How much collodion for 4x5 wet plate?

-chrille-

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I am going to order the chemicals I need for wet plate collodion. Just wonder how much, approx, collodion it take to cover a 4x5 plate. I guess there are going to be a lot of waste since this is my first time trying wet plate collodion photography.

How many 4x5 plates with a bottle of 250ml salted premixed collodion?
 

koraks

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A 4x5 takes only a few ml of salted collodion in my experience. I always mixed batches of 50-100ml and it took me a while to go through those. I don't think I would have managed to go through 250ml before it went bad. I bought a liter of collodion and I still have most of it.
 
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-chrille-

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Then I start with 250ml premixed collodion.

One more question, koraks. When you are pouring a plate, do you drain the residual collodion back into the original bottle or do you recommend using another bottle for the drained collodion?
 

koraks

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It's been quite some time since I did any wet plate, but I always poured back into the original bottle. Your prep your glass so it's spotlessly clean, so the only concern is some evaporative loss of ether. I've never found this to be much of a problem.
 
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