Collodion - Wet Plate Images

[goamules]

Trying a little larger plate size, (8x10). Mary with a 19-inch Jamin Darlot Cone Centralisateur.

Good portrait Mark, it reminds me of your film days. Looks like that Cone is a good one too.

[jp]

Trying a little larger plate size, (8x10). Mary with a 19-inch Jamin Darlot Cone Centralisateur.

Wow. Nice portrait and nice lens!

[John Fink Jr.]

Joseph, I assume you are using a Lund silver tank? I get those flake build ups as well.
I always wipe it down before and after using it. It seems chronic, but you do the best you can.
It usually is not a problem for me. Good luck!

[cuypers1807]

Yes, A Lund tank. I have been using it for 2 years and this is the first time I have had problems. As you say, I am going to filter more and wipe it out more often.

[Mark Sawyer]

Thanks, everyone! I'm pretty happy with that lens; I bought it through the forum from Monty a while back. It fills up a 9x9 lensboard, and on the bigger plates (10x12 and 12x14), I used almost all the bellows extension on my old Anthony Imperial Climax, about 43 inches. Alas, the three bigger plates all had streaking, from the silver bath, I'm pretty sure. This 10x12 shows the problems pretty obviously.



A detail of the eye showing part of the big streak:



And this stuff around the edges, (a detail of the top right corner):



It's kinda got me buffaloed, as two 8x10's came out clean, while the two 10x12's and one 12x14 came out with similar flaws. All the same chemistry and technique. I'll get it sorted out eventually...

[Jim Galli]

Still spectacular Mark, flaws and all. Heck if you wanted perfect pics you'd buy a Nikon D12,000 (or whatever we're up to these days)

[cuypers1807]

You see a lot more of that stuff if the plate is underexposed/over developed. What were your exposure times like? How old was the collodion?
Not sure what caused the big streak down the middle. Could the fingerprint at the top have anything to do with it? I have done something similar and had chemical contamination come back on to the plate from a wet glove.

[Mark Sawyer]

Well Jim, if I really wanted perfect, I'd get whatever iPhone is popular these days and just use the "perfect" app.

Development was 15-20 seconds with a conventional sugar-restrained ferrous sulfate developer. I don't think it's the fingerprint, because there's no corresponding fingerprint on the other plates where this happened. I'm flummoxed...

[cuypers1807]

Mark, it still looks like a chemical contamination to me. I suspect it happened when you were wiping excess silver off the back of the plate before loading the plate holder. Try drying your fingertips and only holding the corners when wiping the back.

[John Fink Jr.]

Wonderful, wonderful image Mark.