Getting into Wet Plate - UV Photographics Kit Any Good?

[Colorado CJ]

I'm wanting to get into wet plate photography. I might do a little glass plate, but I think anodized aluminum is what I will mostly be using.

I was looking through the various wet plate kits available and found a kit that UV Photographics sells: http://uvphotographics.com/wet-plate-collodion-starter-kit-large/

Its cheaper than the Bostick and Sullivan kit and gives you various collodion options.

I was wondering if anyone as used the UV Photographics kit, and if so, which Collodion do you prefer?

Any other tricks and tips you'd recommend would be helpful as well.

I can't wait to start shooting wet plate!

[paulbarden]

Hi CJ. I'm happy to hear that you're interested in learning wet plate collodion. Its a very rewarding, hands-on process unlike any other.
I saw you'd posted your questions on Photrio as well, and I wrote a response on that forum, so I won't duplicate it here ;-)

Paul

[Mark Sawyer]

First, try to take a wet plate workshop. Besides everything else you'll learn, many workshops cover mixing the chemistry, which really isn't much more involved than using the kit. Might as well jump right in at the start!

[michael_los_angeles_photo]

I recommend UV Photographics highly. Brian who runs it is a super nice guy, and extremely helpful if you ever have a question. I have used their UVP3 collodion, which is really fast, so tends to be good for portraits. And I recently tried the new X formula, which so far has been great. Really nice contrast. I have also used, and still do, a lot of Bostick & Sullivan chemicals ... and, again, really nice people and good results. You can’t go wrong with either.