Tintype Archives

Pop Up – Heritage Makers Market

Blog / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

As the weather finally turns colder my time opens up and I can catch up on posting. There were hundreds of traveling tintype photographers back in the Victorian era. They would travel around the country and would "pop up" at events like Fairs and Festivals. That tradition is still alive, although now there are maybe only a dozen or two tintype photographers actively traveling and doing tintype pop ups or events. I love doing tintype pop ups because I get the chance to meet and create images with so many people in a short time. Tons of work and hectic…

Tuesday in The Park

Blog / Portrait / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

It was Tintype Tuesday in the Park. The weather, and the light, was variable. Cloudy to sunny to partly sunny and back to clouds! Rain all morning but we managed to get a window of dryness. They say "the show must go on" so we worked through the continuously variable light. Smith Park, Menasha, was the location and Victorian era costumes were the order of the day - a perfect fit with Victorian era photography! After the more formal portraits we switched it up. You know the party is starting when the bag of stuffed Paddington Bears is opened up!…

Riverside with Nataly

Riverside Tintypes with Nataly

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

Wonderful session Riverside tintypes with Nataly. The 1st of February and almost 50 degrees temperature is an excellent opportunity for making some tintypes. We met at Riverside Park in Neenah and had fun around the fountain and by the river. The fountain is “Playing in The Rain” by Dallas J. Anderson. And is fun and whimsical. Someone dresses the children in knit hats for the Winter! Nataly came in a stunning red dress and had a lot of fun with the children in the fountain – almost as if Summer is just around the corner. Our first pose in the…

Classic Tintype Portrait on a Winter Day

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

Some times it is fun to capture some classic tintype portraits on a Winter day. Cameron and I met by the Fox River in Neenah for some cold weather tintypes. It was a day that started with heavy fog, giving way to sunshine and finally dark clouds. But, we also saw temperatures in the 40’s which is really nice for February in Wisconsin. Wet plate collodion can be a difficult process because of the way it reacts to changing light. Light meters work really well for film and digital photography but not for collodion. So the alchemist has to guess…

Victorian Photo Safari

Blog / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Out on safari in Fond du Lac yesterday. Making 8x10 tintypes and having the time of my life. The mobile darkroom is working well and close to being set up the way I want. It is so nice to have a good work space that I can take around wherever my travels take me. Check out more on my Mobile Darkroom So, you might ask, why do I use the terms "Victorian" and "safari"? Well Victorian is pretty easy. It refers to the Victorian Era the years 1837 to 1901 during Queen Victoria's reign. These years correspond well with the…

BTS Tintype Session with Nataly

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

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…

How Changing Light Impacts Wet Plate Collodion

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

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…

Behind The Scenes of Wet Plate Collodion Photography

Ambrotype / Blog / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Why does a wet plate cost so much? A question I sometimes get, although not too often. Part of the cost is the part my clients see - the actual image capture. But the session is actually the smallest part of making historic tintypes and Ambrotypes. So let's go behind the scenes of wet plate collodion photography and see some of the work that goes into making your historic image. Chemical Preparation The foundation of the process is chemistry. Before anything else happens there are a bunch of chemicals that have to be purchased and mixed. Collodion has to be…

Now – Tintype

Blog / Tintype

Now! It seems like everything screams now! Now is a 5x7in tintype. Sometimes the most random and unplanned work turns out to be the most interesting. Here is a tintype I did to test lighting and exposure. It is actually some artwork my Niece did. It is a painting on a board that says "Snow". With the limited space in my studio I was not able to get the whole sign in frame so it ended up being "now" instead. I was going to just clean off the image to reuse the plate (plates are expensive). But decided to varnish…

Hand Saw Tintype

Blog / Tintype

Two old hand saws in a tintype photo. One of my Winter projects is to capture some of my old tools in wet plate collodion. This 5x7 tintype is an image of my two old handsaws. I have no idea when I purchased either one of them. But do know that I have had them each for decades. I wonder how many projects these saws have been part of? I have been an active handyman for my whole life - home remodeling projects, furniture building, cutting down trees, building all sorts of wood objects... and these saws have been there…

Random Wet Plates

Ambrotype / Blog / Tintype

Before January is over I need to catch up on random wet plates from 2023. I left my full time job last April to focus on alternative photography full time. Within a few weeks I started to wonder how I ever had 40+ hours a week to work a full time job. The days go by and the weeks go by and soon the year is gone and another year has started. So here is a collection of random wet plates I did during 2023. Somehow I never got around to posting them in my blog even though I did…

Halloween Tintypes

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

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…