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Thread: Software For Wet Plate Look

  1. #41

    Join Date
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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    Quote Originally Posted by walter23 View Post
    I also see no problem with it; if you can make a really nice image using capture + digital effects, good for you.

    There are all kinds of different photographic philosophies out there spanning the gamut from pure digital artwork to stuff like wet plate and tintype. Do what you enjoy.
    This is precisely the point.

    Quote Originally Posted by walter23 View Post
    The difference, and one wet plate users should be proud of, is that a wet plate image is a hand-crafted physical object. I don't doubt that a digital plug-in could replicate the appearance of a wet plate image (in digital form), but it can never replicate the original physical object. Same with a cyanotype or any other type of print. You can replicate it digitally but the point of the original technique is that it is a real physical object produced in a physical/chemical way.

    No point getting all upset over mimicry.
    I don't see the need to get upset at all. Over what? Because someone likes the look of your work and would like to achieve something similar but using different methods? Seriously?

    I really don't understand all this obsession with "handcrafted physical objects" - to me, photography is all about the image, the one both created and drawn by light. Everything else is just presentation. It is that slice of time isolated from the continuum that will never repeat itself again in a single image that draws my attention, not the material it is pasted on. The material is just a print.

    But if making things with your hands is what moves you, that's perfectly fine too, as long as you don't turn it into a fetish or a cult and start harassing others for their "deviation".

    Marko

    P.S. Walter, just to make it clear after re-reading it - the "you" is a figurative, not you personally...

  2. #42

    Join Date
    Jul 2007
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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    I have now read this interesting thread.

    First I giggled.. Wet-plate plug in in PS?

    But I have also been asked if I know a plug-in that would make digital images look like my bromoils...

    Then I thought: IF is proves impossible to make wet plates in this cold condition, then why try to do it in PS at all?
    Why try to make something look like something that can't be done?

    (as trying to make a vegetarian chili con carne... can't be done unless you rename it..)

    I am also constantly reading, that if I as a non digital photographer questions something digital, then it is because I don't know photoshop... Whic actually isn't the case.
    In fact I teach it to my students.


    Back to the question on hand:
    Kent, I once saw a really beautiful image on the net (I'll see if I can find it again).
    At first glance I thought the photographer was sarted with wet plate, but when asked, she told me, it was a coincidence due to her impatience!

    She had made a LF film, and wanted to scan it, but couldn't wait for it to dry! So she scanned it soaking wet.. (a kind of wet plate... )..
    the water on the film made the image look like those "imperfect" collodion coatings, and I must admit, it looked great.

    And it is rather unique, as you can't make another scan that looks like it...

    Worth a try?

  3. #43

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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    found the image - not so heavy in the mistakes as I remember but here it is....

  4. #44

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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    Quote Originally Posted by gandolfi View Post
    Then I thought: IF is proves impossible to make wet plates in this cold condition, then why try to do it in PS at all?
    Why try to make something look like something that can't be done?

    (as trying to make a vegetarian chili con carne... can't be done unless you rename it..)
    Wonderful point about vegetarian chile con carne. A process is what it is, and while it might be possible to duplicate the "look", for example with inkjet prints that look like pt/pd prints, that would make it another thing.

    In this case, I am not at all sure what is meant by the "wet plate look". Is the OP thinking about the meticulously crafted prints of the great wet plate artists of the 19th century, or the poorly crafted work of many contemporary workers that seem to delight in showing defects, or artifacts, of the process. Or is the look the OP seeks due to the spectral sensitivity of wet plate?

    Sandy King
    For discussion and information about carbon transfer please visit the carbon group at groups.io
    [url]https://groups.io/g/carbon

  5. #45
    Foamer
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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    Quote Originally Posted by sanking View Post
    . Or is the look the OP seeks due to the spectral sensitivity of wet plate?

    Sandy King

    More the blue sensitive halation sort of thing, with lots of softness and low contrast thrown in. Here's where I'm coming from. I've been shooting only Nikon modern pro lenses for the past six years, gitzo tripod, etc. etc. The shots were all very sharp, high contrast, perfectly focussed, on & on. They were all looking the same though. So, I bought a 1937 Bessa 6x9 i8n perfect condition and began shooting HP5 in it. I loved it! From there I got back into 4x5. I love photo history and enjoy the shots from long ago, especially Brassai, who I consider a kindred spirit. I also admire O.W.Link of course. I really don't want to get into a traditional darkroom, and not sure just how great my motivation is for alternative process is anyway. (Dry plate sound possible for me.) I do have a pretty clear idea of what kind of images I want to make, and will use the tools that bet fit my needs to do it. For me, a photo is all about the use of light, and the story or feeling it tells. How I get there isn't so important.

    As for chili, we make "Home on the Range" chili in my house. You know, where the deer and the antelope roam? (I'm an avid deer & antelope hunter.)


    Kent in SD
    In contento ed allegria
    Notte e di vogliam passar!

  6. #46
    Andrew Moxom
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    Minnesota
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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    I live in Minnesota and the coldest I have shot wet plate is in 15 degrees fahrenheit.... All I can say is, I needed a lot more ether in my collodion to thin it out more. Also, using a cold weather developer helped but its not really meant to be used that low down. I kept it warm by placing it in a footwell and blasted it with hot air from the heater in my car while plates sensitized. I found that the developer temperature is the most important to get right after you get the collodion working well with more ether. I work out of a darkbox anchored into the back of my vehicle, the heater is my friend to keep the silver bath from freezing up too. I run the heater at its hottest and the fan on high... Not sure how anyone did this years ago in this climate....It can be done, but takes a lot of practice to get consistent results, and I've yet to master that also!

  7. #47

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    Re: Software For Wet Plate Look

    I have heard of people making Dagureotypes from a digital file. Why cant you make a tintype or ambrotype or a negative image from a scan of a negative or a digital file? Must be possible using a digital negative. What if you exposed from the back.

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