Collodion - Wet Plate Images

[nede]

Brandon13, great portrait as usual!

[brandon13]

Thanks Garrett. I still have a ways to go working out the process, particularly on the road. But its a start just to get a sense of the time I have to make the image. Next I'm going to concentrate on negatives for a while, until I run out of glass. I read somewhere you need to give a negative twice the exposure of a correctly exposed tintype. Would you agree?

Double the exposure of an ambrotype is good if you are printing on photo paper. You may want to go 2.5 up to 3 times exposure for PPD or Salt prints etc. Also depends on your aesthetic and of course how well the chemicals behave that day.

[brandon13]

Brandon13, great portrait as usual!

Thanks nede and all.

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Brandon. I shot a few yesterday and just waiting to the weekend to print. Do you varnish your negatives, or just leave them?

[andrewch59]

First one turned out, but I was a bit quick with the developer and even quicker with the fixer, so there are some rough white areas. This one I was more patient.

[brandon13]

Thanks Brandon. I shot a few yesterday and just waiting to the weekend to print. Do you varnish your negatives, or just leave them?

Yes varnish as they will tarnish and they are very fragile. Learned that the hard way. I got two PPD prints from a nice unvarnished neg and it slipped on the third print and scratched it all to hell.

[HCST]

"melancholia and other mindfuck"
deep shadows under some big tree and cloudy day...
13x18cm ambrotype

Wonderful and imaginative collodion and not just another portrait.
Tomas

[nede]

Wonderful and imaginative collodion and not just another portrait.
Tomas

Thank you Thomas!

[andrewch59]

For some of us, just another portrait is a real achievement in ambrotype.

[AlexGard]

Hollow Tree Road by alex gard, on Flickr