Wet Plate Ultra Detail compared with todays films, WHY THIS HAPPENS ?

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Hello there , I attached two pages from an article which tries and compare textile pieces with todays technology and wet plate collodion. At wetplate samples , even smallest light shadow tonal differences are visible , smallest textile creases are visible.

THE MYSTERY OF WET PLATE PHOTOGRAPHS AND COLOR —
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
Virginia Mescher

You can google and easily access free.

I thought why todays panchro color and bw films are dull and death but wetplate was so active and lively ?

Is there a light matter interaction nonlinearity ?
or does narrow band pass spectrum do it always ?
or the basic reason was the size of the negative and the low ASA high resolution ?
or does uv band always do it ?

the narrower the spectrum the less chromatic aberration you get. uv has higher potential resolution than longer wavelengths. wet plate has extremely fine grain and high contrast.

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Originally Posted by maltfalc

the narrower the spectrum the less chromatic aberration you get. uv has higher potential resolution than longer wavelengths. wet plate has extremely fine grain and high contrast.

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Thank you. I try to remember a few details on wet plate fine grain but no success. Can you help me to put together ? I had been read a research paper from russia with micrographs of the emulsion. They found that the grains are like greek columns and each column appear with different heights depending on light recorded. I found it like 3d map. I think this might help to record everything with more dimension and make the detail variability greater.

I want to read on finer grain , I need a helping hand.

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Originally Posted by Mustafa Umut Sarac

Thank you. I try to remember a few details on wet plate fine grain but no success. Can you help me to put together ? I had been read a research paper from russia with micrographs of the emulsion. They found that the grains are like greek columns and each column appear with different heights depending on light recorded. I found it like 3d map. I think this might help to record everything with more dimension and make the detail variability greater.

I want to read on finer grain , I need a helping hand.

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wet plate grain structure is outside my area of expertise.

I shoot both wet plate and b&w film. My impression after looking at samples under a medium powered microscope is that film silver is in large clumps/crystals, while wet plate silver seems to be almost molecular. At least, it's much finer.


Kent in SD

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Originally Posted by Mustafa Umut Sarac

T...I had been read a research paper from russia with micrographs of the emulsion. They found that the grains are like greek columns and each column appear with different heights depending on light recorded. I found it like 3d map. ....

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Actually this sounds similar to the images that can be created in single transfer carbon prints. My images have a raised relief, where the image is made of "greek columns" of pigmented gelatin. The taller columns are darker than the shorter ones (white is no column). The short columns next to tall ones on the print's surface create a sense of greater sharpness, an acute acutance, so to speak.

In the case of the carbon prints, the image is made with a non-diffuse UV light source, contact printed, and the gelatin "emulsion' that gets exposed to UV light hardens (its melting point is raised). The unexposed (non-image) gelatin melts away in hot water.

I would have to guess about how the wet plate image is created. Perhaps like carbon there is a thick enough emulsion (or equivilent) to create the columns with little or no bleed-over across (sideways) the emulsion.

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Originally Posted by Vaughn

I would have to guess about how the wet plate image is created. Perhaps like carbon there is a thick enough emulsion (or equivilent) to create the columns with little or no bleed-over across (sideways) the emulsion.

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The emulsion on wet plate is pretty thick, and the silver seems to permeate that thickness rather than just sit as a layer on top.


Kent in SD