Good book on glass plates ??

John Bartley · Mar 7, 2006

I have recently acquired a copy of "Coming into Focus" edited by John Barnier. I would like to complement it with a fairly easy reading book on glass plate negatives. I realise that there are many types and recipes/methods for creating glass plate negs, and I would like a reasonably complete book. I would prefer to buy new rather than used unless the book is out of print.

Any suggestions?

cheers and thank you

smieglitz · Mar 7, 2006

John Bartley said:
...I would prefer to buy new rather than used unless the book is out of print.

Any suggestions?...

J. Towler's The Silver Sunbeam from 1864 is considered the bible among wetplaters and also has sections on early dry collodion methods. It is available as a reprint through Dead Link Removed.

You can also read it online at

http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/monographs/sunbeam/index.html

What sort of glass negatives are you looking to make? "Good ones, bad ones, tall ones, skinny ones, crazy ones?"

Joe

Ryuji · Mar 7, 2006

If you are interested in dry plates, check out:

http://silvergrain.org/Photo-Tech/literature.html

I only do dry plates but the quality of published information on emulsions is low, and the publications very often contain many errors, and they give formulae that aren't suitable for today's gelatin. I'm working on a booklet of thorough treatment on this subject... but for now, the above link contains info on this matter.

Right now, the best sources of info on gelatin emulsions are: (1) talk to people in the industry doing emulsion research; (2) read scientific literature and work out the implementation yourself; (3) read patents, but this must be very careful and also must be combined with (1) and (2) to get much useful info from very vaguely written patent literature.

John Bartley · Mar 8, 2006

Thank you for the replies. I guess I should have said that my intent is just to experiment a bit in the future and so I'm gathering information now in anticipation. I had previously downloaded "The Silver Sunbeam" from the online source, but found it a bit brief.
I will check out the suggested link.

cheers

Ryuji · Mar 8, 2006

If you just want to try a simple bromide emulsion, I have a formula that I sent out to people. It's simplified from my better emulsions, but it's pretty simple (as a gelatin emulsion). Several people followed my formulae and a couple sent me nice scans of images. Let me know if you are interested.

John Bartley · Mar 8, 2006

Ryuji said:
If you just want to try a simple bromide emulsion, I have a formula that I sent out to people. It's simplified from my better emulsions, but it's pretty simple (as a gelatin emulsion). Several people followed my formulae and a couple sent me nice scans of images. Let me know if you are interested.

Ryuji,

Thank you for the offer. I would like to have a copy of that recipe, and I promise to respect its copyright/source. If/when I try it, I will also send you a print (no matter how bad it is )

cheers and thanks again

(oldrad@sympatico.ca)

Jeremy · Mar 8, 2006

Ryuji said:
If you just want to try a simple bromide emulsion, I have a formula that I sent out to people. It's simplified from my better emulsions, but it's pretty simple (as a gelatin emulsion). Several people followed my formulae and a couple sent me nice scans of images. Let me know if you are interested.

I would be interested in the emulsion, Ryuji. Just need to get the glass cut down for my 3.5x5.

Ryuji · Mar 8, 2006

Ryuji said:
If you just want to try a simple bromide emulsion, I have a formula that I sent out to people. It's simplified from my better emulsions, but it's pretty simple (as a gelatin emulsion). Several people followed my formulae and a couple sent me nice scans of images. Let me know if you are interested.

If you want a copy of this, it's in PDF form and must be emailed directly. So please shoot me an email or a PM with the subject SIMPLIFIED EMULSION RECIPE. Be sure to include your email address. Thanks!

Those who sent me PM, emails, and response above, I got your email addresses so don't worry about it. The above request is for future requesters.

Good book on glass plates ??

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