An Off-The-Wall thought For Dry Plate Work

[Drew Bedo]

Was reading about low light vision in cats. Seems there is a reflective tissue behind the rtina that helps amplify in low light.

So, I got to thinking: What if . . .

What would be the effect of shooting dry plates in a holder that had a reflective, or even mirrored, surface behind the plate? Would that improve the effective speed of the plate? Would it fog it instead?

[Alan Townsend]

Drew,

Daguerreotypes operated that way with polished silver plate. Lippman holograms also worked like that using a mercury bath behind the plate. Doubling the emulsion thickness would also be similar and easier, with no need to coat front surface mirrors instead of glass. Hard to print from a negative on a mirror. Sandwiching a coated plate against a front surface mirror could work, but would require exposure through the plate, so dust and dirt would be more a problem along with halation from reflections front the front surface of the plate. Front surface mirrors are also easily scratched.

Have fun with it,

Alan Townsend