Software For Wet Plate Look

[Two23]

I'm still trying to emulate the look of wet plates with my 4x5 sheet film. It's difficult to get the blue-sensitive glow from modern film. I was wondering if there was some software or a plug in that might give it to a scan? I am aware of the irony of shooting film, then scanning it and using software to get the look of something even older. You do what you have to do to get what you want.


Kent in SD

[mdm]

This is what you do. Develop your fims with very dilute (1:1:200) pyrocat with next to no agitation for the first 5 minutes in black ilford film bags. 125ml to a bag containing 2 sheets.

[Mark Sawyer]

This is what you do. Develop your fims with very dilute (1:1:200) pyrocat with next to no agitation for the first 5 minutes in black ilford film bags. 125ml to a bag containing 2 sheets.

No, this is what you do. Get some blackened aluminum film, coat it with collodion, and soak it in silever nitrate for three minutes, then expose and develop in a vinegar/sugar/ferrous sulphate solution. It gives a look very similar to wet plate!

[mdm]

The easy way.

[eddie]

No, this is what you do. Get some blackened aluminum film, coat it with collodion, and soak it in silever nitrate for three minutes, then expose and develop in a vinegar/sugar/ferrous sulphate solution. It gives a look very similar to wet plate!

Do what mark said and then use your enlarger with your film Meg and enlarge onto the plate......

[Two23]

Do what mark said and then use your enlarger with your film Meg and enlarge onto the plate......

This is the digital processing forum. My enlarger is an Epson V700.


Kent in SD

[eddie]

This is the digital processing forum. My enlarger is an Epson V700.


Kent in SD

then you can not do it. give up and move on already.

[Marko]

then you can not do it. give up and move on already.

The title of the section is "Digital Processing" and within it the OP is asking how to accomplish certain look using digital processing.

"The look" is certainly achievable. Pray tell, why should he "give up and move on"?

[theBDT]

The title of the section is "Digital Processing" and within it the OP is asking how to accomplish certain look using digital processing.

"The look" is certainly achievable. Pray tell, why should he "give up and move on"?

This happens about every third post in this sub-forum. It's very disrespectful: imagine if some jackass wandered into the darkroom sub-forum and started lecturing everyone on the superiority of inkjets.

It's also sad, and says more about the anti-digital nay-sayers than it does about the OP. When someone walks into a DEDICATED digital sub-forum and does this, it says, "I'm too much of a coward to learn something I don't understand, and I'm not secure enough in my art to accept that others might have a different approach."

Frankly, it's an attitude that's perilously close to "magic bullet" thinking—it's basically asserting that all of analog/chemical photography itself is a magic bullet, and that just by mere virtue of using film one's images are obviously superior; conversely, anyone who is using digital is destined to make inferior images, and so should just "give up".

I could maybe excuse this behavior if we were all somehow forced to use a single forum, with no sub-forums. I might even be able to excuse it if it weren't for the fact that there is an entire website dedicated to people who don't ever want to read a post about digital photography.

But you know all this, Marko. I'm sure I'm just preaching to the choir.

[Marko]

Frankly, it's an attitude that's perilously close to "magic bullet" thinking—it's basically asserting that all of analog/chemical photography itself is a magic bullet, and that just by mere virtue of using film one's images are obviously superior; conversely, anyone who is using digital is destined to make inferior images, and so should just "give up".

Frankly, I don't think it's about a magic bullet at all - I think this is an organized effort to derail and drown out any conversation about digital methods in photography on this forum - a de facto moderation effort from the outside, essentially - led by a small but loud group of individuals who are also all active members of that other forum you mentioned.

More than half of all responses to OP's question - and clarification that he is specifically asking about digital method - contained this kind of sniveling condescension. There were exactly half as many attempts to answer the actual question.

More like a barking pack than a choir...