Collodion - Wet Plate Images

[cbk]

Love the colored plate. Is this scan before or after varnishing?

before ;]

[Mark Sawyer]

Some time ago, I traded an 8x10 B&J for a home-made 11x14 field camera that's really very well-made, but with some strange design flaws, and recently I worked through it and converted the back to take 10x12 wet plates. It's a strange back, and I could see the dark slides were very close to the film plane, but maybe if I handled it carefully...

Nope, even being careful, the dark slide scraped the front of the plate. I kinda like it anyways. That's the trouble with wet plate, even the worst of mistakes sometimes work...

[Andrew]

look what the pixie did... !!!

[cuypers1807]

That is awesome Mark!

[AlexGard]

[/url]

Beautiful Calypso

8x10 Black glass ambro
Darlot 14" Petzval

Portraits aren't my strong point

[Mark Sawyer]

A variation on a plate posted in the portrait thread, also a 10x12 wet plate with a 16-inch Vitax. First I liked the other one better, now I'm liking this one...

[Mark Sawyer]

The other, for comparison...



I had a motor drive on my wet plate camera and was shooting away...

[Peter Lewin]

Mark, my vote goes for the first of these two (#1486) because the lighting is better (at least in my opinion). In the first you can clearly see the face of the woman standing on the right; in the second I find the diagonally-striped lighting (for want of a better description) distracting. I just came back from a photo critiquing meeting where for every opinion there was an equal but opposite one, so I imagine someone else will explain why they find your second image more compelling! Of course they are both excellent, I'm merely reacting to your implied question about which one is more appealing.

[Mark Sawyer]

Thanks, Peter! The lighting is of course a big part, but with wet plate outdoors it always seems to be "plan, prepare and predict, then take what's there after the plate is prepared". I caught a little light overcast on the first out of luck, then bright sunlight though the trees on the second, but pouring the plate five minutes before getting the plate to the camera makes it a matter of luck and use what's there. There are things I like about both plates, and the lighting is only part of it. Trying not to be full of myself, I like both plates. But which one I give to the subjects... no wrong choice!

[John Fink Jr.]

Both are very nice Mark. I prefer the First a bit more!