collodion tintype portrait

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!

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