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paulbarden
2-Aug-2020, 14:46
Its a new month. And this is the first plate I've done in weeks. Exposure was correct on the first try, much to my surprise.

5X7 inch collodion negative (on glass), made with my moth-eaten Burke & James Watson, and the Voigtlander Pertzval lens, wide open. Exposure was 45 seconds. Old Workhorse collodion used, about 5 months old. At this point, it has excellent contrast.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50181494788_ddb347ea8f_b.jpg

Two23
2-Aug-2020, 15:33
Very nice. Maybe I should start preparing collodion and leaving it sit a few months.


Kent in SD

Tin Can
2-Aug-2020, 15:38
Paul, how was your aged collodion stored?

Fridge, AC room, in hot shed?

Ari
2-Aug-2020, 16:17
Lovely, Paul. I dream about making plates like this.
Got a question for the pros:
Since everyone scans their plates for the web, how much adjustment is done to your images in Photoshop/Lightroom/other?
I have low-contrast, overexposed, underexposed plates, you name it. But most of them can look pretty successful after a tweak in PS.
So if you're more experienced, and make nice plates, do you still adjust some things digitally before posting online?

Two23
2-Aug-2020, 20:21
I drove up into Minnesota today to try taking a shot of an old engine in Currie. I used my new Darlot 9 inch wide angle Hemispherique. I had the aperture set to what I think was f32 and had trouble zeroing in on exposure. I ended up with 2m 30s. I got a usuable photo but probably could have gone with 4 minutes. I'm having more trouble learning this lens than the others I have, but it is a cool lens.


Kent in SD

Ari
2-Aug-2020, 20:37
Looks plenty bright and well-exposed from here, well done!

paulbarden
2-Aug-2020, 20:47
Paul, how was your aged collodion stored?

Fridge, AC room, in hot shed?

Randy,
I have a repurposed Styrofoam cooler I keep all my collodion in, and its outside in the laundry room/back shed. It doesn't get exposed to a lot of light, but it gets quite warm out there. On days when it goes over 85F, I put a bag of ice cubes in the cooler to limit how warm it gets.

paulbarden
2-Aug-2020, 20:51
Lovely, Paul. I dream about making plates like this.
Got a question for the pros:
Since everyone scans their plates for the web, how much adjustment is done to your images in Photoshop/Lightroom/other?
I have low-contrast, overexposed, underexposed plates, you name it. But most of them can look pretty successful after a tweak in PS.
So if you're more experienced, and make nice plates, do you still adjust some things digitally before posting online?

90% of the wet plate work I do these days is negatives, so I treat them much the same as I do with regular negatives: scan and make some adjustments in Lightroom to massage contrast, add some vignetting, and clean up the flotsam that landed on the plate. For the most part, though, my scans don't get a lot of treatment: the image is 90% "as found" in the negative.

Ari
2-Aug-2020, 21:11
Good to know, thanks Paul.
The work I've seen being done by good practitioners like yourself suggests much the same work flow, whether they make positives or negatives.

eabartel
3-Aug-2020, 14:38
Its a new month. And this is the first plate I've done in weeks. Exposure was correct on the first try, much to my surprise.

5X7 inch collodion negative (on glass), made with my moth-eaten Burke & James Watson, and the Voigtlander Pertzval lens, wide open. Exposure was 45 seconds. Old Workhorse collodion used, about 5 months old. At this point, it has excellent contrast.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50181494788_ddb347ea8f_b.jpg

love this shot. perfect balance of focus

paulbarden
20-Aug-2020, 14:25
New image I made this morning - a 5x7 glass collodion negative.
I used my B&J Watson with the f3.5 Voigtlander Petzval lens. Exposure was 80 seconds at f3.5
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50248809871_58b7c902c1_h.jpg

paulbarden
20-Aug-2020, 14:26
love this shot. perfect balance of focus

Thank you very much!

Monty McCutchen
20-Aug-2020, 16:19
Great!

Old_Dick
20-Aug-2020, 18:39
New image I made this morning - a 5x7 glass collodion negative.
I used my B&J Watson with the f3.5 Voigtlander Petzval lens. Exposure was 80 seconds at f3.5
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50248809871_58b7c902c1_h.jpg

Paul,

Well done.

paulbarden
22-Aug-2020, 10:30
Paul,

Well done.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it. :-)

I belong to a local photo arts guild that is quite active, and since the pandemic, we have been making themed galleries on our web site. This month's theme is "Quartets". My current Quartet is going to be these 5x7 glass collodion negatives. The above image is the first, and this next one is the second. I am making one image per day over four days. I always set up the shot before the sun is over the horizon (which is about 6:30 AM right now) and I have time to make 2 plates before the sunlight hits the garden directly and the morning breeze starts up. These negatives require approximately 80 seconds exposure to make - give or take 10 seconds - using a Voigtlander f3.5 Petzval.

I have made the third image this morning and I'm waiting for the plates to dry and then they will get scanned.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50255824542_49437b1332_b.jpg

Tin Can
22-Aug-2020, 10:45
Yes, very good and your notes on how it was done are very helpful!


Thank you very much, I appreciate it. :-)

I belong to a local photo arts guild that is quite active, and since the pandemic, we have been making themed galleries on our web site. This month's theme is "Quartets". My current Quartet is going to be these 5x7 glass collodion negatives. The above image is the first, and this next one is the second. I am making one image per day over four days. I always set up the shot before the sun is over the horizon (which is about 6:30 AM right now) and I have time to make 2 plates before the sunlight hits the garden directly and the morning breeze starts up. These negatives require approximately 80 seconds exposure to make - give or take 10 seconds - using a Voigtlander f3.5 Petzval.

I have made the third image this morning and I'm waiting for the plates to dry and then they will get scanned.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50255824542_49437b1332_b.jpg

paulbarden
23-Aug-2020, 11:01
Another one of the Morning Glory collodion negatives, from yesterday. This may be my favorite so far.
About 110 seconds using the Voigtlander f3.5 Petzval, wide open.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50259870097_ee09cd6925_h.jpg

Andrew Plume
23-Aug-2020, 12:20
Looks plenty bright and well-exposed from here, well done!

AND + from me too - nothing there to be unhappy with Kent, imo

regards

Andrew

Ari
25-Aug-2020, 05:27
This is from two weeks ago. I was still having various problems with the aluminum and I also had some developer issues, but at least I finally got a decent-looking portrait done.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50267276237_96b576d6a9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jzWVWv)

Monty McCutchen
25-Aug-2020, 10:33
Nicely done.

Ari
25-Aug-2020, 10:38
Nicely done.

Thanks, Monty.

Ethan
30-Aug-2020, 12:07
Here's a shot of the street in front of my house I captured a few days ago. Probably my best plate so far, as far as the technical aspects go, though the composition isn't my favorite.
207278

Ari
30-Aug-2020, 14:52
Nice, Ethan. I think the composition and resulting image are very good.
I've found that the minor plate/developer flaws will iron out over time as you get more efficient at this.
It really forces you to pay attention to every step of the process.

Two23
7-Sep-2020, 19:24
I went out Saturday looking for some country churches I missed, but they were all facing east and it was already afternoon. I settled on an abandoned grain elevator but kept overexposing. By the time I figured that out the clouds were rolling in and it was getting dark. I went out again today. Big change! Yesterday it was 95 and I kept my chemicals on ice, today it was 58 and I was worried about them getting too cold. It was raining in most of the state so I went south to an area it wasn't. The wind was blowing pretty hard (~25mph) and that caused problems. I took a few shots with the 2D 8x10 and my Darlot wide angle Hemispherique. The first two shots were overexposed and this time I wised up and shot with shorter exposure. I started with 30s and ended up shooting 8s.

Progress with 8x10 is slow. I do OK with pouring the plate but pouring on the developer is harder. I am getting better and not leaving islands now. Still, I'm not where I want to be yet. My usual workflow is to pour the plate inside my car over the folded down back seat (over big square of cardboard,) then walk to the back of the car where my hatchback is open and my dark box is with the sliver tank. Usually this works fine but today the strong wind had kicked up a lot of dust and it landed on my freshly poured plate. I'll have to remember to only work inside the dark box when it's windy. I keep getting close but still only sometimes make an image I'm really happy with.


Kent in SD

Ethan
9-Sep-2020, 07:16
I went out Saturday looking for some country churches I missed, but they were all facing east and it was already afternoon. I settled on an abandoned grain elevator but kept overexposing. By the time I figured that out the clouds were rolling in and it was getting dark. I went out again today. Big change! Yesterday it was 95 and I kept my chemicals on ice, today it was 58 and I was worried about them getting too cold. It was raining in most of the state so I went south to an area it wasn't. The wind was blowing pretty hard (~25mph) and that caused problems. I took a few shots with the 2D 8x10 and my Darlot wide angle Hemispherique. The first two shots were overexposed and this time I wised up and shot with shorter exposure. I started with 30s and ended up shooting 8s.

Progress with 8x10 is slow. I do OK with pouring the plate but pouring on the developer is harder. I am getting better and not leaving islands now. Still, I'm not where I want to be yet. My usual workflow is to pour the plate inside my car over the folded down back seat (over big square of cardboard,) then walk to the back of the car where my hatchback is open and my dark box is with the sliver tank. Usually this works fine but today the strong wind had kicked up a lot of dust and it landed on my freshly poured plate. I'll have to remember to only work inside the dark box when it's windy. I keep getting close but still only sometimes make an image I'm really happy with.


Kent in SD

what developer are you using? my developer has a very low viscosity and never has any issues covering the whole plate.

Ari
9-Sep-2020, 07:40
what developer are you using? my developer has a very low viscosity and never has any issues covering the whole plate.

What developer are you using, Ethan?

Two23
9-Sep-2020, 08:23
I use the B&S iron developer but dilute it a bit in hot weather.


Kent in SD

paulbarden
9-Sep-2020, 08:51
I use the B&S iron developer but dilute it a bit in hot weather.


Kent in SD

Add more ethanol to improve surfactant qualities.

Mark Sawyer
9-Sep-2020, 10:40
Wet plate takes a while to master, more so than film because there's more of a hand-made aspect to it. Some problems can be corrected with specific advice, but a lot of it is improving both technique and consistency. I thing the silver baths take a while to break in properly too. People improve over time without ever figuring out exactly what they did to improve.

Plates that are twice as big are twice as hard. At first.

Working in the field is also twice as hard. At first.

Ethan
10-Sep-2020, 06:03
I'm using a mixture of ferrous sulfate, acetic acid, and grain alcohol, in distilled water. I think its 100ml water, to 4g ferrous sulfate, 4ml grain alcohol, and 6ml acetic acid.

Ari
10-Sep-2020, 06:22
I'm using a mixture of ferrous sulfate, acetic acid, and grain alcohol, in distilled water. I think its 100ml water, to 4g ferrous sulfate, 4ml grain alcohol, and 6ml acetic acid.

Thanks. Sounds like Quinn's recipe, but with double the acetic acid.