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Thread: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

  1. #21
    Unwitting Thread Killer Ari's Avatar
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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    Hmm, gonna have to check on this tomorrow.
    I have the B&S kit as well.

    EDIT: saw the B&S instructions online, no mention of seasoning/flowing a plate first.
    They suggest that once you mix the chemicals, you're ready to go.

  2. #22

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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    Great stuff Ari - I'm following this with interest.

    I am also just getting started with wet plate and also with a Kodak 2D (funnily enough I had it shipped over from Canada)
    My chemicals have all arrived, I've mixed up my silver nitrate and fixer and I'll start making some plates over this weekend.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer View Post
    When you "season" the silver bath by letting a coated plate sit in it overnight, use a glass plate, not an aluminum plate. Silver nitrate will crystalize out on the aluminum and you'll be exhausting your silver. But that's not an issue for the few minutes the plates are in there when shooting.

    Good luck!
    I don't have any glass, only aluminium - is this not suitable at all for sensitising the silver bath?

  3. #23
    Unwitting Thread Killer Ari's Avatar
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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    Frosty, welcome!
    Which format will you be starting with?
    I'm sure you can get a cheap sheet of glass at the local hardware store.
    By the sounds of it, it's preferable to use glass for an overnight dunking so as not to deplete your silver too quickly.
    Post some pictures, please. I'd love to follow everyone's beginning steps!

  4. #24
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    I am following here, but not in a big hurry to start

    I will get there at my pace
    Tin Can

  5. #25

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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    Quote Originally Posted by Ari View Post
    Frosty, welcome!
    Which format will you be starting with?
    I'm sure you can get a cheap sheet of glass at the local hardware store.
    By the sounds of it, it's preferable to use glass for an overnight dunking so as not to deplete your silver too quickly.
    Post some pictures, please. I'd love to follow everyone's beginning steps!
    Thanks Ari
    Noted, I'll find some glass.

    Like you I'll be shooting 4x5 to begin with, the camera came with a reducing back.
    I'll definetly throw some photos up when I get going.

  6. #26
    Foamer
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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    A quick and cheap source of glass is found on picture frames at a discount store.


    Kent in SD
    In contento ed allegria
    Notte e di vogliam passar!

  7. #27

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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    Quote Originally Posted by Stayfrosty View Post
    Great stuff Ari - I'm following this with interest.
    I don't have any glass, only aluminium - is this not suitable at all for sensitising the silver bath?
    Welcome to the process, StayFrosty! There’s lots to learn, and most of it is going to be great fun!

    “Charging” or “exciting” a virgin silver bath requires leaving the collodion coated plate in the bath for several hours (most leave it overnight) to let the iodides leach from the plate into the silver solution. Without this step, your first few plates will likely be flat and lifeless, and tend to be fogged over. You can use an aluminium plate if that’s all you have, but the silver will react with the aluminium plate and form metallic crystals on the exposed surfaces of the metal plate. This chemical reaction can have an adverse affect on the silver bath, so it’s best to just use glass. Maybe you’ve got an old picture frame kicking around that you can pirate the glass from?

    If not, you can use your aluminium for the task, but I suggest leaving it in the silver bath for a shorter time: maybe 3 hours rather than overnight. Even a couple of hours will get some iodides into the bath, sufficient to charge it well enough, I would think.

    Curiously, none of the various editions of Quinn’s books state that glass must be used for this step, but John Coffer’s manual clearly says NEVER use an aluminium (or any metal) Plate for this step.

    There is one other option, which is mentioned in both the aforementioned books: you can simply add a pinch of either Potassium iodide or (preferably) Ammonium iodide to the bath. Neither book says how much “a pinch” is (wouldn’t it be nice if they simply stated a gram weight??) but I imagine a literal pinch is sufficient.

  8. #28

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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    ANY piece of glass will work. Even an old bottle if it will fit in the bath. Just pour some collodion on something that won't get eaten by the silver, glass is a known substance. You just do it once, from then on your bath will work fine, for years.

    By the way, I used an aluminum dipper made out of trophy plate for a while for my silver bath. No problems...

  9. #29

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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    Thanks for all of the info! Very insightful to a newbie here. One last question for the sake of hijacking this thread. (Apologies Ari!)

    Do I need to worry about coating the glass plate with egg white before pouring the collodion on to sensitise the SN bath?
    All of my research to this point and the course that I did has been focused on Aluminium plates so my glass knowledge is zero.

  10. #30
    Unwitting Thread Killer Ari's Avatar
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    Re: Wet Plate - A Beginner's Experience

    I'll take a stab at this, and no, it's not a hijacking. It's the purpose of this thread.
    Applying egg white is done so that the emulsion adheres to the glass plate. You want this when you take a photo.
    Since the intention with flowing the plate is only to "excite" the silver bath, there's no need to ensure that anything sticks to the glass plate.
    Anyone, correct me if I'm wrong.

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