What is an Alchemist?

Blog / Video / Wet Plate Collodion

In popular thinking an Alchemist is someone who believes they can turn lead into silver or gold. Yes, there were Alchemists in the olden days who tried to transmute metals. But a more fundamental concept of Alchemy involves the conversion of simple elemental forms in nature to more complex, and more valuable, forms; an Alchemist is one who converts elementals into higher forms. So what does this have to do with the wet plate process? At its most basic wet plate converts random bits of silver into organized, recognizable and beautiful (we hope) images. An Alchemist takes a fleeting moment…

Tiny Little Tintype Memories

Blog / Tintype / Video

Part of the fun of creating wet plate images is you can play around with just about any size and format you like. This year I have been making a lot of really small tintypes. They run 2-3 inches on a side. The small plates are a real challenge, especially pouring the collodion without drenching your hand! Here is a little video of some of my favorite little tintype memories so far this year, Enjoy! If you enjoyed seeing my tiny tintypes why not have your own made? Contact Me for availability and pricing for a wet plate collodion portrait…

Work in Progress

Video

Emm Tintype Fix Ann and Michael

First Tintype with New Cooke Lens

Blog / Video / Vintage Lens

"New" lenses in the wet plate collodion world always mean "new to me" and not new new! I recently found a lens that was recovered from a barn. It is a Cooke 8in Anastigmat lens. I pulled it apart and did a good cleaning. It had a little fungus inside but the glass had not gotten pitted yet. I 3D printed a lens board and tried it out on my Primer 12x12 camera. I made a video of the fixing step of the first tintype... Here is a still image of that plate. It turned out really nice! Just for…

Mobile Darkroom Build – Part 1

Blog / Tutorial / Video

One of the many challenges to Victorian Photography methods is you need a nearby darkroom to do wet plate images. The term "wet plate" is descriptive in that the plate has to be exposed and developed before the collodion coating dries. This requires a darkroom because the plate is light sensitive. In the 1800's photographers carried around a dark box on their carts for work away from their studios. The dark box is still used by many today. I decided to build a darkroom on a trailer. I use it both as a darkroom and as a lab & work…

Silver Collodion Fix

Blog / Video / Wet Plate Collodion

The magical moment for wet plate photography has to be the fixing step! Fixing is the final step in the developing process and is where the unreacted silver is removed from the collodion. As the silver washed out the final image is revealed. This video shows the fix of a silver collodion print (which is basically a tintype copy of an existing photo or negative). We speeded up the middle part just a little bit. https://youtube.com/shorts/uAwpiG5br1E?si=ttRiiVFnSD8wdGY_ You can see more of our videos on our YouTube channel @sunandsilverphoto Back to our Blog Page

3D Printing for Wet Plate Collodion

Blog / Tutorial / Video

Wet plate collodion photography is a very do-it-yourself endeavor. We are very much like the original roving photographers of the 1800's because there are no, or limited, commercial sources for much of our suppliers and equipment. Thankfully we don't have to make our own lenses but are limited to lenses made around a century ago. This is because the small number of large format lenses still made incorporate glass and coatings which block the blue and UV light essential for collodion photography. But old lenses often have parts like lens caps missing. So we decided to invest in a 3D…

Tintype Varnishing Tutorial

Blog / Tutorial / Video / Wet Plate Collodion

Wet plate collodion photography has a significant learning curve! The process is rather complicated and requires not just technical knowledge but a degree of tactile skill. The most difficult part to learn is varnishing the plates. It has been almost 2 years since my first image and I have so much to learn. Here is a video showing my current process for achieving a reasonably good varnish. Enjoy! Back to my Blog Page