Harman Direct Positive Portraits

[andre]

For my girlfriends 29th birthday I took her to Studio Baxton in Brussels, BE to do 8x10 wet plate portraits of her.
Nicolas, the photographer, let me under the dark cloth to help compose the shot and plan the lighting. It was amazing

And the fact that there's no computer involved and that everything is 100% real material just drives me crazy.

So, I want to try to make portraits with 4x5 Harman DPP.
There's a flickr group and what I see there is just gorgoes.

I would like my images to go in this direction:

Travis Bickle by thomaskrauss, on Flickr
courtneyJDPP001 by joshua black wilkins, on Flickr


I have a 3.5 Petzval lens and an external shutter with a bulb setting.
I have never shot anything bulb before.
I have a spot meter.

I do not have a dark room. I use patterson tank and the MOD54 thing.
Chemicals consists of HC-110 and Ilfostop and Ilford Rapid Fix.


Any tips for me before I start?

[vinny]

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ositive-Images
There's a thread dedicated to this material. I believe the paper has also been discontinued.

[andre]

Thanks!

I got pack of 8x10 Harman dpp. But it's RC, not fibre.
Also got a paper cutter and a red light lamp. So now I will do my first "dark room" work.
Hopefully by tomorrow morning I will be shooting some portraits.

[Paul Cunningham]

Well andre, how did it go?