Material Cost Discussion - Global markets vs the humble print maker

MTGseattle said:

I'm talking per exposure cost just like when we all complain about the per sheet cost of _____ film.

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That's not a good parallel though since with sheet film you can't erase the image and reuse the film. With wet plate you do that all the time.

Carnie Bob said:

that is interesting I have had nothing but issues, the old stuff never an issue with thousands of mounts done.

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koraks said:

@retina_restoration is talking about the number of tries to get a wet plate collodion shot right the first time. I share his experience that it's extremely rare to nail it on the fist try; you virtually always have to adjust exposure and/or development. I think you're probably talking about something else.

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@Carnie Bob ,
Were you, by chance, meaning to post this post in one of the threads about Dry Mounting that was recently active on Photrio

retina_restoration said:

Yup. Diethyl ether! Fun stuff. Smells great too lol.
In all seriousness, it is common practice to mix the ether with ethanol for long term storage, as this stabilizes the ether and prevents any "unwanted outcomes".

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In a lab that I worked at we used ether, always in metal cans, small amounts. No big trouble if you handle it properly. Godawful smell. When I was a kid guessing 10 years old (c 1966) I had my tonsils removed. Yep ether drizzled out of a pint metal can directly onto a gauze pad in a wire frame held over my face. I'll never forget that. I had propofol injection for colonoscopy. I remember the smell of vinyl of the oxygen mask , perfect.

My answer to all this is to bite the bullet and buy a whole bunch of whatever I need. Then make photographs with it.

Getting into the carbon printing back in the early 90s, certainly helped as it’s not an expensive process. The 11 x 14 platinum palladium prints are a different story but I recently bought a couple thousand dollars worth of metal and will use it till it’s gone.

Any print sales go back into buying more material.