develop my wet plates. Before yesterday, I was using an 8x10" tray under my plate when I poured my developer. This caused me to spill and to be hesitant with my development pours, for fear of spilling. I switched to a 16x20" tray, which makes me much less concerned about spilling. This allowed me to focus really intensely on getting a steady and even developer pour on this plate. It worked! The second tweak to my process involves the amount of developer. Previously, I had been using ~20mL of developer, which just wasn't enough for me to get an even pour at my current skill level. Now I'm using 50mL of developer and sort of "brute forcing" an even steady pour with more than enough developer. This is something I'll want to tweak as my technique improves, but for now I'm totally content to "waste" a lot of developer.

Why am I not at all troubled by wasting developer? Because I've switched to homemade sugar positive developer instead of the more expensive pre-made developer I had been using previously. It's dirt cheap and easy to make, and so I totally don't mind that my current pouring technique is wasteful. Here's the recipe I'm using:

Sugar Positive Developer

  • 1000mL Distilled White Vinegar
  • 20mL Grain Alcohol
  • 30g Ferrous Sulfate Heptahydrate
  • 40g Sugar
  1. Pour 500mL of the vinegar into a mixing vessel.
  2. Dissolve the ferrous sulfate heptahydrate into the vinegar.
  3. Mix in the grain alcohol.
  4. Mix in the sugar and stir until dissolved.
  5. Add the remaining 500mL of the vinegar.
  6. Filter (!!!) and use.

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This plate required a 15s exposure with my Voigtlander Petzval 360mm f/4.7 lens -- my collodion is ancient, as I mixed it back in March 2023. I'm *really* looking forward to getting fresh collodion (I use the Old Work Horse formula) in the mail: my exposures should be significantly shorter, the contrast should be higher, and I'll stop getting these horrible white splotchy marks around the site of my collodion pours.

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Also, I need to stop injuring the image by inadvertently touching it. I accidentally rub off the *extraordinarily fragile* wet collodion on many of my plates. There are so many places in the process where this can happen -- lifting the plates into and out of the silver bath and fixer bath, putting the plates into my plate holder. This process requires *a lot* of care. As a big clumsy oaf, I'm finding this challenging.


Lorna Lynne

March 12, 2024  •  Leave a Comment

I was privileged to be able to collaborate with the delightful Lorna Lynne on a photoshoot.

My plan for our shoot had been to work in one of my favorite outdoor locations. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of assuming that having an overcast sky would allow me to shoot in the middle of the day. I seriously underestimated how bright the light would be, and consequently was unable to shoot 35mm film. I would have been able to shoot with my beloved Minolta SRT-101 & Minolta 58mm f/1.4 combination if I had remembered to pack a neutral density filter. So it goes.

Lorna and I took a few shots using my digital camera -- my exposure was 1/8000s at ISO 200 at f/1.4 to give y'all an idea how bright it was -- but I just wasn't digging how they were looking. I sincerely underestimated just how harsh the light would be, even fully overcast.

_DSF0906_DSF0906

We decided at that point to travel to my house so that I could try to make some wet plates.

Finally, we shot a few more digital shots after finishing several tintypes. For these, I used a mirror prism which gave the shots a dreamlike / absurd feel that I enjoy. I still do prefer the real look of film though!

_DSF1074_DSF1074

What did I learn from the shoot?

Don't underestimate the light. There's a reason that I normally prefer shooting in open shade!

Don't forget to pack everything you'll need. Make a damn checklist.

Don't forget to enjoy yourself, even if things aren't ideal. 

 


Channeling Ed Ross: First Photoshoot with Wet Plate

March 09, 2024  •  Leave a Comment

Lorna Lynne 2Lorna Lynne 2

I'll do a full post on him someday, but Ed Ross was a wet plate photographer who inspired me greatly. He was also kind, and when I reached out to him a few years ago asking some (in retrospect) stupid questions about his wet plate photographs he answered me with patience and encouragement. I regret that I was not able to meet him in person before he passed.

Today, a whopping seven days since I've started to shoot wet plate, I shot a model. These plates are objectively bad, but I can see the *potential* for my wet plate photography to be good with further practice. I'm not going to dwell on the problems (comets from a dirty silver bath, black patches from mishandling, a nice white blotch from letting my collodion dry too much before sensitizing it, subject motion from having really old slow collodion and long exposures, forgetting to recheck focus before exposing, uneven development, etc.), but instead I'm going to focus on what I love about these pictures:

1. Switching to a sugar developer formula from the normal positive developer formula, combined with being really, really mindful about my technique has made my development significantly more even than it was even a couple of days ago.

2. I didn't scratch any of these coated plates getting them into and out of my plate holder. I feel like I've mastered this thing that sounds like it should be so simple, but which is deceptively challenging for me.

3. Shooting against my house's stucco, which is what Ed Ross told me he did, has produced a lovely background.

4. I was able to varnish these evenly and without setting anything on fire.

5. Making these plates has made me even more in awe of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century masters of this photographic process than I was before. I used to appreciate a beautiful wet plate image for its aesthetics alone. Now I can see, and appreciate, the technique that goes into a quality tintype!

To reiterate, these are objectively bad plates. But they're *less* objectively bad than my work earlier this week, and I can see the potential in them -- I see that, with more practice, I'll be able to produce plates with the look that inspired me to want to start this incredibly challenging photographic process in the first place.

Lorna Lynne 1Lorna Lynne 1

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I have fresh collodion on the way from Bostick & Sullivan. These exposures were 20-25 seconds each, and fresh collodion should be much faster than my stale stuff.

I've blown through something like 30 8x10 aluminum plates this week. I need to research the cheapest and easiest way to make more.

This is a really low priority, but I'd like to start thinking about using strobes for faster exposure wet plates. I know that really intense strobes (~3200 ws?) are required, and it's going to be a long time before I'm able to afford them. It's just fun to think about.

Lorna Lynne 3Lorna Lynne 3


First Steps with Wet Plate Collodion

March 08, 2024  •  Leave a Comment

Stained Fingers from Silver Nitrate Back in 2004, I fell in love with a photograph by Luther Gerlach that appeared on the cover of View Camera magazine.* Here's that image:

January/February 2004 View Camera

My mind was blown. At the time, I didn't own a view camera. I didn't even own a digital camera -- my only camera was a 35mm Canon rangefinder. But I knew that I wanted to make photographs like Luther Gerlach's. I bought the magazine and learned about this exotic thing called "wet plate collodion" that made these fancy-sounding things called tintypes and ambrotypes. I set a goal for myself that day to learn wet plate photography.

Well, it has taken almost twenty years exactly but I finally have the means and space to start teaching myself the wet plate collodion process.

Boy howdy, is this a humbling undertaking. I didn't appreciate how many variables were involved, how many delicate steps required manual dexterity, and just how many ways it was possible to screw up a tintype.

I started making my first plates about a week ago. On day one, I couldn't even get a visible image on my plates: I was seriously, seriously underexposing them.

On day two, I learned how difficult it is to coat, sensitize, and load a plate into my plate holder without scratching it to hell.

On day three, I learned what happened when a coated plate is placed into the silver bath before it has had a chance to dry sufficiently.

On days four and five, I learned that letting a coated plate dry too much before sensitizing results in really ugly marks on the photograph.

I'm currently struggling with finding the correct exposure time (a relatively easy problem to fix) and figuring out how to develop my plates evenly.

On day six, I learned just how easy it is to set one's plate on fire (and nearly set oneself on fire) whilst varnishing.

This is a difficult, difficult process. I'd rate it as more challenging that gum dichromate color printing, which is notoriously difficult. There's a really high amount of physical dexterity required to coat a plate, sensitive a plate smoothly, load a sensitized plate into a plate holder, and develop a plate evenly. In my experience, no other photographic process has been as challenging. I'm an experienced darkroom printer. I'm skilled at producing cyanotypes, Van Dyke Brown prints, gum dichromate prints, Polaroid transfers, Polaroid lifts, lumen prints, and challenging macro photographs on large format film. Nothing has kicked my ass the way that wet plate collodion is kicking my ass.

And I'm loving every second of it.

Here are a few of the best plates I've produced so far. They're all objectively bad. But I am so very proud of them!

Uneven development, comets, and a bad collodion pour.

img20240306_16061813The big white circular blotch on the mask is a result of letting the coated plate dry too much before sensitizing it.

img20240307_19453418img20240307_19453418Scratches on the plate incurred whilst loading it in the plate holder. Uneven development.

*RIP to a wonderful publication. I wish I had had the courage to submit some of my photographs to it before it stopped publishing.


Revolog Film Pt. 2: Alice Crowe

February 29, 2024  •  Leave a Comment

Alice Crowe I wrote a while back about how much I enjoyed shooting Revolog Kolor, an analog special-effects film. I recently collaborated with Alice Crowe, and I was delighted to be able to process and scan the several rolls of Revolog Kolor I shot with my ancient Minolta SRT-101 SLR.

I've learned that, to get the most out of Revolog Kolor's color effects, it's best to underexpose the film by 1-stop. Overexposing washes out the color background, and defeats the whole purpose of using this special (and expensive) film.

I don't have much to add about the shoot itself: It was a delight to collaborate with a model again, and I can't wait to shoot Ms. Crowe again.

Here are a few of the better Revolog Kolor shots from the shoot:

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