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wet plate photography requires a darkroom on-site. which means you can't go very far with this stuff. after it's exposed, you must develop it within 5 minutes..
the wet plate process requires pouring collodion on to a glass plate or tin plate blackened on one-side. (collodion is gun cotton dissolved in ether and mixed with bromide.) when you do this, it's like pouring oil onto a dinner plate and covering every surface of it evenly.
a minute or two later, the collodion will congeal like jello. now you sensitize it with silver nitrate in a lightproof box. after a few minutes, remove the plate and place it in a plate holder. this is like a film cartridge for the camera. because the plate is light sensitive, the loading must be done in a darkroom. red light does not affect the plate.
once loaded, you place the wet plate back in to a camera and make your exposure. wet plate light sensitivity is very low so exposures can take several seconds in sunlight. several minutes in low light..
after the exposure, remove the back and remove the plate in a darkroom. develop by inspection. you will see the image appear-then fix it in water.
after the plate is developed, you wash and dry it.
once it's dried, you heat the plate over an oil lamp. then pour varnish on the plate exactly like how collodion was poured on before. the varnish is scented with lavender oil and it smells amazing when you do this. the varnish acts like a seal and makes the surface glossy.
that's rundown to make tintypes or ferrotypes. these make positive one-of-a-kind images.
ambrotypes are the same thing with black glass.
glass plate negatives use the same process but the plates are clear and it produces a negative for printing on paper. traditionally, you print on albumen paper made from rancid egg whites. making this paper is a total pain in the ass.
so yeah, it's really not that hard..
no i didn't make my camera. i have a back that is modified to take wet plates. you can adapt some old film holders to do this. you can even take a broken polaroid camera and make it a wet plate camera.
i don't really know how to make complicated cameras with shutters and electronics. but making pinhole and view cameras isn't too hard..
the wet plate process requires pouring collodion on to a glass plate or tin plate blackened on one-side. (collodion is gun cotton dissolved in ether and mixed with bromide.) when you do this, it's like pouring oil onto a dinner plate and covering every surface of it evenly.
a minute or two later, the collodion will congeal like jello. now you sensitize it with silver nitrate in a lightproof box. after a few minutes, remove the plate and place it in a plate holder. this is like a film cartridge for the camera. because the plate is light sensitive, the loading must be done in a darkroom. red light does not affect the plate.
once loaded, you place the wet plate back in to a camera and make your exposure. wet plate light sensitivity is very low so exposures can take several seconds in sunlight. several minutes in low light..
after the exposure, remove the back and remove the plate in a darkroom. develop by inspection. you will see the image appear-then fix it in water.
after the plate is developed, you wash and dry it.
once it's dried, you heat the plate over an oil lamp. then pour varnish on the plate exactly like how collodion was poured on before. the varnish is scented with lavender oil and it smells amazing when you do this. the varnish acts like a seal and makes the surface glossy.
that's rundown to make tintypes or ferrotypes. these make positive one-of-a-kind images.
ambrotypes are the same thing with black glass.
glass plate negatives use the same process but the plates are clear and it produces a negative for printing on paper. traditionally, you print on albumen paper made from rancid egg whites. making this paper is a total pain in the ass.
so yeah, it's really not that hard..
no i didn't make my camera. i have a back that is modified to take wet plates. you can adapt some old film holders to do this. you can even take a broken polaroid camera and make it a wet plate camera.
i don't really know how to make complicated cameras with shutters and electronics. but making pinhole and view cameras isn't too hard..
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