Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Printable View

29-Mar-2017, 17:34
Robert Kalman

Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

I'm interested in copying prints onto tintype. What would be the best source of continuous light in order to accomplish this? Dracast sells an LED product that produces a daylight source, and Lund Photographics sells a blue light studio flood. Are either of these suitable? Are there other choices?
30-Mar-2017, 10:42
Mark Sawyer

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Probably best to scan the original, print a positive transparency, and project it onto the tintype with an enlarger.
30-Mar-2017, 11:02
Jim Noel

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer

Probably best to scan the original, print a positive transparency, and project it onto the tintype with an enlarger.

A true tintype is sensitive mostly to UV spectrum, with some sensitivity in the blue band.
30-Mar-2017, 11:34
Robert Kalman

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer

Probably best to scan the original, print a positive transparency, and project it onto the tintype with an enlarger.

Thanks, Mark. My enlarger is outfitted with a cold light...will I be able to project successfully onto the tintype with this light source?
30-Mar-2017, 11:50
Vaughn

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Deleted. I was mistaken.
30-Mar-2017, 12:06
Mark Sawyer

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Kalman

Thanks, Mark. My enlarger is outfitted with a cold light...will I be able to project successfully onto the tintype with this light source?

I'd guess it would be fine. As Jim pointed out, tintypes are sensitive to near-UV and blue, which most cold heads have in abundance. In fact, the early ones didn't work well with variable contrast papers because they were overly blue, and lacked the other wavelengths needed.
30-Mar-2017, 12:14
Robert Kalman

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer

I'd guess it would be fine. As Jim pointed out, tintypes are sensitive to near-UV and blue, which most cold heads have in abundance. In fact, the early ones didn't work well with variable contrast papers because they were overly blue, and lacked the other wavelengths needed.

Perfect. Thanks very much!
30-Mar-2017, 12:36
Jason Greenberg Motamedi

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

I have used strobes for doing this in-camera with a copy stand. It takes quite a bit of power (I think I used two heads with 4800ws each), but allowed me to put polarizing filters on the strobe heads as well as the lens.
30-Mar-2017, 13:39
Amedeus

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

True but most photographers are using lenses that significantly attenuate the UV produced by light sources and in the end, mostly utilize what's left .... blue ...

Not too many quartz lenses out there ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Noel

A true tintype is sensitive mostly to UV spectrum, with some sensitivity in the blue band.
30-Mar-2017, 16:30
Mark Sawyer

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amedeus

True but most photographers are using lenses that significantly attenuate the UV produced by light sources and in the end, mostly utilize what's left .... blue ...

Not too many quartz lenses out there ...

And yet, despite it all, the images still keep coming out! :)
3-Apr-2017, 11:14
koraks

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer

Probably best to scan the original, print a positive transparency, and project it onto the tintype with an enlarger.

Enlarged inkjet transparencies will likely look horrible at any significant enlargement (read: anything over 1:1).

I saw a brief documentary about a Dutch photographer a couple of years ago who did something like this. IIRC, he captured on MF film, made interpositives and then enlarged these onto plates to arrive at his tintypes. Unfortunately, I can't remember the series this was part of.
5-Apr-2017, 18:07
Robert Kalman

3 Attachment(s)

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

I had some moderate success using Mark's suggestion: Made a positive transparency, placed it into the enlarger, and exposed it directly onto the plate. Here are some results:

Attachment 163491 Attachment 163492 Attachment 163493
5-Apr-2017, 23:17
Mark Sawyer

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

It's always hard to tell from internet images, but they look pretty good to me. You'd be the best judge, as you can hold the plate in your hand. Can you see any pixilation in the tintypes, either by naked eye or with a loupe?
6-Apr-2017, 05:02
Robert Kalman

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer

It's always hard to tell from internet images, but they look pretty good to me. You'd be the best judge, as you can hold the plate in your hand. Can you see any pixilation in the tintypes, either by naked eye or with a loupe?

No pixilation that I can detect. There's a very subtle "hint" that the image has been copied, however, rather than having been shot live. I can't describe it with any precision, but it looks copied to me. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the result. Thanks very much for your help with this, Mark.
6-Apr-2017, 08:58
cuypers1807

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Robert, I do this a lot. They will never quite look the same as an in camera tintype. I started with film positives but have switched to using Pictorico with scanned film or digital files. The larger the transparency positive, the better the plates will look. Pictorico has a texture that looks almost like grain and it shows up more on plates with 4x5 or smaller positives. I use an 8x10 enlarger with a cold head to make my plates which allows for pretty fast exposure times. It takes a little time to get the density and contrast dialed in but a lot of that can be controlled when you make the inter positive. I make plates from 4x5 up to 8x10. I am going to start making larger ones (up to 16x20) next month. You can see some of my wet plate work on my website:

www.josephbrunjes.com

I enjoy making tintypes of subject matter that normally can't be photographed because of its location or movement.
6-Apr-2017, 15:43
Robert Kalman

Re: Lighting for Making Tintype Copies of Conventional Prints

Quote:

Originally Posted by cuypers1807

Robert, I do this a lot. They will never quite look the same as an in camera tintype. I started with film positives but have switched to using Pictorico with scanned film or digital files. The larger the transparency positive, the better the plates will look. Pictorico has a texture that looks almost like grain and it shows up more on plates with 4x5 or smaller positives. I use an 8x10 enlarger with a cold head to make my plates which allows for pretty fast exposure times. It takes a little time to get the density and contrast dialed in but a lot of that can be controlled when you make the inter positive. I make plates from 4x5 up to 8x10. I am going to start making larger ones (up to 16x20) next month. You can see some of my wet plate work on my website:

www.josephbrunjes.com

I enjoy making tintypes of subject matter that normally can't be photographed because of its location or movement.

I used Pictorico, too, and noticed the "grain-like" appearance under the fine grain magnifier. I also see the effects on some of my plates. Haven't attempted anything bigger than 4x5, but I'm still in the learning stages and hammering down the technical aspects of pouring collodion and developing the plates. Thanks for the info, Joseph.