Wet Plates in the Field

[Allen Friday]

I have made quite a few wet plates around my home, where I could process the final plate in my darkroom. I am now ready to take the wet plate adventure out in to the field. I have my cardboard box darkroom set up and have practiced with it. But, questions remain: How do you wash the plates out in the field and then transport them home?

I will be photographing within an hour of my house. Should I just rinse the plates in the field and then wash completely when I get home? Or, should I soak the plates and keep them wet until I can do the final wash? Do you use a separate plate box for the exposed, but not yet dry plates, or can I use the same plate box I used to transport the glass to the site?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Allen

 

[JG Motamedi]

It depends on your fixer; KCn doesn't need much of a wash, so a few gallons in the back of the car would do it, and you could then dry your plates in a plate box. However, doing so risks poor drying and weird marks. If using hypo, you should probably rinse them off a bit and then take them home wet for a long soak.

Were it me I would build a small water proof plate box and keep them soaking until I got home. Joe Smigiel (aka: smieglitz) constructed something of the sort out of acrylic. I think he posed the plans somewhere at the collodion.com forum.

 

[smieglitz]

This one holds two layers of 1/4-plates widthwise or one layer of full-plates lengthwise. The hinged cover helps keep dust out and water in.

I've also used plastic papersafes to transport larger plates to home base under water. They are nice since they have covers and are stackable. I wonder if old hard rubber film developing tanks and hangers could be adapted?

Joe

 

[Allen Friday]

Thank you. I went to Home Depot this morning and got my plexiglass. Hope to be in the field by next week.

Allen