wet plate transfer like polaroid...

[cosmicexplosion]

I just completed my first wet plate workshop, and focused on tin types, the last shot I did was done in a bit of a hurry and I made a (happy)mistake.

That mistake led me to be able to easily lift the image.

So when I got home I pored some hot beeswax and oil paint onto some ply wood, and transferred the image.

I then cooked it under the grill to help melt things like cheese.

Whilst this is the first one, and the collodion is not flexible like polaroid, it opens up lots of creative potential.


Has any one done this sort of thing?

A

[Craig Tuffin]

Yes, in 1851 the man who published a treatise "On the Use of Collodion in Photography" Fredrick Scott Archer, mentions in one working method that once the image is made, the photographer should roll up the collodion on a glass rod and store it so that the glass plate could be reused...He mentioned this because he at first believed that his plates would peel and that he always intended to transfer the collodion onto paper.

Niepce, Hunt and Herschel also saw the advantage of glass photographically but Archer was the one that thought that glass or paper should be substituted with collodion. He noted several times that he always intended to remove the collodion from the plate.

In 1855 however he published that removing the collodion "occupied much time and very delicate manipulation" and then published and patented a new process to remove the collodion.

So you see this method is one that was used at the very beginning of the collodion process. You can thank the brilliant mind of Archer for bringing this process to life and sharing it (for free) with the world.

If you want to avoid the peeling, you might want to make sure the surface you're pouring your collodion onto is very clean.

It sounds like you're having a ball with the process though...good for you!

[mdm]

There are also polaroid emulsion lifts and if you like transferring stuff carbon transfer printing, which lets you keep your negative and allows you to put a beautiful print on nearly anything flat and work with whatever colour or colours you can imagine. Purple if you feel that way.

[eddie]

If you want to avoid the peeling, you might want to make sure the surface you're pouring your collodion onto is very clean.

and sand the sharp edge of the glass with 100 grit sand paper to give teh collodion something to bite into......

OR

use old workhorse formula....it sticks to everything!