Peta Pixel: Dry Glass Plate Photography is Back!

[Nodda Duma]

I was pleasantly surprised by PetaPixel’s posting about my dry plates, and thought I would share!

https://petapixel.com/2018/04/30/dry-glass-plate-photography-is-back/

 

[Richard Man]

Jason, you have single handedly revived an industry! Congratulations!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Congratulations Jason. It was great seeing you again last week.

PE

 

[Trail Images]

Excellent,..... and kudos to you for a very fine write up.......

 

[removedacct1]

Congrats, Jason!
Have you set up a Flickr group for J. Lane Dry Plates yet?

 

[Nodda Duma]

Thanks all. Ron the pleasure was all mine.

I haven’t set up a flikr group yet...honestly I’m so busy between my day job, the family, and this that I can’t touch all the media outlets that I could. I do have a flikr account (noddaduma). I also have a facebook group - Dry Plate Photographers. I can look into a flikr group as well.

-Jason

 

[Nodda Duma]

Excellent,..... and kudos to you for a very fine write up.......

I agree the writeup was awesome but I can’t take credit for it. ..I don’t write that well. I’m an engineer so my writeups are unavoidably technical and slightly awkward. . .. The petapixel article was written by a photographer who bought some plates and lives down in NYC. Giovanni .. He has some great stuff..I think there’s a link to his website at the end of the article.

 

[Lionel1972]

Great news! Congrats!

 

[macfred]

Excellent!
Congrats to you, Jason. Very inspiring ...

 

[RattyMouse]

What a very interesting article about an extremely interesting topic. I am intrigued. ISO 2? My goodness, that's hard to wrap my head around; almost 6 stops slower than ISO100. If I had a 4 x 5, I would certainly try glass plates. But I wonder, if you are really into shooting this, accumulating so many plates after an extended period of time must create quite a storage problem.

ISO 2!!

 

[removed account4]

great stuff jason !
i think you are going to be kind of busy

 

[Nodda Duma]

What a very interesting article about an extremely interesting topic. I am intrigued. ISO 2? My goodness, that's hard to wrap my head around; almost 6 stops slower than ISO100. If I had a 4 x 5, I would certainly try glass plates. But I wonder, if you are really into shooting this, accumulating so many plates after an extended period of time must create quite a storage problem.

ISO 2!!

ISO 2 is intentional: That is the speed you would get if you did a really good job of making your own emulsion with the recipes that float around. It replicates what they were doing in the early 1880s. That is precisely the gap in historical photographic processes that I am filling with these plates.

Storage isn't as big a deal as you would think...mostly because archival storage of glass plate negatives is a problem that the industry has solved long ago.

This is what I use: http://www.gaylord.com/Photo,-Print-&-Art/Gaylord-Archival®-Blue-Grey-Barrier-Board-Glass-Negative-Storage-System/p/HYB02428

Stores at least 100 plates in their 4x5 box, in envelopes which are great for writing exposure and enlargement notes on.

Storage is actually a really good topic to bring up, so I added a blog post to my website providing the link above.

 

[bvy]

I'm intrigued enough to start waving my Visa card around (it doesn't take much).

I see that it's especially targeted to the landscape photographer, but do you have any examples of studio or outdoor portraits made with these?

(Edit: After looking at the author's website, it's unclear to me if his "Slow Portraits" series was made with these or some other medium or a combination. The one portrait in the PetaPixel article is nice but probably not representative.)

 

[Trail Images]

I agree the writeup was awesome but I can’t take credit for it. ..I don’t write that well. I’m an engineer so my writeups are unavoidably technical and slightly awkward. . .. The petapixel article was written by a photographer who bought some plates and lives down in NYC. Giovanni .. He has some great stuff..I think there’s a link to his website at the end of the article.

I fully understand. I had a photo published last month and distributed throughout So Cal in the Inland Empire Magazine. I had no written part published on the image beyond the title I used. The rest of the article was written by one of the editors on the staff. My problem was all I could give them was the technical stuff and they did not use any of it as it would have meant little to their normal clientele.

 

[removed account4]

ISO 2 is intentional: That is the speed you would get if you did a really good job of making your own emulsion with the recipes that float around. It replicates what they were doing in the early 1880s. That is precisely the gap in historical photographic processes that I am filling with these plates.

Storage isn't as big a deal as you would think...mostly because archival storage of glass plate negatives is a problem that the industry has solved long ago.

This is what I use: http://www.gaylord.com/Photo,-Print-&-Art/Gaylord-Archival®-Blue-Grey-Barrier-Board-Glass-Negative-Storage-System/p/HYB02428

Stores at least 100 plates in their 4x5 box, in envelopes which are great for writing exposure and enlargement notes on.

Storage is actually a really good topic to bring up, so I added a blog post to my website providing the link above.

you want non-buffered thumb tabbed envelopes
they are the same ones that habs/haer/hals submissions are submited in...

 

[mard0]

ISO 2!!

Still a stop faster than my wet plates!

 

[RattyMouse]

ISO 2 is intentional: That is the speed you would get if you did a really good job of making your own emulsion with the recipes that float around. It replicates what they were doing in the early 1880s. That is precisely the gap in historical photographic processes that I am filling with these plates.

Storage isn't as big a deal as you would think...mostly because archival storage of glass plate negatives is a problem that the industry has solved long ago.

This is what I use: http://www.gaylord.com/Photo,-Print-&-Art/Gaylord-Archival®-Blue-Grey-Barrier-Board-Glass-Negative-Storage-System/p/HYB02428

Stores at least 100 plates in their 4x5 box, in envelopes which are great for writing exposure and enlargement notes on.

Storage is actually a really good topic to bring up, so I added a blog post to my website providing the link above.

How fast an ISO could you make a dry plate if you were not interested in replicating 1880's technology? ISO100? 400?

 

[dwross]

Can't speak for more than my own work, but ISO 125 (summer speed), 150 if the image can handle a little extra grain. Note: this is not theoretical. I've been using this film regularly for a number of years. The attached images are from 120 roll film, but the emulsion can go on glass. Both days were bright overcast. The beach horses in late spring. Kites in summer. View attachment 199942 View attachment 199942 View attachment 199942

 

[Nodda Duma]

I'm intrigued enough to start waving my Visa card around (it doesn't take much).

I see that it's especially targeted to the landscape photographer, but do you have any examples of studio or outdoor portraits made with these?

(Edit: After looking at the author's website, it's unclear to me if his "Slow Portraits" series was made with these or some other medium or a combination. The one portrait in the PetaPixel article is nice but probably not representative.)

Yeah, look through my media here on photrio. I have one or two I took of my kids outdoors that are good examples. Also, if you join the Dry Plate Photographers group on Facebook, you will see other examples. Here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1428512583937923/ Giovanni posted more examples there. This is sort of the "ground floor" of getting them out to the public so there aren't many. But there are some... made in studio with flash and outdoors. Just shuffle through the group, and feel free to ask questions there. I don't have a lot because I'm more of a landscapist than a portraitist (I made those words up lol ).

How fast an ISO could you make a dry plate if you were not interested in replicating 1880's technology? ISO100? 400?

I could get this emulsion to ISO 25 or so. Speeds beyond that starts to cause problems (peppering, grain, etc) which preclude pushing it faster. Faster emulsions require a different recipe and the equipment to keep the house from stinking up with ammonia. In any case, really fast emulsions are on my list, but not at the top.

I can't stress enough that a goal of this venture is not only to make plates available, but to also fill the gap in the evolution of historical processes that Kodak and others have left behind and which, unlike wet plate, hasn't grown a huge following like it should have. Filling that gap is my current focus.

 

[removed account4]

don't forget, jason, you can make photographs with a negative and PRINT them on the plates so you have
glass positives. it prints like photo paper

 

[warden]

That is so cool. Congratulations!

 

[nimajneb]

View attachment 199945 Can't speak for more than my own work, but ISO 125 (summer speed), 150 if the image can handle a little extra grain. Note: this is not theoretical. I've been using this film regularly for a number of years. The attached images are from 120 roll film, but the emulsion can go on glass. Both days were bright overcast. The beach horses in late spring. Kites in summer. View attachment 199942 View attachment 199942 View attachment 199942 View attachment 199943

Can you tell me more about your process? I've been fascinated with making my own film for a while, but I don't currently have the resources.

 

[Punker]

Can't wait to pick mine up at Freestyle this weekend!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Last week, when Jason and I met, we discussed formulas with speeds up to ISO 400, and I showed him draft #3 of the new book which contains many formulas. Some good formulas are shown here in the Emulsion Making forum. Several of these can get you up to ISO 80.

PE

 

[dwross]

Can you tell me more about your process? I've been fascinated with making my own film for a while, but I don't currently have the resources.

I'm always delighted to talk about emulsion making. It is the mission of my website to research, teach, and promote handmade silver gelatin emulsions. As Jason said, emulsions have not had the media exposure other processes have enjoyed up to now, but I believe that is changing. The publicity J Lane dry plates has generated proves that, and that Focal is publishing a book on handmade silver gelatin paper is another good sign.

All the information you need to get started making dry plates, paper, and film is at thelightfarm.com and in my first book, a survey of recipes and techniques. The book is free to read in Blurb preview.

I hope you give things a try when you can. It actually takes far fewer "resources" than you might imagine.
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