The best way to imitate the look of wet plate collodion

[Jim Fitzgerald]

You can try x-ray film as well. For me I have more control mixing pigments and using old papers. I'll have to look at some of the portraits I have done.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Yes, wonderful image, Jim!

OP -- How about liquid light on a glass plate?

Vaughn, thanks. This was shot with my Fuji 240A wide open F9. I made a special recipe batch of glop for the image.

[Mark Sawyer]

So, the Ortho without the blue filter?

Ortho film is blue-sensitive, so it effectively has then blue filter built in. It's usually very slow, so long exposures will match those of wet plates, which might be nice if you have a waterfall or the like in your mountain images.

[renes]

Thanks Mark. It seems than it's better to use FP4+ with blue filter.
Do you think it will be a noticable difference between photos made on Ortho film only and made on FP4+ with blue filter?

I also like the look of old silver gelatin photos (later I will attach an example of it)... can it be also imitate with currently black-and-white films? Or is it only a matter of printing papers?

[Mark Sawyer]

The Ortho will have a different look than FP4+ with the filter because they are different films made for different purposes, and likely designed for different developers, (I don't know which Ortho film you're planning on).

It's hard to match the look of old material exactly. It's hard to match the look of another modern photographer even if you have the exact same equipment and materials. At best, you can be inspired by it and use something of it, perhaps catch an echo of it, but it won't be quite the same.

[renes]

The Ortho will have a different look than FP4+ with the filter because they are different films made for different purposes, and likely designed for different developers, (I don't know which Ortho film you're planning on).

It's hard to match the look of old material exactly. It's hard to match the look of another modern photographer even if you have the exact same equipment and materials. At best, you can be inspired by it and use something of it, perhaps catch an echo of it, but it won't be quite the same.

It's Rolei Ortho 25.

Here there is Charles J. Belden Silver gelatin photograph, I like this look:

[eoghan]

That photo does not look like wet plate collodion to me, too much detail in the sky

[Leigh]

The best way to imitate the look of wet plate collodion... would be to shoot wet plate collodion.

- Leigh

[renes]

That photo does not look like wet plate collodion to me, too much detail in the sky

That's right, it's not wet plate collodion but gelatin silver photograph.

[Sevo]

Ortho film is blue-sensitive, so it effectively has then blue filter built in.

Not quite - Ortho is yellow, but not red sensitized, back in the days it was "true colour" (orthochromatic) compared to the preceding unsensitized plates. It could be described as having a green filter built in, so you'd still need that blue filter. For blue sensitive only you'd have to use X-ray film or unsensitized process film (now rare, but there used to be some, recognizable by the fly sheet allowing yellow as well as red safe light). Or traditional - not multicontrast - print paper.