Great results! They all capture the atmosphere of the old wet plate technique.
Printable View
A couple more wet plates, now experimenting with inside UV led light and both with the MD7 developer by Mammoth.
Camera: Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5
Lens: Kodak Anastigmaf f4.5
Collodion: Franalog Old Workhorse
Developer: Mammuth MD7
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f11c7f2c_b.jpgCol·lodió d'interior / UV wet plate by SBA73, en Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...745e6486_b.jpgLes Damm de joventut / Beers of my youth by SBA73, en Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d9f31cdb_b.jpg
From a 5x7 inch wet plate collodion negative (on glass). Schneider Symmar lens used, not quite wide open.
Old Workhorse developed with UVP copper developer 1:2 for 60 seconds.
Portrait of my son at the studio. Rodenstock 210 App-Sironar W. Quinn's Collodion formula on Aluminum, Osterman Developer Formula and KCN for the fix.
https://christopherbarrett.net/wp-co...PC_01_Crop.jpg
Christopher,
In looking at your portrait image and comparing to a half dozen above it, yours is much darker.
Is this due to the emulsion mix or is it exposure?
Saw a show of 30 or so wet plates by Shane Balkowitsch a few weeks ago. Native Americans on black glass plates. Most pretty clean with few flow marks or glitches. But the whole batch was very dark. A number difficult to see well in the lighting at the gallery. Did not look like "style" but like they all needed more exposure.
Not doing Wet Plate but have seen a bunch and do wonder when all of a photographers work is so dark. Is it a deliberate choice? Lack of experience or training? The emulsion mix? Or underexposure?
Willie, I try to match my scans to the actual plates (using a print viewing booth). I’ve measured the density of blown out hilights on my plates at around 0.78. So, yeah wet plate collodion can easily be 2 stops darker than a print on paper. I imagine that many of the digital representations of plates posted here have been ‘normalized’.
Can't speak for anyone else but I can answer based off my practice: There's two factors that lead to a lot of plates looking pretty dark. First, wet plates take a shocking amount of light to expose. Their sensitivity is usually somewhere between ISO 0.1 and 0.5 for "fast" collodion. So a lot of people simply don't have enough light or realize how long to leave the shutter open because it seems absurd. Second, they're absurdly contrasty. For portraits, to achieve a "normal" look, I find that I need about 2 tenths (0.2) of a stop of difference between the highlight side and the shadow side of the face or else I lose detail in one or the other. On film, I usually go about 1.5 stops difference for the same look. This leads to a lot of people lighting with a normal contrast range, exposing for the highlights, and resulting in really dark shadows. My plates got much better when I finally realized that a 0.1 to 0.2 stop change in strobe power was going to be the difference between a reasonable looking image and a failure.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dcde91e2_o.jpgLa Taiadella, Catalunya, agost 2023 by Pau Martín, on Flickr
This is 8x10 tintype, using Jacobson's negative collodion developed with Osterman's standard developer formula. I took it to check the exposure, before shooting some negatives. Fixed with Ilford rapid fixer. The lens was a Fujinon A 300, I think. The place is the chapel at La Taiadella, a XIII century "masia", a fortified farmhouse in Catalonia. Sorry for the funcky colors. The plate is warmer than it looks here.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ddba6964_o.jpgLa Taiadella, Catalunya. Agost 2023. by Pau Martín, on Flickr
This is 8x10 tintype. Like the previous one, I took it to check the exposure. Jacobson's negative collodion with Osterman's standard developer. The lens is an unbranded brass lens, around 215mm, f7, with a nice engraving saying "Verre de Jena". The picture was taken at f22, 6sec. Sorry for the poor iphone pic. The place is La Taiadella, a XIII century "masia" (a fortified farmhouse), which is still inhabited. The country, Catalonia.