Venture into B/W Tintype Portrait Photography

[apc]

Hi.

I know little enough about tintype photography: I've seen it, read about it, privy to the basics about processing... I find it entirely beautiful.

My thread is for those to consider the following:

say I wanted a studio that could produce images similar to those Sundance shots Victoria Will and her team made, would any one here know how one could do this? Big question, perhaps, or not... I really can't say.

I need to know everything:

camera, lens, lights, the actual material she used (aluminium?), developers... I need a complete (a) Studio and (b) Consumables shopping list. Budget is always necessary, but let's ignore that this time around and just do it right the first time.

For someone who wants to produce incredible, melting, unique tintypes... with what ideal components to make this happen?

Thanks.

[goamules]

There are two ways to successfully learn wetplate that are "doing it right the first time."

1. Buy a manual. John Coffer, Will Dunniway, and Quinn Jacobson all sell very good manuals. Some include videos.

2. Go to a workshop. You will often get a manual or notes, and will practice the techniques.

Asking on the internet is a dim third way. The Collodion.com is the best site to explore remaining questions after you have formed because "tell me everything I need in this post" is asking too much. The reason you cannot learn well or quickly by just asking strangers questions on a forum is because many will answer that haven't done wetplate, or have poor results. Also, each set of chemistry is subjective, and may work well with the remaining chemistry, or may not. Or for your weather or shooting conditions and techniques, or not. The chemistry and techniques are about as complex as building an ultralight airplane, and learning to fly it. One doesn't ask on the internet how to build a plane and fly it.

Frankly, the first year the photographer you mention did Sundance her weplates were atrocious. Poor technique and understanding of lighting caused that. If you want "melting" images, you'll see a lot of that from people that don't know what they're doing....

[Monty McCutchen]

If you want to take pictures like Victoria Will did at Sundance, do it for the first time on a big stage (like she did) make technically horrific plates, then hope your sitters have life events occur soon thereafter that allow your terrible craft to be misinterpreted as insightful art

Wet Plate Collodion photography is one of the few mediums where poor abilities are lauded. If you want to learn the art of Wet Plate you will learn to control the chemistry not be a slave to its many whimsies. That takes years not months like most mediums

Monty

[Mark Sawyer]

Frankly, the first year the photographer you mention did Sundance her wet plates were atrocious. Poor technique and understanding of lighting caused that....

If you want to take pictures like Victoria Will did at Sundance, do it for the first time on a big stage (like she did) make technically horrific plates...

The funny thing was, she hired the Penumbra Foundation to do all the technical work, so she just handled the lighting/posing part. And the plates were still technically horrific. But as has been discussed so many times before, people love the flaws of a technically horrific wet plate.

To the OP: if you're at all serious about this, take a workshop. It's the quickest, most effective way to learn, and will save you money in the long run, and you'll walk away knowing whether it's a practical venture, at least from the technical side.

[trekkin]

If you want to learn the art of Wet Plate you will learn to control the chemistry not be a slave to its many whimsies. That takes years not months like most mediums

Monty

So true. I took a course, and all it did was show how hard it was just to produce any image at all.

[Christopher Barrett]

I'm going to be venturing into this when I get the new darkroom built, which will be adjacent to my shooting studio. I'll start with flowers, so there'll be no pressure or time constraints and will have a full darkroom nearby, not a tent. I think that for mastering something as tricky as this, it's a good idea to stack the deck in your favor. The glass plate holders are on their way from Chamonix. Very excited.

-CB