It is much slower taking a tintype portrait than most other forms of photography. This is because each image is hand made – and that takes some time! If we are making a tintype we must first clean the plate, then coat it with collodion and then place it in a silver bath to sensitize. It takes 3 to 5 minutes to properly sensitize a tintype in the silver nitrate solution. Then the excess silver is removed and the plate put into the holder for the camera. Finally we are ready to actually expose the portrait. Then we have to develop and fix the image – another 3 to 5 minutes.
So while the main photographer is do all this work we often have another photographer there to do some digital or film pictures. Why waste time, right? So here are some BWP (Between Wet Plate) pictures from our sessions with Nataly.
All of these portraits were captured with vintage lenses – either a Helios 44-2 or a Voigtlander Nokton 40 lens. Why vintage lenses? Simply because we love the look of the old lenses! All of our wet plate lenses are 100+ years old and have a certain look that modern lenses lack. We also have a lot of 35mm film camera lenses from the 1950’s & 1960’s which can be adapted to work on our modern digital cameras. These antique lenses give the vintage “look” along with the quality and capability of our modern digital cameras.
The portrait above is a perfect example of why we love these old lenses. Nataly is rendered in soft dreamy tones through our Helios 44-2 lens. We also see the light, and sharpness, fall off from the center in a very pleasing way. This is not a filter or photoshop trick – this is how old lenses work!
Here is the full set we captured. You can see more of Nataly’s work on this site and also on our digital portrait site Jalanlee.com
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