My experience with expired dry plates

[clemthesnake]

Hi All,

I've not been shooting large format for long, only about a year, but I have been incredibly interested in alt process (wet plate & dry plate etc). I have used both processes and still shoot them regularly but they are a lot more similar than I would of thought.

While wet plate collodion can generally be metered for around iso 0.3-1 i have found that dry plates can be metered for iso 1 too and have almost perfect exposure. Granted the date of creation of the plates could play a roll in iso rating but pretty much every plate I have had the pleasure of playing with has been rated for 1.

I will include some examples and information within this post to hopefully inform and maybe help people looking to get into the process.



First image here was branded Edwards ortho 1/2 plates on the box, I believe its from around 1900-1910, shot at iso 1, the defect in the glass isnt fungi but something from the box, must of been moisture that was trapped and stuck little bits of cardboard to the plate itself.



Next image is Ilford Empress pancro 1/4 plates from around 1911-1912, shot at the same, gives some beautiful contrast.



last of this bunch are Wratten & Wainwright pancro 1/4 plates from 1906-1926, rated the same and it gives some lovely light.

All of these plates were metered for the same iso, while the weather changed a little they all yielded great results considering all plates were over 100 years old.





Here is an earlier test of mine, some 8x10 Wratten & Wainwright ortho plates from somewhere around 1876-1906 but looking at the packaging im on the side of it being from the 1880s-1890s. As you can see they overexposed but this is because I metered for a little under iso 1.



And here is an outstanding result from the same plates but in 10x12 format. It was a bright sunny day and i metered for iso 1 like all the other plates and managed to get an 8 second exposure and a beautiful picture.

As you can see, expired dry plates are a very viable option for anyone wanting to shoot large format on older plate cameras! You just need some patience and an eye for the imperfect!

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions feel free to ask below.

Thanks,
Liam

[Tin Can]

I sometimes buy very old NOS Plates and film for fun

I do not do WET Plate

[Tin Can]

These NOS plates are 135 years old

Glass Plate Box by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

I shot one

[Tin Can]

Nos 1/4 plate by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

[Tin Can]

HAT 1890 Glass NEg by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr