Time to go BTS on a tintype session with Nataly Divine. The warm February 1st gave us an opportunity for some outdoor Tintype portrait. We also grabbed a few digital pictures during our tintype session for a bit of BTS (Behind The Scenes).
Nataly wore a beautiful red dress in a 1920’s style. Here are a few close ups of her in both monotone / black and white and color. The color picture captures the overcast skies at the end of our time together.
Of course, where would a BTS post be without showing the camera? Here is two beautiful ladies in red – Nataly and my 8×10 Intrepid large format camera.
Ready for your tintype portrait session? Contact me to start working together!
Did you know I also do digital photography? Check out my digital site for portrait and wedding photography Jalanlee.com
One of the most difficult aspects of 19th century photography is how changing light impacts wet plate collodion. The light sensitive silver in a wet plate “sees” light much differently than our eyes. Yellow and blue become white and shades of orange become black. Tattoos can completely disappear and eye glasses can look like sun glasses in the portrait.
More modern cameras come equipped with sophisticated light meters. The light in the scene is measured when you take the photograph and the camera will adjust the exposure to get it right every time. But there is no exposure meter that reliably works with wet plate collodion. Why? The simple answer is there are not enough wet plate photographers around to justify the development costs for a meter. Another way to think about it is wet plate photographers don’t make enough money to afford how much a reliable meter would cost!
So how does a wet plate photographer adjust for the impacts of changing light? Experiment, experience and luck!
The first image is always an experiment. A plate is prepared and you just guess at the camera settings. After the first plate, you make an adjustment and maybe get it right. Sometimes a step plate is made first – where the dark slide is moved every 1 or 2 seconds to give a range of exposures. So for example, you end up with a plate with 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 seconds of exposure in strips. After development you select the best exposure time (assuming your timing range bracketed the best time). This plate is an example of “luck”. Foggy day with the sun starting to break through. I took this at 6 seconds exposure and aperture f/4.5. Overexposed! But not too bad.
Experience comes after days where the changing light has really bad impacts on wet plate collodion! I have had days where 7 or 8 plates fail before getting even a close image. Remember, it takes 15 or 20 minutes to make each plate so it could take hours to find the right formula. Learning is painful but leads to quicker guesses in the future. So my experience told me the first plate was overexposed by a lot so I closed the camera aperture to f/8 (one quarter the light of f/4.5) This image was still overexposed – but much better!
The last factor (at least for me) is luck! Luck does favor the prepared, they say, but for me luck is still a random thing! The fog lifted and the sun came out for the next image! So I stuck with f/8 and dropped to 3 seconds exposure – and the plate came out so nice! Just pure dumb luck
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I am either really early for Halloween or really late! You decide, but I hope you enjoy these Halloween Tintypes even if they are out of season. This set of Halloween Tintypes, or Halloween cosplay tintypes, was made in October 2023 and I’ve freely confess that I have been too unproductive to post and share the story until now!
We had planned a tintype photo session on the beach the week before Halloween. But life sometimes gets in the way and the client had a last minute happening and had to cancel. So we decided to enjoy the woods and make some tintype plates anyways. We set out for Asylum Point with my mobile darkroom fully stocked. All the plates we made that day were 8 x 10 inches.
The first set of images was a borrowed skeleton in various poses. I think he looks happy!
I next persuaded my assistant to pose for a bit of a story. You would think he would look more happy with a beautiful woman posing next to him, but I think he looks a bit intimidated!
The thing with tintype sessions is they go by so quickly – it must be all the fun! So soon the light begun to fade and we started packing up. Suddenly out of the woods appeared three beautiful ladies. They seemed to be friendly despite their outfits and were happy to pause their adventure and pose for a tintype portrait. The fading light necessitated a 20 second exposure time which is a long time to stand still. But the good witches did a wonderful job and the image has only slight motion blur. Of course I think the slight blur just adds to the mood and story of the image.
As we were washing the plate then suddenly disappeared! Not sure if they were real witches or just out doing some Halloween cosplay, but I am so happy they came to the woods that day!
This year I have to plan on a lot more Halloween tintype cosplay photos!
She came from the west, bringing hot weather, humidity and maybe a bit of magic. We met at Asylum Point – once the site of the Northern Asylum for the Insane. A little north is the modern Winnebago Mental Health Institute. The asylum point lighthouse was built in 1937 and still provides a beacon for boaters on Lake Winnebago.
The old and strange art of wet plate collodion (Tintype) photography is also shrouded in mystery. One day the spirits align and perfect images appear as if by magic. On other days, things conspires against you and every exposure becomes a dangerous adventure.
This was a perfect opportunity to test out the impact of temperatures in the 90’s on wet plate collodion. Hot weather is not a friend of tintypes! Exposures were troublesome and developing progressed much too fast to control properly.
Of course, we seemed to be haunted by a continuous passage of amazing and wonderful “travelers” through the air above our heads… or maybe it was the sad vibrations coming from the multitude of former mental patients buried in mostly unmarked graves a few hundred yards away. Certainly, I would guess that among the descesed were a goodly number of wet plate photographers driven to insanity by their dark art (or maybe the ether fumes).
But somehow we managed to fight through the heat and salty eyes and produced some magical and wonderful images.
Thanks to Andy for protection from the dark arts!
About the Model: Denise is an artist and photographer. She specializes in fantasy photography, fairy tales, folk legends and mythology. Many thanks for helping me learn and grow as an alchemist! You can follow her work on Instagram @denisehouk
Interested in doing a themed wet plate shoot? Send me a message and we can discuss your project. I do photos all around the Fox Valley Area of Wisconsin. Email me at jeff@sunandsilver.photo
Summer is for outdoor collodion tintype portraits! I am so blessed that I have friends who are willing to pose for practice sessions. A good friend braved the Summer heat to pose for an outdoor practice plate. This is an 8×10 inch tintype made with the collodion process.
They say the practice makes perfect. But I don’t think that is true. What I think is practice + reflection + adjustment puts you on the path to “good”. You have to reflect on the result and think about what worked and what could be improved on. Then make a change and try again. Sometimes the changes make things worse! But then you know what not to do. Sometimes the changes are are smaller than the random stuff that happens! Sometimes you do everything right and get a “bad” result followed by errors which come out really well.
But that is the process of learning and growing! There are no shortcuts, no wikipedia page of blog post that will give you instant success. Try, and try again is the only method to learn and grow!
So you booked your portrait session.. Awesome – I am so excited!
Collodion sessions are a little bit different from digital photo sessions. The mood is slower paced and much more relaxed. We only produce a small number of images so it pays to plan things out in advance. Collodion is also a one-of-a-kind image process so there is always a bit of randomness to the final image. Of course, the surprise is just part of the fun.
The group size is a function of how much space we have. In the studio we generally are limited to 2 or maybe 3 people. Large groups need to be outdoors to have good light and enough space to get everyone in the frame. The exposure can last from 3 to 10 seconds so it is important that everyone hold as still as possible or they will be blurry. Very young children can be lots of fun!
What about pets?
I welcome pets but the quality of the picture does depend on them being able to hold still for a few seconds!
How long does a session last?
Usually an hour to an hour and a half. Depends on how many images we want to produce. Each image will take about 20 minutes total time.
So I have to pose for 20 minutes?
No! The actual posing time is less than 10 seconds. The rest of the time is spend preparing the plate and developing it after exposure.
Do you use flash for lighting?
My preference is to use natural light for portraits. I think it is the most flattering. But I can use flash photography if there is no sun or we are shooting indoors. The flash is very bright!
What should I wear?
Anything you want! Because of the special nature of collodion people usually put more thought into their wardrobe. Sometimes people like to wear period clothing to keep the “antique” vibe. While others go for a more casual style. But anything that makes you feel special is great. Generally it is better to avoid busy patterns as they can be distracting.
What about colors?
Collodion is a black & white process (monochrome). So colors come out in special ways. Here is a handy guide:
White looks white Black looks black Blue comes out white to light grey Green will turn out dark grey to black Red is dark grey Orange is the new black
Here is a color wheel showing how colors come out in collodion
What is the process for taking my portrait?
We will set up the location and poses
I will get the camera adjusted and focused
You get to chill for about 5-6 minutes while I go into the darkroom to get a plate ready
Do the real pose and take the picture
It will take 3-5 seconds to get the picture so you will need to hold as still as possible for this time!
Back to the dark room to develop the picture – less than 5 minutes
I will bring the picture out into the light and you can watch the image emerge in the “fixing” bath
The picture goes into the rinse and we can setup for another picture!
When do I get my picture?
The plate will need to be varnished and mounted (if you ask for framing). Most always your finished plate will be ready within 24 hours. I always varnish the plates to protect them. My current varnish is a mixture of Frankincense and lavender oil and this requires a bit of time to cure and harden. If you are not local to pickup I will ship the final plates and you should have them within 3-5 days.
Haven’t book yet? Well click here for my portrait booking page!
Cyanotype prints can also make compelling portraits! Blue is not the first color one would choose for humans and human skin – except maybe at an awesome cosplay convention! But in the palette of monochrome colors the blue of cyanotype can be most interesting.
Here is a portrait of one of my favorite people in the entire world. She is beautiful inside and out and has so many layers of thoughts!
Here is a close up – those eyes and expression hold a world of mystery! In Your Eyes I see the doorway to a thousand churches!
Want to see your portrait in blue? Contact me and set up a portrait session and I will be happy to produce some amazing cyanotype prints!
Testing my lighting setup with a self portrait. This is an Ambrotype – a wet plate collodion on glass. All of my glass is recycled – I use the glass from old windows. If you are going to use an “antique” photography process why not use antique glass?
Pretty happy with the lighting – uniform and a good exposure. I need to work on the eye focus as I missed a little bit. It is not easy setting up, pulling the lens cap off, moving into position and then hitting the flash. But I will do better next time.
Here is another view of the plate. It is placed on a black velvet cloth. Ambrotypes are actually negative images – black is white and white is black. But magic happens when you place the glass on a black background. The negative becomes a positive! Probably a good metaphor for life in there. If you look at things in the correct light negatives and be seen as positives!
Anyhow, I will do another set and get the focus right this time!
