Pleasant View Halloween TFP 2026

Blog / Portrait / Wet Plate Collodion

In preparation for the Halloween TFP I offer these tidbits of information. The goal is to help us plan and to ensure we have a great session together! We'll have time to make maybe 3 good images so its we'll chat about what we want to do so we can use our short time together well. You will receive both digital copies of the image and the glass or metal plates we create. The exception would be if we create something that might sell for big bucks then we'll try and sell it and you will get a commission. My…

Making Tintypes at an Historical Village

Blog / Video / Wet Plate Collodion

We spent the day at Pinecrest Historical Village, the Manitowoc County Historical Society Museum. Pinecrest is a huge site with so many historic buildings and is a wet plate collodion delight. The morning was foggy all the way to Manitowoc but the mist burned off as we were setting up our mobile darkroom trailer. We'll post a gallery of the tintypes we've made there in the future. In the mean time, here is a creation video for one of our favorite tintypes made that day! Back to our Blog Do you like our little video? You can see more adventures…

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…

Raindrop on a Blade of Grass

Blog / Portrait / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Like a raindrop on a blade of grassShe appears,Reflecting the world around her, Not just the present, butThe Future, andThe Past. Like a raindrop on a blade of grassHere for a moment, and thenDisappears.Where did she come from andWhere did she go?Out of thin air and back again..And like the rain,Just a matter of time, andShe will be back again. A 6in x 8in wet plate collodion photograph on aluminum. Featuring Claire Voyant. Clare Voyant is a published alt model and model coach. She is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Check out her FaceBook Clarevoyantcreative for more information and booking. Check…

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

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

Somewhere

Blog / Fine Art / Portrait / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Somewhere in the dark a light still shines, We see, but we don't, All the things that we want to see are there, but some of them are hidden. You can always turn towards the light, or so you tell yourself, But the darkness sometimes is the brightest place, Where everything you want to know hides, Surrounded by everything you shouldn't know. "Somewhere" is an 8x10 tintype created with the Victorian wet Plate Collodion Process. Featuring Wisconsin Model Amber - you can contact her on FaceBook at AM Model.

Cloud Nine Fire Show Tintypes

Blog / Portrait / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Just a random Saturday night in Wisconsin - with tintype portraits of fire artists! Cloud Nine Fire Show is a Wisconsin based troupe of talented performers specializing in the art of flow. We've worked together earlier this Summer to capture the art of flow in the historic tintype process - see our first plates at Cloud Nine Tintypes. Unfortunately, your humble alchemist was unable to to capture the fire in the plates. So like the Alchemists of old, when confronted with failure it is back to the lab and the library in the sub basement for research. The findings were…

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…

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,…

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…