Collodion - Wet Plate Images

[dodphotography]

I'm using B&S's developer.

[Tin Can]

I cannot post it here, but I just saw an amazing 4x10 wet plate image in the latest, April 2014 Rangefinder print magazine. Made by Bill Schwab, of Mackinac bridge. I have never seen panoramic collodion. It's an excellent image. He won second place in their B&W + Alternative Processes Contest. I don't know Mr Schwab, but it should have been first place. You can hunt for it on Rangefinder website. Not easy to find.

I spotted several names of members here, who also entered the contest.

Congratulations to all.

[StoneNYC]

I cannot post it here, but I just saw an amazing 4x10 wet plate image in the latest, April 2014 Rangefinder print magazine. Made by Bill Schwab, of Mackinac bridge. I have never seen panoramic collodion. It's an excellent image. He won second place in their B&W + Alternative Processes Contest. I don't know Mr Schwab, but it should have been first place. You can hunt for it on Rangefinder website. Not easy to find.

I spotted several names of members here, who also entered the contest.

Congratulations to all.

He runs some destination photo trips to Iceland and Faeroe Islands etc.

I'll look for it.

[goamules]

Collodion changes a lot with age. In the old days, (Waldack guide) the different formulas were listed as having a optimal usefulness of just a few weeks. The old studio photographers that did this for a living, taking portraits 5 days a week, required and produced spectacular images that are seldom duplicated today. Yes, I've used, very old collodion before. But after using an old batch, and finally making a new one, the difference is always amazing.

Not only is a 2 week old batch more sensitive than a 2 month, but it's sensitive in the high, middle, and shadow ranges. Some of the salts are for the mid and highlights, the other for shadow sensitivity.

What you end up with using very old collodion is often a very contrasty image with no mid tones. Just the darks and the highlights, with nothing in the middle ranges. Now I know a friend that uses many month old batches, by boosting it with fresh stuff, and working in studio conditions with steady lighting. But there are numerous things that start to go wrong after collodion is more than 3-4 months old, that I won't go into here. Check out the old threads in Collodion.com, or the old guidebooks.

Here is a plate I took with about 1 month old Collodion. Note the range of tones.

[Don Dudenbostel]

The collodion I used for the musical instruments was mixed about twelve weeks ago. It's become very slow now but I'm pleased with the tonal range. I have about 100ml still and need to use it up. It's slow enough now to do nice images in deep shade with fast glass.

When time allows I'm going to start experimenting with different salt combinations.

Very nice shot Garrett.

[yangshan75]

11"x14" Wet Plate Collodion Alumitype on aluminium plate
Dallmeyer 3A

[StoneNYC]

11"x14" Wet Plate Collodion Alumitype on aluminium plate
Dallmeyer 3A

Wow!! What excellent and even emulsion and awesome portrait and depth! Now this is what I call SKILL.

[Tri Tran]

11"x14" Wet Plate Collodion Alumitype on aluminium plate
Dallmeyer 3A

Excellent portrait. Well executed. TFS.

[ndg]

More Bottles" - a wet plate collodion image

First plate in a while…, need to do some silver maintenance asap!
8x12 black aluminum, NaBr-NaI-collodion, Rapid fixer, Wolly Vitax at f3.8, 10s

[rariola77]

whole plate aluminum.
images seem to get bluish if overexposed. poured more fixer and image almost disappeared.