Real Images for Real People

Blog / Wet Plate Collodion

Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.' – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know John Keats Veracity is the quality of being true, honest, or accurate. Photography was developed with the idea of capturing and preserving some scene in the real world. The deviations from reality were technical - mainly lens distortions and the limitations of chemistry. Unfortunately now we are bombarded with digital images that are at best doctored and at worst totally generated by AI computer systems. Sun and Silver.photo is dedicated to the thought that there is a place in the world…

Ambrotypes with Nataly

Ambrotype / Blog / Portrait / Wet Plate Collodion

July is a perfect time to do Ambrotypes with Nataly. This was the first time I fully utilized the real estate of my 12x12 Primer camera and made 12 inch by 12 inch glass plate. Silver collodion on glass is also know as an Ambrotype. It doesn't sound like a big change going from an 8x10 inch image to a 12x12 inch image but the 12x12 is actually 80% bigger. That means 80% more chemical and 80% more area to cover evenly with collodion. It also means 80% more to cover with developer as quickly as possible. So.. how did…

2025 Pinecrest Village Makers Market

Blog / Popup / Portrait / Tintype

We did a super fun tintype popup at the 2025 Makers Market - Pinecrest Village, Manitowoc. The Makers Market features dozens of historical artists and creators and is sponsored by the Manitowoc County Historical Society. Makers practice handmade craft from the 18th and 19th centuries and include pottery, blacksmithing, wooden shoes, sewing, cloth making & weaving, wood working and (of course) tintype photography invented in 1851. We had so much fun over the weekend. Met a lot of old friends and made some new ones. I only wish I had had more time to get portraits of all the wonderful…

Tintype Portrait of an Artist

Blog / Popup / Portrait / Tintype

We spent a wonderful weekend doing a Tintype Popup at Pinecrest Historical Village in Manitowoc. The event was the Manitowoc Historical Society's annual Makers Market. While there we did portraits of both visitors and as many of the Makers as we had time for. Here is an 8x10 tintype portrait of Emma, an historical pottery artist and creator. What is a "Maker" and why do they need a Market? A Maker is someone who creates handcrafted items using historical methods and processes. Maker's specialize in products that are heritage-inspired, well designed, long lasting and sustainably produced. Examples of Maker artists…

Cloud Nine Tintypes

Blog / Tintype

One of the joys of being a roving Alchemist is all the interesting people you meet! I started working with Cloud Nine Fire Show this year and are working on a set of wet plate images of all the artists in the group. Could Nine performs all around Wisconsin and is based in the Fox Valley area. These 5x7 inch tintypes were made at a practice session to test out how fire captures on tintypes. Madeline and Tia use fire hoops in this first image. "Wait" you say, "where is the fire?" Well, the hoops had a lot of fire…

Vintage Tia

Blog / Portrait / Vintage Lens

We spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon creating test tintypes with artists of Cloud Nine Fire Show After the light faded we switched to digital photos and had some fun! Tia (also know as TLKonfire) posed for some amazing captures with two of my vintage lenses. The picture above was taken with my SMC Takumar 135mm f/2.5 lens. The Takumar is around 60 years old and still takes wonderful portraits. Next is another Takumar portrait taken stopped at f/3.5 to highlight Tia's beautiful eyes and her body art. The colors and contrast are why I love vintage lenses. We next switched…

Watching Me

Blog / Tintype

Some tintype fun with double exposures. It was not long after photography was a thing that people realized you could have some fun by manipulating images. Ghosts, twins, ectoplasm, spirits - all became common in the tintype era. My friend Danielle and I spent a dreary afternoon in the "studio" making some fun tintypes using double exposures. We hope you like them! Back to my Blog

Sweet Petzval Swirl

Blog / Portrait / Tintype / Vintage Lens

Sweet Petzval Swirl... What could be better than creating tintype portraits on a Saturday afternoon in May? We met in Doty Park, Neenah Wisconsin, and did a nice set of plates - this is my favorite. This 8x10 inch portrait was done with my Wollensak Petzval portrait lens. It is over 100 years old and I purchased it just this year. I am still learning how to optimize this lens but I can say that is the most amazing lens I own. Big, heavy, beautiful patina and the glass is in great condition. The Petzval lens was designed by Jozef…

Wet Plate Portraits of Madeline

Ambrotype / Blog / Portrait

It was a dark and stormy day. Not enough light coming through the windows so we had to resort to Speedotron strobes. It was also cold - near freezing in my darkroom and that caused a lot of "noise" in the final image. But yet, somehow, we managed to make some very nice wet plate portraits of Madeline. The wet plate above is a 10x12 inch tintype - a photograph on a metal plate. This plate has a lot of what I call "character"; others call it "flaws". The white specs are from cold developing chemistry and I have no…

Danica Victorian Orotone

Blog / Orotone / Portrait

The beautiful Wisconsin model Danica captured in an historic Orotone portrait. The images is an 8x10 print on glass and created using real silver and gold. It is very difficult to take a picture of an Orotone and capture their true beauty. The tones shimmer in real life and Danica appears to float in the glass as you move the plate. An Orotone is a photographic print. It is created from a photo negative created in a camera. Here is a 30 second video showing the basic process of printing an Orotone. I will have a few Orotones available for…

Wedding Orotone

Blog / Orotone / Victorian Print

An Orotone is a collodion photograph print created using a dry collodion process. A full sized photographic negative is created and then used to contact print on a glass plate. The plate is coated with light sensitive silver suspended in a collodion matrix. The plate is printed with sunlight for around 60 minutes, developed, and toned with gold chloride. After rinsing and drying the plate is coated with gold paint to bring out the image. This 8x10 glass plate was created with a wet plate negative taken on a cloudy and rainy day in Oshkosh. My "wedding" couple models managed…

Romantic Couple Portraits – Victorian Tintype Photography

Ambrotype / Blog / Wedding / Wet Plate Collodion

It was a dark and rainy day when we met for portraits. We still managed to create some romantic portraits using Victorian photography methods. The plate above was taken on glass. The glass is treated with collodion and silver and inserted into my camera to produce the image. Moody, dreamy, romantic are all good descriptions of the style. A photo on the internet does not come close to showing the depth and almost three dimensional quality of the image. Our second glass plate is much more dreamy and moody from the loss of light as a storm cloud passed. Yet,…