I don't know what to call it?

[mark]

is ther a wet plate process that produces a positive image, or soething that you can turn into a positive image?

I seem to remember a cowboy photographer doing it but can't for the life of me what the process was called.

And where do i learn more about it?

 

[semeuse]

Ambrotype. Check out some of the alt-process links. The book Coming Into Focus edited by John Barnier has a chapter on it. Also, I think Keepers of Light by Crawford had some info on it.

 

[athanasius80]

Robb Kendrick doing tintype?

 

[Kerik]

Wet Plate Collodion. Here a couple of places to start:

www.collodion.com
www.collodion.org

 

[mark]

Kerik,

Is it possible to do any of this without a darkroom?

Are the chemicals way toxic? I have two little ones.

 

[pedropolis]

I remember an article about this in Black and white photography a while ago, the photographer was a woman who went round the cattle ranches in the states and made these wetplates in a huge box camera. I seem to recall that they were tin-types. I could be wrong but, i will try to find the magazine to check.

I remember them being fantastic images!

take care

pedro

 

[smieglitz]

Kerik,

Is it possible to do any of this without a darkroom?

Are the chemicals way toxic? I have two little ones.

The wetplate process utilizes ether and collodion (guncotton dissolved in ether and grain alcohol) which are extremely flammable with explosive fumes and byproducts. Some hardcore wetplaters also use potassium cyanide for the fixer although plain hypo can be used for that purpose. The cyanide is lethal if mishandled. There are some other nasties as well but these are the most dangerous. Not like working with X-Tol...


And you do need some sort of darkroom. Here's what I use:

my collodion darktent

my collodion darkbox

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)


Joe

 

[mark]

Thanks Joe. Those are pretty cool.

Looks like an involved process though.