Fresh dry plates in a variety of sizes

[Pere Casals]

Do you have any directions for which safelights are fine for your emulsion?

I has to be !

Let me say why, as a Dry Plate practitioner and Jason's protective customer...

When making emulsions the challenge is to make it sensible to green and red. Silver halide crystalls are sensible to blue and UV, very specific sensitizers have to be added to make it sensible to red. In fact those added sensitizers (particular aniline dyes for example) capture the photons and deliver the energy to the attached silver crystals, this is the way it works, as the crystals are not sensible to green and red, as only Blue an UV have energy enough to trigger a change in the silver halide crystal. So if maufacturer knows very well it...

[locutus]

Whatever you normally use in your darkroom for developing prints is fine. My darkroom has the classic 15W Kodak safelight with 0C filter.

-Jason

Thanks!

I kinda guessed any Orange/Red darkroom light would be okay but i thought to double check first.

[Two23]

Whatever you normally use in your darkroom for developing prints is fine. My darkroom has the classic 15W Kodak safelight with 0C filter.

-Jason

That's just the thing--I have no darkroom. I load sheet film in my bathroom at night, which works well. I'll do the same with the plates. If I really get into this (a possibility,) I do have the perfect space in my basement that would make a great little dark room.

Now another question. How long do I have to process plates once exposed? I assume it doesn't have to be done immediately like wet plate.


Kent in SD

[Nodda Duma]

Kent as far as waiting to develop, it's pretty much like film.

I've shot plates and have waited months to develop. They came out fine.

[B.S.Kumar]

Jason,

I have a few plate holders, and will probably order a box or two soon. Have you thought of clipping the right corner, so that the emulsion side is identified, like notches on film?

Kumar

[B.S.Kumar]

Some of us load film in a changing bag or tent or on location, and it would help identify the emulsion side easily, no?

Kumar

[Nodda Duma]

Hi Kumar,

That's great! Thank you for the interest. I'm going to be making more tonight, so the quantities should update tomorrow or the next. Last batch of '17!

It's a fair idea that I've considered before but decided against. It's sort of solving a problem that doesn't exist for normal or ortho plates, and the extra steps would just add more time to the process of hand-cutting the glass and ensuring proper orientation when pouring emulsion.

As long as you can view the plates under a safelight, you can tell which side is the emulsion side. The emulsion has a slight haze visible when viewing the reflection of the safelight. The glass side looks like, well, shiny glass (with the streaks and spots from residual emulsion that made its way to the back of the plate).

The plates are packed emulsion side up, so when you take off both lids and see the plates, the emulsion is on top.



Cheers,
Jason

[Robert Brazile]

It's easy enough to identify under safe light. I haven't had any situations where I needed to identify the emulsion side of a plate in the field, but I suspect you could do it by feel; the glass side and the emulsion side feel slightly different.

Also, to those who were asking: my own fit in stainless steel holders for washing, etc., and I imagine Jason's do as well. That's how the finished plate washing (after development) is done for the workshops at GEM anyway...

Robert

[Hugo Zhang]

Jason,

Chamonix wet plate holders are made to take plates of their film sizes which are slightly smaller than real 4x5, 5x7 or 6.5 x 8.5 inches. Is this going to be a problem for your dry plates? Our wet plate holder can take plates up to 3 mm in thickness.

Thanks.
Hugo

[Nodda Duma]

Hi Hugo,

It would be an issue as I cut them now, but I could adjust going forward. Or make Chamonix-specific plates. I would need to know the exact dimensions with tolerances. PM me and I can provide contact info to discuss further.

-Jason