Collodion - Wet Plate Images

[paulbarden]

Like!

How long was the exposure?

Hi Randy, sorry I missed your question till this evening.
I recall that exposure was somewhere around 3 minutes. Glad you like it, thanks!

Paul

[Tin Can]

Thank you for your reply.

I was unaware a wet plate exposure could be that long.

I thought it would dry too quickly and be ruined.

[Punker]

Thank you for your reply.

I was unaware a wet plate exposure could be that long.

I thought it would dry too quickly and be ruined.

Under the right atmospheric conditions you can get away with exposures this long. My "personal best" was 6 minutes on a cool summer night. After the plate comes out of the silver bath it's saturated mostly by water which evaporates much slower than the ether and alcohol in the collodion after the initial pour to coat the plate.

A neat trick I just read about for anyone interested, is on a warm day you can lay a piece of plastic something inside the bellows and set a damp paper towel on it for the duration of the exposure. Works for the crazy folks who do wet plate pinholes As the sun or ambient heat warms the bellows it creates the humidity inside needed to keep the plate wet.

[Corran]

That's an interesting idea. I'll have to mention that to my friend. We've done plates out in 95+ degree heat in the south. Of course the humidity outside is already 90% or higher anyway.

We have had issues with developer getting much too hot and developing too fast (a second or two and it's starting to overdevelop).

[paulbarden]

That's an interesting idea. I'll have to mention that to my friend. We've done plates out in 95+ degree heat in the south. Of course the humidity outside is already 90% or higher anyway.

We have had issues with developer getting much too hot and developing too fast (a second or two and it's starting to overdevelop).

The developer works best between 60 and 72F, so if I travel to make collodion negs/tintypes, I take a cooler full of ice as well, to chill the developer.

[paulbarden]

Thank you for your reply.

I was unaware a wet plate exposure could be that long.

I thought it would dry too quickly and be ruined.

Three minutes is a walk in the park! During the cooler half of the year, I have managed exposures up to ten minutes without adverse effect. But you won't get away with that on a day when it hits 95F with 10% RH!

[Corran]

I take a cooler full of ice as well, to chill the developer.

Well that's good for about 10 minutes in the deep south summer .

[paulbarden]

Passiflora #1
Wet plate collodion on glass (as a negative), 5x7 inches, made with a Voigtlander Petzval lens and a home-made waterhouse stop of indeterminate f-stop.

[goamules]

Nice one. My MK 1 calibrated eyeball says it's about an f5 now.

[paulbarden]

Study of the dried Tulip foliage from earlier this spring.
This is a scan of a 5x7 inch glass negative made using the Wet Plate Collodion technique, and the Voigtlander Petzval lens, with a home-made Waterhouse stop resulting in approximately f5.