Vintage Large Format Photography

Considerations Between Wetplate and Dryplate Photography

Published on May 17th, 2012 by admin in Dry Plate, Historic Processes, Wetplate

One of the most interesting and compelling reasons why I choose historic and analog chemical-based processes for my artwork is because of the flexibility, challenge and the element of “magic” is always there. Literally each piece of my artwork is unique and has its own individual signature that can never be duplicated by myself or anyone else. More importantly it is how “I see” and it just feels right to me. I’m in the process of writing a new series of articles on historic dry-plate processes that range from tintypes, also known as ferrotypes, ambrotypes which is the same process as tinypes but on glass and also silver-gelatin dry-plates which act and behave like modern film (negative) versus being a reversal (positive) process like the tintypes, ambrotypes and wet-plate collodion. The wetplate collodion process came decades before dryplate and was an important evolution in the making of film emulsion. Some people to this day still prefer wetplate collodion over anything other choice or advancement in photography over the last 150+ years since its introduction.

The dryplate version of tintypes (metal) and ambrotypes (glass) use a special reversal developer that requires a black background on the respective medium. In the case of the tintypes I use black paint as the sublayer, binding agent for the emulsion as well as the background. For the ambrotypes on glass I use a gelatin binding agent and then put a piece of black material behind the glass plate to make the image appear visible. There is nothing like an ambrotype mounted in a shadow box or a tintype mounted in a hand-made leather frame or a wooden frame made from reclaimed barnwood.

In both cases for dryplate a silver-based liquid emulsion can be used (e.g., liquid light, AG-Plus, Black Magic) as the sensitizing agent for exposure. If you are really crazy you can make your own emulsion too. This is one reason why the argument of film and if it will be around or not doesn’t matter to me. I mix and hand coat my own negatives on paper, glass, and various metals so while I do enjoy shooting Tri-X or T-Max from time to time it really doesn’t impact much of my artwork. I can mix my own emulsion from the raw chemicals if that is what I choose to do.

One can expose the image in a large format camera just as we do with modern sheet film or you can take a positive slide and either project in on the sensitized plate or make a contact print. You can also use a pinhole camera as well completely bypassing all modern advances with any type of lens, bellows, or movements associated with large format cameras. I personally use vintage soft focus lenses most of the time, but use pinhole from time to time for great results. Then by using the special reversal developer the image appears on the medium and normal hardened fixer is used to fix the image and make it permanent.

The interesting twist is that you have the option of using the same liquid emulsion as described above, but using it as a negative versus a reversal (positive). You can either sub the glass plate and expose it in your large format camera or you can coat a plate, glass or metal, and then either contact print it with a negative or use your traditional darkroom enlarger and then develop with your standard darkroom developer (e.g., Dektol) and fix as you would traditional silver gelatin paper. All of these processes produce slightly different looks and a vast array of artistic choices that can be used and combined for an endless set of options. These processes are quirky, frustrating at times and very slow. In some cases the time between steps is a minimum of 24 hours.

For example, when I prepare my tintypes I have to clean, scuff and lay down the oil based paint layer and then let dry for a minimum of 24 hrs. Then when I head to the darkroom and lay down the emulsion I have to let the plates age for at least 24 hrs in total darkness. I typically mix my developer the day before exposure because it needs to age a minimum of 24 hrs as well before use. As you can see, you have several days tied up in making a single exposure and I haven’t even discussed how to determine your ISO/ASA yet.

In an interest to get the ball rolling I have included a snippet from Robert Leggat’s, A History of Photography book. If you haven’t read this book, I would highly recommend it. I will be detailing all of these processes in the next set of articles and companion videos.

What’s the difference between wet-plate (collodion) and dry-plate tintypes?

“The development of the Collodion process marked a watershed in the development of photography. However, this wet-plate process had limitations, one being that it was necessary to keep the collodion moist. For a number of years several attempts were made to discover ways of keeping the collodion moist for long periods. The materials tried included unusual ones like licorice, beer and raspberry syrup! Some success was achieved by using a mixture of bromide in collodion. The ideal binder would be one which enabled the plates to be used only when dry. It was not until 1871 that the next breakthrough was achieved by Dr Richard Leach Maddox, when he began using gelatin. In fact, as far back as 1850 Robert Bingham had suggested the use of gelatin, but this idea had not been taken up at the time, presumably because of the announcement of the collodion process the following year.

“Gelatin is a protein obtained from animals, which is transparent and odorless, and used in a number of food processes. The first account of its use in photography is in the British Journal of Photography for 8 September 1871, when Maddox suggested that the sensitizing chemicals could be coated on to a glass plate in a gelatin rather than a collodion emulsion. Maddox’s process, though revolutionary, was far slower than collodion. Several manufacturers experimented with it, the most successful being Charles Bennett, who in 1878 announced a new gelatin dry plate process. This was a major breakthrough, particularly since Bennett’s process also considerably enhanced the sensitivity of the emulsion, reducing the exposure time to one tenth of that required for the collodion one.

“The dry process relieved photographers of the need to carry about their own darkroom and chemicals; exposure could now be made on location, development being left until much later; it also let to a greater degree of standardization, and a more scientific approach to photography; the science of sensitomertry was introduced at around this period, and exposure calculators now began to appear. By the end of that decade the dry plate had superseded the wet plate entirely.”

Tim

My soft focus set on Flickr

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Be sure to leave your comments or suggestions at the bottom of this article. If you like my articles be sure to use the “Like” or “Share” buttons located at the bottom of each article so we can get more feedback from other photographers.

Post your photos taken with your large format vintage lens on my Flickr group dedicated to vintage large format lenses.

Post your traditional darkroom prints to my new Flickr group dedicated to analog photographs in a digital world.

To view my portfolio visit my Black and White Fine Art website.

You can follow me on Twitter

Tim Layton

© Tim Layton – All Rights Reserved – 2012. You may not republish or use any information or media of any format, in part or in whole, without my written permission. For permission and more information you can contact Tim Layton via email at tim@vintagelargeformat.com

Tags: ambrotype, collodion, dry plate, historic, large format

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TIME – The Civil War: An Illustrated History

Published on May 16th, 2012 by admin in Civil War, History

Many of us large format and vintage photographers are also interested in history. Since I am in the process of working with wet plate collodion I thought it would be a great time to mention a recent book published by TIME that I think is absolutely excellent, both from a historical perspective and the images and photos are simply incredible. I have provided a link to Amazon in the event you want to review a copy for yourself. Assuming the link remains good over time, you may want to check out these photos from the TIME magazine “Faces of the Civil War“. If anyone has additional suggestions for good civil war books then please send me an email and I will be sure to update the website with your suggestions.

The Civil War: An Illustrated History

Join the editors of TIME to observe the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War in a richly illustrated chronicle of the confl ict that changed America. It’s an immense subject-a battle between freedom and slavery, waged across the breadth of the still-expanding nation over a period of four years-and TIME has created an oversized volume to tell the story in the grand
style it deserves.

To bring the tale to life, the book focuses on little-seen photographs and original artifacts from the period: sketches from soldier’s diaries, unusual and rare military and political memorabilia. And it brings us face-to-face with those who lived through the period, presenting scores of excerpts from the letters and diaries of soldiers, officers and statesmen. Yet the book also captures the full sweep of the war, telling the tale in chronological fashion, as the war evolves from a quiet beginning to become a mammoth struggle that consumed the divided nation. Here are the great generals: Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson. Here are the great battles, from Bull Run and Antietam to Gettysburg and Shiloh. Here are the latest discoveries and analysis by scholars of the conflict. And here are fascinating, informative graphics that reveal the war in fresh, clarifying detail. Here is a larger-than-life conflict, reported and illuminated in a larger-than-life oversized edition from TIME.

Tim

My soft focus set on Flickr

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Post your photos taken with your large format vintage lens on my Flickr group dedicated to vintage large format lenses.

Post your traditional darkroom prints to my new Flickr group dedicated to analog photographs in a digital world.

To view my portfolio visit my Black and White Fine Art website.

You can follow me on Twitter

Tim Layton

Tags: Civil War, History

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Brand New LF Wet-Dry Holders

Published on May 4th, 2012 by admin in Historic Processes

I rarely talk about products, but in this case I think it is important to spread the word.

A large format photographer, Jody Ake, makes and sells new large format plate holders. Unlike standard wood plate holders, each plate holder design is more precise, lighter weight, and far less vulnerable to staining and decomposition. These holders can be used for wet collodion (ambrotype/tintypes),
paper negatives, dry plate, daguerreotypes, and any in camera process. In addition, the holders are crafted to fit all standard cameras, barring the need to retrofit, trim or alter the camera, plate or holder.

If you get a holder send me an email and let me know what process you are using and how you like the holder. I am not affiliated with Jody in any way.

Tim

If you like my articles be sure to use the “Like” or “Share” buttons located at the bottom of each article so we can get more feedback from other photographers.

Post your photos taken with your large format vintage lens on my Flickr group dedicated to vintage large format lenses.

Post your traditional darkroom prints to my new Flickr group dedicated to analog photographs in a digital world.

To view my portfolio visit my Black and White Fine Art website.

You can follow me on Twitter

Tim Layton

Tags: ambrotype, collodion, dry plate, historic, tintype

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A Plea for Art Photography in America

Published on February 16th, 2012 by admin in Essays, Historic Processes, Soft Focus

As photographers and artists I think it is important to understand those that came before us and where we may fit into the evolution of art and photography. With that in mind I wanted to share a plea by Alfred Stieglitz in 1892.

The plea was published in the Photographic Mosaics vol. 28 in 1892. In order to consider his plea it would be helpful to be aware of the movement at the time and in particular the struggles that were happening in regards to establishing photography as a fine art. The pictorialism movement (1885-1915) is a point in time that I personally identify as a pivotal era when photography moved from a recording of an image into a photograph to a fine art. The elements of art were all realized in my opinion and the freedom of expression dominated the print. At the time of the plea, Stieglitz was disheartened by what he felt was an inferior showing of American photography on the salon circuit in the 1890s. Stieglitz wrote the plea in an effort to raise the standard of work of modern photographers to compete with the English and Europeans. In this essay Stieglitz clearly launches the official campaign for photography’s acceptance as a fine art.

The Plea

There is no reason why the American amateur should not turn out as beautiful pictures by photographic means as his English brethren across the long pond, and still the fact remains that he does not do so.

Every exhibition in which the two meet proves this statement. “We cannot compete with those English fellows,” I heard remarked over and over again at the joint Exhibition held in New York City last May. And why not? I should like to ask. Have we Americans not the same innate sense for the beautiful? have we not the same skill to reproduce what we see? have we not the same material to work with? We have all this, and still look at the difference existing between our work and that of our English cousins. Every impartial observer and unbiased critic will grant that we are still many lengths in the rear, apparently content to remain there, inasmuch as we seem to lack the energy to strive forward — to push ahead with that American will-power which is so greatly admired by the whole civilized world, and most of all, by the Americans themselves.

In what respects are our photographs deficient, more especially when compared with those of our English colleagues? Granting that we are, in our technique, fully equal to the English, what we lack is that taste and sense for composition and for tone, which is essential in producing a photograph of artistic value—in other words, a picture.

When we go through an exhibition of American photographs, we are struck by the conventionality of the subjects chosen; we see the same types of country roads, of wood interiors, the everlasting waterfall, village scenes; we see the same groups at doorsteps and on piazzas; the same unfortunate attempts at illustrating popular poetry; the same etc., etc., ad infinitum.

Such attempts at original composition as we come across are, with some few meritorious exceptions, crude—that is to say, far-fetched and unnatural. In some cases, where the idea is undoubtedly good, the resulting picture shows an entire lack of serious study of the subject, and suffers from want of that artistic sense which loves simplicity and hates all superficial make-up. Simplicity, I might say, is the key to all art—a conviction that anybody who has studied the masters must arrive at. Originality, hand-in-hand with simplicity, are the first two qualities which we Americans need in order to produce artistic pictures. These qualities can only be attained through cultivation and conscientious study of art in all its forms.

Another quality our photographs are sadly deficient in is the entire lack of tone. Those exquisite atmospheric effects which we admire in the English pictures are rarely, if ever, seen in the pictures of an American. This is a very serious deficiency, inasmuch as here is the dividing line between a photograph and a picture.

Atmosphere is the medium through which we see all things. In order, therefore, to see them in their true value on a photograph, as we do in Nature, atmosphere must be there. Atmosphere softens all lines; it graduates the transition from light to shade; it is essential to the reproduction of the sense of distance. That dimness of outline which is characteristic for distant objects is due to atmosphere. Now, what atmosphere is to Nature, tone is to a picture. The sharp outlines which we Americans are so proud of as being proof of great perfection in our art are untrue to Nature, and hence an abomination to the artist. It must be borne in mind, however, that blurred outline and tone are quite different things.

The subjects touched upon in these lines would well bear a more detailed treatment…. I sincerely hope, however, that these few remarks, such as they are, will give rise to further thought by my American colleagues.

You can view the rest of my soft focus and Pictorialism photos on my Flickr below or visit my gallery.


									
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Tim

Post your photos taken with your large format vintage lens on my Flickr group dedicated to vintage large format lenses.

Post your traditional darkroom prints to my new Flickr group dedicated to analog photographs in a digital world.

To view my portfolio visit my Black and White Fine Art website.

You can follow me on Twitter

Tim Layton

Tags: large format, paper negative, Pictorialism, Soft Focus

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Rodenstock Imagon 360mm F5.8 – DIffusion Test

Published on January 17th, 2012 by admin in Soft Focus

As I continue to learn the Rodenstock Imagon soft focus lens I have started to notice a few patterns arise. To test this theory out I decided to take three exposures of the same floral still in the studio where all of the variables are tightly controlled. Before I address my theories and findings I will share with you what lead me to these thoughts to begin with.

In my first two test images, not shown here, were taken with the H5.8 diffusion disk and then wide open. I started with the H5.8 disk expecting a very soft image. I think I got that notion from using the Verito lens. I was actually quite surprised at how firm the image was. So, I removed the disk altogether and shot the lens wide open. I was very pleased with the result and based on that took the two photos that I have listed below.

The following two photos were taken without any of the diffusion disks installed, meaning the lens was wide open.

If you look at this photograph you will notice the beautiful, almost dreamy look within the highlights. The midtones and shadows could not be better in my opinion. I felt like I was off to a good start. I loved this photo so much I made a Platinum print of it and it is hanging in my study.

In this photo you should notice those same dreamy highlights and very pleasing atmospheric effect throughout the photograph. I added the white wash basin to see what would happen to those white highlights and zone 6 and 7 tones. I purposely put the white wash basin on a dark table to see how the contrast would look. Once again, I was very pleased with the result.

I had a suspicion that if the scene leaned more toward the highlights that I might get a different result. So, I decided to photograph a white potted orchid and put it against a high contrast background to see what happened.

In this first image it was taken wide open at F5.8 without any diffusion disk installed. When you compare this photo to the two images above, in my opinion you would never know they came from the same lens. I used the same medium and lighting in all cases to keep as many variables constant as possible. My theory about balancing the highlights in a scene when using this lens wide open appears to likely be something to watch out for.

In this second photograph I used the H5.8 diffusion disk in order to compare this image to the one wide open. Since the aperture was effectively the same my exposure time was also identical. The use of the diffusion disk dramatically changed the photo in my opinion. I find it to be significantly firmer as compared to wide open and the diffusion, both quality and quantity is also much different. In theory the diffuser disk is at the same aperture of 5.8, but I found that I would probably add about 20% more exposure when using the disk versus using the lens wide open.

In the third photograph I used a H7.7 diffusion disk in order to verify the degree of diffusion at the next stop. I had to double the exposure time to 8 seconds to compensate for the aperture. This image is significantly more firm than the H5.8 image and it isn’t even a close call with the wide open image.