Hand-coloring Ambrotypes?

[Mark Sawyer]

I've been doing a fair number of Ambrotypes lately and have been thinking of hand-coloring some of them. This was a very common practice in the 19th century, but seems fairly rare today. I was wondering if anyone knows of a resource for information on this? A fairly extensive internet search yielded one semi-practical result, but dealt mostly with coloring tintypes:

http://www.thevictorianphotographer.com/experiments-in-hand-tinting-wet-collodion-images/

Anyone know of other information out there? Thanks muchly!

[PRJ]

Mark, I've never colored ambrotypes but back when I was young I hand colored photographs quite a bit and before I took up photography I painted. If I were going to do it I would start with oil paints, and stick to the transparent colors (which is what I used to do). Pretty much every paint company has a chart to let you know how transparent and how permanent their colors are. You can dilute the color with a medium called Liquin which will make it dry a lot faster and also help with transparency. Oil paints are much easier to control than acrylic and watercolors. I wouldn't bother with inks or dyes. That is off the top of my head. Hope it helps.

[Mark Sawyer]

Mark, I've never colored ambrotypes but back when I was young I hand colored photographs quite a bit and before I took up photography I painted. If I were going to do it I would start with oil paints, and stick to the transparent colors (which is what I used to do). Pretty much every paint company has a chart to let you know how transparent and how permanent their colors are. You can dilute the color with a medium called Liquin which will make it dry a lot faster and also help with transparency. Oil paints are much easier to control than acrylic and watercolors. I wouldn't bother with inks or dyes. That is off the top of my head. Hope it helps.

Everything helps, PRJ! Thank you. I'm thinking along the same lines about transparent oil paints, but I'm also thinking about the Winsor Newton drawing inks, which are also transparent and are shellac-based. (Shellac was often used as a varnish for collodion images.) I'll be using a gloss-black solvent-based enamel over that. I think things will be compatible with either, but I'm not sure about acrylic colors with oil enamel.

[LabRat]

Folks that colored prints just used Marshall's oil colors, and probably ok for positives...

Steve K

[Mark Sawyer]

The Marshall's oil colors are a possibility, but they dry veeeeery slowly, and I'm not sure how they'd adhere to the black enamel covering on the back of the plate.

[Mark Sawyer]

mark have you thought of suspending the color in encaustic wax or gelatin ?
when I dabbled in hand coloring silver gelatin glass plates I used to coat the plates
after the images were dry and in the top coat I'd tint them.. might not work with collodion but
who knows ..

There needs to be a black backing over the collodion emulsion and coloring agent. The richest black is black enamel, which won't stick to wax, and may have trouble with the gelatin. (Darn it!)

[jodyake]

i have seen people grind pastels or they used powder pigment and gently dab the color on with a make up brush. if i remember correctly they would breath on the plate so the pigment would stick to the collodion

[Tin Can]

Good tip!


i have seen people grind pastels or they used powder pigment and gently dab the color on with a make up brush. if i remember correctly they would breath on the plate so the pigment would stick to the collodion

[Mark Sawyer]

i have seen people grind pastels or they used powder pigment and gently dab the color on with a make up brush. if i remember correctly they would breath on the plate so the pigment would stick to the collodion

Thank you, Jody! I'm going to try some powdered pigments by the method you refer to. My concern is whether they'll move around when the enamel backing is applied. We shall see...

I also ordered a set of Winsor & Newton transparent drawing inks, to be applied wet with a brush. Again, we shall see...

[Jim Noel]

I believe the traditional method was transparent watercolor. The advantage is the possibility of easy removal as used by watercolorists. I've never hand colored a complete print, but I do small parts, and use nothing else for spotting prints made by any process.

[PRJ]

If you are going to cover it with enamel then I'd suggest sticking with enamel paints, or mixing your own.You don't really want to cover one medium with another as often they are going to cause problems down the road with cracking or adhesion.

Also if you are going to cover the paint with black enamel and view it through the back side then the transparency thing isn't as important since the paint will be sitting behind the collodion. You may want the paint to be more opaque to show off the color against the black.

[bob carnie]

I believe the traditional method was transparent watercolor. The advantage is the possibility of easy removal as used by watercolorists. I've never hand colored a complete print, but I do small parts, and use nothing else for spotting prints made by any process.

I use watercolour crayons to accent colours on my gum bichromate prints, very easy to apply and when dry the application if done right is invisible .

[Mark Sawyer]

If you are going to cover it with enamel then I'd suggest sticking with enamel paints, or mixing your own. You don't really want to cover one medium with another as often they are going to cause problems down the road with cracking or adhesion.

Also if you are going to cover the paint with black enamel and view it through the back side then the transparency thing isn't as important since the paint will be sitting behind the collodion. You may want the paint to be more opaque to show off the color against the black.

There is a history of people using enamel on uncolored Ambrotypes without a peeling problem, so I'm thinking it's okay. The shellac-based drawing inks are similar to the collodion, so I think they'll be compatible too.

From what I've seen and read, transparency is important for whatever colors are used. The Ambrotype image is about 1/3 the density of a normal negative, so the colors show through and become garish and overstated easily.


I believe the traditional method was transparent watercolor. The advantage is the possibility of easy removal as used by watercolorists. I've never hand colored a complete print, but I do small parts, and use nothing else for spotting prints made by any process.


I use watercolour crayons to accent colours on my gum bichromate prints, very easy to apply and when dry the application if done right is invisible.

From what I've read, watercolors of any sort have a tendency to bleed when enamel or other black backing is applied. I may play with them anyways, we have to find out for ourselves...

Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

[Monty McCutchen]

Here is a hand colored true 5 x 7 Ferrotype. I used the method Jody discussed learned from the Osterman’s. Crushed pastels applied with a very fine small paint brush. Lots of applying and blowing off and then more applying. Applied Pre varnish and then the vsrnish mutes the colors to subtlety which was my preference. I’m by no mean an expert but I’ve done some. All the same way with happy to me results. Mark Osterman is very good at it. Might be worth looking up some of his work.

[Tin Can]

This


I believe the traditional method was transparent watercolor. The advantage is the possibility of easy removal as used by watercolorists. I've never hand colored a complete print, but I do small parts, and use nothing else for spotting prints made by any process.

[colbysadeghi]

Soft pastels crushed to a fine powder. Use a fine sable brush.

Example pictures below.

IG - @colbysadeghi

[Mark Sawyer]

Quite lovely! Are the pastels applied to the emulsion side and sealed with a varnish or enamel?

[colbysadeghi]

Emulsion side. Essentially the the pigment gets trapped between all the minuscule silver crystals on the plate and that’s how it stays on the plate. Keep blowing off the excess as you work. Varnish after words as you normally would with either sandarac varnish or shellac. It will tone the color down a bit. I have read in old manuals that color could also be applied on top of the varnish, I have not tried this though. Practice on reject plates, you’ll get a feel for it.

[bob carnie]

I've been doing a fair number of Ambrotypes lately and have been thinking of hand-coloring some of them. This was a very common practice in the 19th century, but seems fairly rare today. I was wondering if anyone knows of a resource for information on this? A fairly extensive internet search yielded one semi-practical result, but dealt mostly with coloring tintypes:

http://www.thevictorianphotographer.com/experiments-in-hand-tinting-wet-collodion-images/

Anyone know of other information out there? Thanks muchly!

Hi Mark - this may be a dumb question .... are you using a full colour scene to start with , then in PS converting to BW to make your neg to make the Ambrotype? If so I have some insight that may help you.
Bob

[Mark Sawyer]

Hi Mark - this may be a dumb question .... are you using a full colour scene to start with , then in PS converting to BW to make your neg to make the Ambrotype? If so I have some insight that may help you.
Bob

I'm shooting Ambrotypes directly in the camera, so the full colour subject comes out in monochrome. Nothing digital involved.

[bob carnie]

I'm shooting Ambrotypes directly in the camera, so the full colour subject comes out in monochrome. Nothing digital involved.

Ok , my workflow would not apply in this situation. For what its worth we use The Wet Print pigments with water use a brush to add colour to our work or highlight colour but I think I mentioned
this in an above post.

[Drew Bedo]

Hand coloring an Ambrotype: Wouldn't that be a little like reverse painting on glass . . .like a clock face.

[Mark Sawyer]

Hand coloring an Ambrotype: Wouldn't that be a little like reverse painting on glass . . .like a clock face.

Pretty much, but with a translucent image in front of the pigments.