Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
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/...b347ea8f_b.jpg
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
Very nice. Maybe I should start preparing collodion and leaving it sit a few months.
Kent in SD
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
Paul, how was your aged collodion stored?
Fridge, AC room, in hot shed?
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
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?
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
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
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
Looks plenty bright and well-exposed from here, well done!
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tin Can
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.
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ari
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.
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
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.
Re: Wet Plate image sharing, August 2020
Quote:
Originally Posted by
paulbarden
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/...b347ea8f_b.jpg
love this shot. perfect balance of focus