Wet Plate Collodion Questions

[RobertP]

I'll find a true color spectrum from blue to red and photograph it again. I'm curious now myself.

 

[schrochem]

I think it's kind of cool that you can change the spectral sensitivity (even if it's a little). Robert I think I found the color patch here. It's the second one.
If I got that right then it would seem the photo you attached has gray on the right and blue on the left. But that would make the patch next to white (on the link I made that is magenta) be close to white???
Thanks
Scott

 

[RobertP]

Scott I don't think that is the right color patches. The reds should be rendered dark and the blues light. We didn't spend much time on this. And my old mind just can't recall the exacts. Next time I shoot I'll include a color spectrum in a shot and then a digital snap for you to compare. I don't want to mislead you.

 

[schrochem]

No sweat Robert. That would be cool if you get around to it but no worries. The color patch was an older one (I believe) so the google fairy had a hard time finding one. However, I think this might be it. Well that is if the yellows go that dark and the magentas that light.
Scott

 

[Ty G]

What is really "cool" is a tintype of a person with light blue eyes.

Ty Guillory
www.tystintypes.com
Mineola, TX

 

[schrochem]

Indeed Ty!
I was looking through some of Kendrick's tintypes and those are the ones that stood out the most.
Scott

 

[schrochem]

I was wondering if one of you on Quinn's collodion forum could assist me. I have been trying to register with Quinn for over a week through different avenues. Does anyone know if he is out of reach for awhile?
Is anyone a moderator over there that could register me?
I'm just continuing my reading and found the archives of the cwreenactors forum to be very informative. So I'd like to join the other one as well.
Thanks for any help.
Scott

 

[Ty G]

Email him. He'll get you on.

Ty

 

[schrochem]

Yep, I tried that with two separate email accounts and I even PMed him through APUG. Guess I'll just wait a little longer....
Thanks
Scott

 

[bill schwab]

Scott,

He must be away. When I wrote to join a couple weeks back, he got to me within hours.

Bill

 

[RobertP]

I think he is doing a couple of workshops in France right now. Robert

 

[schrochem]

I figured he must be away.
Thanks for the information.
I try again next week I guess.
Thanks
Scott

 

[schrochem]

I have another question to ask.
I know there are the other wet plate forums out there but it would be nice to have some content on APUG don't you think??
Actually I think this question has been asked but I can't seem to find it through the search feature.
Anyway, any of yall make your own vertical silver bath?
It seems you want to minimize volume because of the expense of silver nitrate. For that matter, does anyone just use a tray?
If you make your own do you just use plexiglass (and that glue made for it...) and then make an outer wooden box?
I was tempted to buy one from star camera but Ray's little talk in his first paragraph kind of made me just want to do it myself. I just need a little guidance...
gracias
Scott

 

[Neil Miller]

Scott - I use ordinary glass and silicon, then put it in a box, though I suppose that plexi is much less fragile! The fixing bath doesn't need a box - and hypo (what I use) is cheap, so a tray will do.

You can use a tray for the silver bath, especially for odd/large sizes - see here.

Joe (aka "Smieglitz") made a neat vertical silver bath out of red perspex, which doesn't need a box either.

Regards,
Neil.

 

[RobertP]

You can even use black opaque plexi. There is no need to view the silver bath anyway. Although red will work... why not just block all the light and elinminate the need for a wooden housing at the same time. I have converted a F150 Ford Cargo Van to a rolling darkroom. In the plywood bulkhead I installed a sliding door on each side. One from red plexi and one from black opaque plexi on the opposite side of the bulkhead. Now I can use it for wet plate and film. When working and developing my plates I just slide the red door closed and then when loading film I slide the black door closed also. I can even develop film inside as it is vented with blackout vents and an open vent with a red plexi cover. I Hope to have it up and operational within a few weeks. It has sink and a tank with a 15 gal capacity for distilled water. (it will be filled from the RO system here). And of course a gray water tank. Robert

 

[smieglitz]

Here it is:

This one lets me sensitize 10x12 plates. I made a companion fixer tank with clear acrylic for the front and black acrylic for the rear to facilitate watching the change from negative to positive with clear glass. The cements were Weldon 3 and Weldon 16.

I've also made plate storage boxes that double as washing/holding tanks for field use and transport.

The tanks are designed to hold one of two different plate sizes. This one does full plates or two layers of quarter-plates.

I have some technical drawings of various combinations if anyone else is interested in making such a thing. This one is for 4x5s and 5x7s:

I bought a lot of the plastic as inexpensive cutoffs from a plastics shop and eventually purchased a full 4'x8' sheet of red acrylic when I (there was a url link here which no longer exists) to a mobile darkroom. The larger pieces were cut down using a table saw but for smaller pieces a scoring knife made for cutting plastics can be used.

I also built another set of tanks that fit in the wooden drop tank in the RV. That tank comes out and can be used in my (there was a url link here which no longer exists). I built all this stuff after reading Ray's page as well. None of it turned out pretty, but everything is quite functional and I saved $$$ doing it myself.

Might as well link the (there was a url link here which no longer exists) too. You can see the red sensitizing tank in those picks along with the acrylic "helper trays" for developing plates and the red acrylic sheet used for safe windows.

Joe

 

[RobertP]

Joe, What is the pitch of the tank...15 degrees? Thanks, Robert....P. S....Those boxes are a great design Joe. Are the corners chamfered?

 

[smieglitz]

Robert,

IIRC, it is 20 degrees.

Do you have any pics of your van conversion? I'd love to see them if available.

Joe

 

[smieglitz]

Found a sketch of the tank:

 

[RobertP]

Joe, I will have pics as soon as it is finished and I'll forward to you via this forum or the other. Robert

 

[schrochem]

Thanks fellas!
Joe, you've been a bit busy.....
That's some really cool stuff.
I enjoy making stuff myself if I can.
Where did you get the black and red acrylic?
I'd also like to know where you got the fabric for you tent.
I do a fair bit of sewing making a lot of my backpacking gear.
Thanks for all the input.
Scott

 

[smieglitz]

The plastic came from a local plastics distributor (Total Plastics Inc.) and the tent material was from Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics, both of which have websites.

It turned out the tent needed three layers of fabric to be lightproof. It appeared that two would do until it was completed and I was able to get inside it. Knowing that now, I would probably try to find a different material for one of the layers and try to get it back down to two. The tent is really three tents inside one another and offset slightly to eliminate the light coming through the thousands of pinholes caused by the stitching. I think I still have the pattern somewhere if you are interested. The frame is PVC pipe from a local home improvement center and the tabletop that fits into PVC couplings on the frame was from a cheap plastic shelf from a $20 shelving unit.

Joe

 

[RobertP]

Scott, Porter's carry a nice darkroom cloth material. Check out their website. Robert

 

[Jeremy]

Joe,

Did you create a set of plans for the portable darkbox? I'm getting ready to make my own and the more info I have the better!

 

[schrochem]

Joe, if I calculated it right your internal volume on your silver bath is about 2L. I read somewhere (I haven't received coffer's manual yet) that the bath is 9% AgNO3. If that's correct that's 180g to fill your bath up. That gets pricey....
Sounds like it's the most expensive part of the process that I have noticed so far.