Well, I'm clawing my way into the wet plate world. With the help of borrowing the chemicals from a friend, I managed to get something that has the beginnings of making me satisfied in it. My first session I didn't have light that looked any good. It was too contrasty and just made the model look drugged. Second session, using a White Lightning X3200 in a silver 22" HOBD and a Rollei Heidosmat 150mm f/2.8 produced something closer to what I want in the long run. I need to get a 2nd X3200 to provide some fill though.
20180124-1.jpg by Ty Williams, on Flickr
Hopefully, I'll be able to afford the chemistry in March and be able to do this stuff on my own!
Looks good to me!
What does the sitter think?
She was happy with it. She's a frequent sitter for me, so she's become nearly as critical of images of herself as I am so this one didn't really wow her but she liked it. Everyone she's shown it to has fallen all over themselves just because of how different and interesting the process looks.
Dear Paulbarden, many thanks.
My lights for this ambrotype: three softboxes with diffusion sails (one on the right, one on the left and one on the top). Each softbox contains 8 pieces of fluorescent lamp E27 125W / 600W daylight 5500K. Total 3x8 = 24 pieces 125W / 600W daylight 5500K lamp. And Lea 3 formula (cadmium bromide + cadmium iodide) is a sensitive collodion.
Well he's got at least 90 plates at the State Historical Society of North Dakota (as of March of last year), featuring the Northern Plains Native Americans, and has been invited to do wet-plates of the Native American camps of the DAPL protests, among other things, so I'd say that the novelty hasn't worn off and that he's doing pretty interesting work!
Cheers!
Bill
Today I went into the canyon to shoot my third plate. I had to make a darkroom out of a cardboard box and a tarp since you have to do the whole process in a matter of minutes.
I still have a lot to learn, but it is fun. It is pretty neat to use a process that was developed at the beginning of photography.
Wet Plate #3 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr
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