Wet Plate Collodion Informative Article

[P Wright]

Last week, I received my August 2014 issue of Digital PhotoPro and inside is a very informative article on Large and ULF wet plate with Ian Ruhter. I don't know if Ian post here but his work is pretty cool. I have nothing to do with the magazine and I only received a subscription to it when Photo Technique magazine ceased operations. It's exciting to see an analog article in a digital magazine. There is also a picture of the Wanderlust camera and some good information about it in the issue. Long live our craft!

[goamules]

Good to hear about.

[Kerik Kouklis]

Here's a link to the article. I'm sure some will find it.... interesting.

[Ari]

I love Ian's work, and his American Dream Project is wonderful and far-reaching, even though it seems I've been reading the same article about him for a year now.
Nice addition of some technical details in this article.

[goamules]

Kerik, your comment made me go and actually read the article. Concur, 'interesting."

"Ruhter estimates that the plates and materials average out at roughly $500 a plate. "

I estimate my plates at about .25 cents

"wet plates can also be toned or dyed through various pigments for effects like sepia."

Never heard of anyone dying a plate for sepia tone. Wetplate has it's own tone, which is usually towards the brown 'sepia' as I do them.

"With very few in existence, Ruhter is secretive about the lens he has chosen to work with as he has seen it explode in price on the secondhand market since he first bought one."

So he learned about a ULF lens, but doesn't want anyone else too? In case, what, he needs to buy a few more to outfit a few more vans?

"Ruhter wears a full hazmat suit with face mask and goggles..."

He must be using that new highly radioactive collodion I've been hearing about.

"I'll always be able to continue making the photos the way I want. I won't be dictated by a trend or new fad."

Uh-huh, right.