My Lack of Knowledge in Wet Plate

[ghostcount]

You've never done it but you are advising people to learn film first, weplate "much later" and telling them it's difficult, expensive and toxic here? http://www.largeformatphotography.in...l=1#post987701

Indeed...

[Light Guru]

You've never done it but you are advising people to learn film first, weplate "much later" and telling them it's difficult, expensive and toxic here? http://www.largeformatphotography.in...l=1#post987701

I have based this off of all the research I have done. I have seen many people say that the chemicals can be toxic, and from what I have seen on cost of chemicals and tin plates it is not cheep.

Keeping in mind that what may be cheep for some people may not be cheep for others.

[Monty McCutchen]

The key here though is that the OP has a strong interest in learning Wet Plate and all of the knowledge/energy that this forum has in that field should be spent on helping her get to that end, not discouraging her with our own thoughts on why she should wait. It comes down to finding a way to help her say yes instead of no. I've been involved in Wet Plate for close to a decade now, Platinum/Palladium for the same amount of time and to this day wouldn't know the first thing about printing in Silver Gelatin. I learned Wet Plate out of a desire to do so and like many disciplines the cost of it is as much based on working methodologies, controlling waste, and being diligent in getting the most out of your medium as it does the original outlay of money. What's REALLY expensive is spending money on a medium you don't have as strong of an interest in based on some ideal of how to go about photographic pursuits. I hope the OP learns Wet Plate as fast as her life can allow--its a great medium of expression and is just as enjoyable in the process as it is in the final product. Don't wait another second is what I would recommend.

Monty

[StoneNYC]

Can you "contact print" a wet plate? So while learning wet play you can still shoot LF then transfer the image later to a wet plate image?

[Light Guru]

Can you "contact print" a wet plate?

If you mean making prints from a finished dry glass negative made using the wet plate process then yes that's how they did it originality with wet plate.

[QUOTE=StoneNYC;989367So while learning wet play you can still shoot LF then transfer the image later to a wet plate image?[/QUOTE]

If you mean taking an existing print and putting it indirect contact with a wt plate to make your wet plate image, NO when you remove your existing print it is going to be covered with the collodian and silver salts you put onto your glass or tin material thus ruining the wet plate image.

[StoneNYC]

If you mean making prints from a finished dry glass negative made using the wet plate process then yes that's how they did it originality with wet plate.



If you mean taking an existing print and putting it indirect contact with a wt plate to make your wet plate image, NO when you remove your existing print it is going to be covered with the collodian and silver salts you put onto your glass or tin material thus ruining the wet plate image.

What about keeping it 1/2mm away from the surface? I mean theoretically could it be done?

[Fourtoes]

Actually theres a few people that contact print wet plates from positives, mostly acetate digi "negs", but positives if you see what I mean.

[StoneNYC]

Actually theres a few people that contact print wet plates from positives, mostly acetate digi "negs", but positives if you see what I mean.

Like a B&W Transparency you mean? H mm so I should plan to reverse the image as part of my development (if I were to try it) interesting thanks.

[Fourtoes]

Yes but it depends on how much you value your original transparency. Most use a digital neg. You can also use an enlarger with with your original transparency. Just lay the plate beneath and do a test strip plate.

[StoneNYC]

Yes but it depends on how much you value your original transparency. Most use a digital neg. You can also use an enlarger with with your original transparency. Just lay the plate beneath and do a test strip plate.

I'll look into digital negs, have no idea what the process is thanks