Portraits Between Tintypes
It is much slower taking a tintype portrait than most other forms of photography. This is because each image is hand made - and that takes some time! If we are making a tintype we must first clean the plate, then coat it with collodion and then place it in a silver bath to sensitize. It takes 3 to 5 minutes to properly sensitize a tintype in the silver nitrate solution. Then the excess silver is removed and the plate put into the holder for the camera. Finally we are ready to actually expose the portrait. Then we have to…
