It’s been 4 months since I poured a plate – this weekend the wife is away and I got to play!
5×7 Al plate
Quinn’s QC
Sawyer’s Developer
KCN
5″ Goerz Dagor, f/6.3 at 18 seconds wide open
5×7 Al plate
Quinn’s QC
Sawyer’s Developer
KCN
5″ Goerz Dagor, f/6.3 at 2 seconds wide open
5×7 Black Aluminum
10″ A.T. Thompson Petzval
12 seconds, wide open
OWH
“Market Pantry” Vinegar Developer
KCN
Here’s this year’s submission to World Wet Plate Day – a close up of the rosette.
I’m really intrigued by my Copper Wheel (Aeonium Sunburst) especially how it renders in collodion.
5×7 Black Aluminum
Nickel Plated Darlot Petzval (~7″, ~f/5)
24 seconds, wide open
OWH
“Market Pantry” Vinegar Developer
KCN
I finally did it – my first albumen print from my first glass negative. Many thanks to Monsieur Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard. For the longest time I’ve struggled to control the fogging brought on by long exposures and long development. I did not want to do intensification or re-development. It’s quite a balance between exposure and development to get a dense negative.
The Print
Negative density range: 2.14 – 0.64 = 1.50
Albumen: 1.5% sodium chloride with vinegar
Paper: 9×11 Canson Universal Sketch (aka. Crob ‘Art) single coated (float method)
Sensitization: 12% silver nitrate, rod method
Exposure: 5 minutes next time I’ll fire up the NuArc.
I bought a few turn of the century glass negatives from E-bay – we’ll see how those turn out next!
I mixed “Market Pantry” Vinegar Developer and tried it out today. Developed this ambrotype for about 30 seconds and it actually worked.
6″ f/~5 No Name Petzval Magic Lantern
4×5 CGA
6 seconds, wide open
OWH
“Market Pantry” Vinegar Developer
KCN
I’m really liking how this $7 lens renders with collodion.
Surplus Shed 333mm Cemented Achromat Doublet
12 seconds, noon
4×5 Black Aluminum
OWH
KCN
Here’s proof that you don’t need expensive brass lens to have fun with collodion. Perused Surplus Shed and found an Achromat Cemented Doublet for $7.00 with a focal length of 333mm and diameter of 42.7mm giving an aperture of roughly f/8 at infinity.
333mm Achromat Doublet Lens Spec
After wrapping black electrical tape around the lens (I plan on blackening the edge with permanent marker next time), I chucked it up on an lens iris clamp and mounted it on the Gundlach 4×5 Korona.
333mm Achromat Doublet Lens on Korona
I grabbed my favorite succulent and mixed some Ol’ Workhorse – the result is quite pleasing.
333mm Achromat Doublet lens 4x5 test
Surplus Sheed 333mm Cemented Achromat Doublet
35 seconds, 5:00 pm SoCal sun
OWH
KCN
I really need to clean my scanner. Given the slow speed of wet plate, there’s an abundance of lens formulas available at Surplus Shed for some collodion adventure.
Scored two Graphic Film Pack Adapter #1234 from the big auction site and decided to see how easy it would be to modify it for wet plate work. After some judiciously sized and epoxied scrap aluminum sheets I went to try it out.
A test shot this afternoon passed the light fastness test.
Nikkor W 150mm, f/5.6 at 30 seconds
4×5 black aluminum
B&S OWH
KCN
Not bad for a $10 investment.
Here’s my submission to the 2012 WWPD. Not the best I’ve made but the best I made today.
10″ B&L wide open for 5 seconds, 6×8 black aluminum with B&S version of Quinn’s quick clear, B&S Developer, KCN
Cooke 13″ wide open 2 seconds, 6×8 black aluminum with B&S version of Quinn’s quick clear, B&S Developer, KCN
Getting better in exposing tintypes but still have to deal with unwanted artifacts. I know the key is a “clean, clean, clean” equipment.
Dallmeyer 3D, 2 minutes exposure, wide open, 4×6 tin
After taking Dunniway’s workshop on collodion last month, I was able to gather enough materials and chemistry to makes some plates. This 4×6 tin was taken with a Dallmeyer 3D for 20 seconds wide open under a 500 watt halogen lamp. I’ve still got some technical issues but I’m getting there.
…soft focus that is. I plan on doing some collodion work next year and this Dallmeyer Petzval 3D soft focus lens became available from a trusted source. The “3D” is not for three dimensional, though it does impart a 3D look due to the awesome “bokeh”.
Here’s a couple of first – first soft focus image and first paper negative. I wanted to try this lens out but was too lazy to develop film, I new people used paper negatives before so I gave that a go. I had some old 5×7 Arista EDU RC paper around; I scoured the forums and the recommended sensitivity for this paper is ISO 3. Loaded some holders, dragged the Korona to the back yard, found a small bottle, plucked a flowering weed and viola! Cheap as chips.
I’ll prolly enlarge this if I get to enjoy it enough.
This was visualized by my wife and she told me to press the button. She also gave me permission to try it on lith.
