Watch "How was it made? Wet Collodion

[Tin Can]

Best very short wet plate show and tell yet

It also has a last step, I have never heard of

Well under 3 minutes

https://youtu.be/pNyQ0nfMsxo

[paulbarden]

That last 30 seconds delivers only partial information and some very misleading information too: at no point is Fixing the negative mentioned. More importantly, exposing the negative to strong light AFTER washing but BEFORE fixing is done to further reduce the silver and give a slight boost to the image density - an asset when making a collodion negative, especially if its to be used for Salt or Albumen printing. It has absolutely nothing to do with making the image permanent or improving its ability to withstand usage as a negative. That part is very misleading: they got important details wrong.

[jnantz]

Photography is magical.
Thanks TC!

John

[Kiwi7475]

I had already seen this but I agree there’s much better introductory videos out there, like Robert Bieber’s.

[Tin Can]

It is 2 minutes 40 seconds of a very good video giving a slight glimpse at process

I wish more, including me, made videos half as good

Nobody will think it is the ..."the rest of the story"...

[Tin Can]

perhap you all missed

"The wet collodion process was developed by English sculptor Frederick Scott Archer around 1852. Archer realised that combining the best qualities of the earlier daguerreotype and calotype processes he could create a technique that made sharp yet reproducible images from glass negatives. Almundena Romero is an artist and leading expert in early photographic techniques. In this film she demonstrates creating a wet collodion portrait.

Find out more about photographic processes: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/photog...

but the artist is only a woman!!!

[r.e.]

Thanks.

Given some of the posts above, it might be helpful to know why this video was made. It is not a YouTube "how-to-do-it" video. As Tin Can's posts suggest, it is also quite a bit more professional than the average YouTube video.

In 2018, the Victoria and Albert Museum opened a new Photography Centre that among other things has doubled its photography exhibition space. As part of this initiative, the museum took over the entire Royal Photographic Society collection of photographs. It also commissioned a new series of photographs by Thomas Ruff. There are many articles about the new space, such as this one in The Guardian that coincided with the opening: Please don't wake the hippo! The V&A unpacks its glorious photography archive (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/10/please-dont-wake-hippo-victoria-albert-photography-centre-unpacks-glorious-photography-archive)

The Victoria and Albert has made several videos for the new space. These are both on its website and on the Photography Playlist on its YouTube channel. The video about the collodion process is one of them. It is a brief introduction to the process for museum and website visitors, not a recipe. It features photographer Almudena Romero, who has both a website (https://www.almudenaromero.co.uk)and Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/almudena.romero/?hl=en) for those who are interested. Judging from the credits, the video was shot at Dimbola Lodge (https://www.dimbola.co.uk) on the Isle of Wight. No doubt the reason is that the Museum was also making a video about Julia Margaret Cameron, which is also on its YouTube channel. Dimbola Lodge, now a centre for Cameron's work, was Cameron's home. If you happen to be on Wight, Dimbola is worth a visit.

The Victoria and Albert released the video below a few months before the new Photography Centre opened:

Introducing the Photography Collection


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jy-8oKKXfA&list=PLe2ihXndm5judaLBOP9_4Fr_FqS-UwucD

[r.e.]

Might as well add that the Victoria & Albert is one of my favourite museums. Once the pandemic is under control, and I can get to London for a week, the new Photography Centre will be high on the list of places that I want to visit.

[Tin Can]

https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/victoria-and-albert-museum

Fake Millennium ano 2000 I was in London for a month going to the endless array of museums

So many, so quickly, it is now a blur

It was a fun Month, I combined 2 vacations from my very good job

[paulbarden]

It is 2 minutes 40 seconds of a very good video giving a slight glimpse at process

I wish more, including me, made videos half as good

Nobody will think it is the ..."the rest of the story"...

Absolutely, yes. But the video delivers a serious bit of misinformation at the end, so regardless of how well done it is, it still provides misinformation. That could so easily have been avoided, with care.



Given some of the posts above, it might be helpful to know why this video was made. It is not a YouTube "how-to-do-it" video.

I understand that. Clearly you are not going to teach a process like Wet Plate Collodion in a 2 minute video. But I find it irksome that the video does provide a rather significant piece of misinformation at the end. Even Randy was fooled by it.

[r.e.]

Dimbola Lodge, now a centre for [Julia Margaret] Cameron's work, was Cameron's home.

The 1:03 mark of Tin Can's video was shot inside Dimbola Lodge, as I imagine all of the video was. Dimbola is in Freshwater on the west coast of Wight, not far from Alfred Lord Tennyson's home. In the screen capture below, that's the English Channel in the background.


Dimbola Lodge

222575

[Tin Can]

Seems V&A has many very nice Video teases, not tutorial

Search youtube and complain

How was it made? Calotypes | V&A (https://youtu.be/5jCWQTNWgyM)

Perhaps we need to step up OUR game

[jnantz]

Thanks.

Given some of the posts above, it might be helpful to know why this video was made. It is not a YouTube "how-to-do-it" video.

if it is really "how its made" this is what it is: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0835010/
Not sure if it really their short film though ... it might just be something the VA-M produced in house to show people the joy of photography.
I'm no expert at photography (or anything else for that matter ) and I figured the people producing the video weren't WP experts either, they were just over simplifying a complicated process,
You know, ... like all those videos people make on that website that last for 2 minutes, they show some sort of exotic food recipe, and they leave out amounts of ingredients and how to actually *make* the dish..

[r.e.]

if it is really "how its made" this is what it is: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0835010/
Not sure if it really their short film though ... it might just be something the VA-M produced in house to show people the joy of photography.

As successful as How It's Made has been (the show started in 2001), I'm pretty sure that the Victoria & Albert didn't fly a crew from Montréal, where the show is based, to the Isle of Wight to make a 2:41 film about wet plate collodion :) As I understand it, the V&A produces its digital content in-house, directly and via freelancers.

[r.e.]

Seems V&A has many very nice Video teases, not tutorial

Search youtube and complain

How was it made? Calotypes | V&A (https://youtu.be/5jCWQTNWgyM)

Perhaps we need to step up OUR game

U.K. calotype artist Rob Douglas, who does the demonstration in the video, has a website: Paper, Shadows and Light (https://www.papershadowsandlight.com/rob-douglas-21st-century-calotypist.)

This is the V&A page on Fox Talbot and the Calotype (https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/fox-talbot-and-the-calotype). There are actually two videos. Also a link to Fox Talbot's work in the V&A collection.