Posing chair for LF portraits

[sdivot]

I'd like to find (or build), a chair with the headbrace piece that keeps the poser's head still during the focusing, film loading, and taking of a LF portrait. Any idea/advice on how I get this done?
Thanks,
Steve
www.scdowellphoto.com

 

[AgX]

I don't know your clients, but what about the chair of Alphonse Bertillon...?

 

[smieglitz]

John Brewer (in Scotland IIRC) is making head braces for wetplate collodion photography. Email him at:john@johnbrewerphotography.com

He may be too busy to answer for a few days as his wife just had a child earlier today.

There's also a guy named Tim Meritte that makes a brace reproduction once in awhile. Googling should turn him up.

 

[sdivot]

Thanks guys. I'd like to just rig something up honestly. Since this is not a profit making endeavor, I'd like to go the cheap way.
Who's Alphonse Bertillon, and what does his chair look like?
Steve
www.scdowellphoto.com

 

[AgX]

Bertillon introduced anthropometry into the police force. Systematic photography made part of his system.

For photographing suspects etc. a rotatable chair with head rest was used and mechanically rotated in the sequens of photographing.
I still saw such a chair at a police department in the 80's.

 

[nemo999]

I'd like to find (or build), a chair with the headbrace piece that keeps the poser's head still during the focusing, film loading, and taking of a LF portrait. Any idea/advice on how I get this done?
Thanks,
Steve
www.scdowellphoto.com

The simplest gadget by far would be a rod with a soft pad on the end which reaches up to the back of the subject's head by some convenient route and against which the subject rests his/her head. Remember that, in contrast to the Daguerrotype days, you are not concerned to keep the subject immobilized for a long period, only to ensure that he/she does not move between focusing and making the exposure. This rod will ensure that front/back movement does not occur, a simple sight on the front of the camera can be used to make sure the subject does not drift to the left or right.

 

[benjiboy]

It shouldn't be too difficult to modify a lighting stand to take a large "u " shaped clip you could make to screw into the top of the stand as a brace to support the victims head, to re-create a poseing stand .