Dry - Wet Plate - Waiting, Drying after Collodion and Silver Baths

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

If the plate DRIES after dip to collodion and silver before development and expose ;

1. does it change spectral sensivity ?
2. does it lose resolution ?
3. how many hours does it need to expose ?
4. how many days can dry plate wait ?

• before exposure
• after exposure

 

[Gerald C Koch]

If the plate is allowed to dry before exposure there is a severe loss in emulsion speed. Therefore plates must be prepared just before use. Then exposed and developed immediately. Once the collodion dries it is no longer permeable to water. Wet plate photography required that you have a portable darkroom unless the photos were made in a studio. Matthew Brady who made many American civil war photographs used a wagon. There are photos of his setup. Once the dry plates were perfected the number of photographers using wet plates fell off dramatically.

Wet plates are only sensitive to near UV to blue wavelengths since they do not incorporate any sensitization dyes. If you look at wet plate prints of women their dresses are always rendered as completely black unless by chance they are wearing blue.

 

[removed account4]

http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/monographs/sunbeam/
this book has recipes with wet and dry collodion.
there is a recipe for a honey formula that keep the pores of the collodion OPEN; otherwise, the jig is up.

dry (gelatin) plates "keep" well, at least in my 30 years experience coating and using them
i have had no problems exposing and developing self coated plates immediately or more
than 10 years after i coated them. this experience is only with single grade liquid light: it gained a little speed and contrast.