WET PLATE COLLODION
AMBROTYPES, TINTYPES & LARGE FORMAT CAMERAS

3 Day Workshop

Jointly facilitated by Eduard Toader

Specialist in large format photography

This three day workshop will be an introduction to the 19th century Wet Plate Collodion process. This is a truly magical photographic process that is both immediate and beautiful.

During the workshop you will learn some history, mostly technique and safe handling of the chemicals. You will prepare your glass or tin plates for coating and sensitising to expose in wet plate large format cameras or vintage cameras that have been adapted to take glass or metal plates instead of sheet film. This makes the process accessible and an affordable way to learn about the early history of this photographic process and the action of light on light- sensitive chemistry.

You will learn to adapt a standard film holder for a large format camera to take a glass plate.

You will also learn to calculate correct light readings to get the best exposure for cameras with bellows. Working with modern devices, such as phone apps or external light meters, to measure and work out light readings will be covered.

You will work in pairs to undertake portrait work or work on your own to take images of a still life set up or landscape shot.

Once you have become familiar with the technique, you will have the opportunity over the three days to experiment further either by creating tintypes (a positive image on tin) and ambrotypes (a positive image on glass) to produce a still life, portrait or landscape.

The workshop will also cover the final stages of finishing, using wax or varnish to protect the Collodion surface and blacking the reverse of the glass plates.

You may bring your own half plate or full plate camera, tested or untested, though there will be one available to use. There will also be a selection of small quarter plate vintage cameras to experiment with too.

The workshop participant numbers are kept low to enable us to support your experience, whether you are a beginner or a photographer with some experience of alternative photographic processes.

A limited number of 4 places are available on this workshop, please email info@silverwoodstudio.co.uk directly to make enquiries.

Fee includes all chemistry and materials.

Cost

£360 + VAT for three days, which includes materials. Numbers of participants are limited to 4, minimum of 3 people needed to run this workshop.

Individual private tuition is £250 + VAT per day. Dates on request.

History & Process

The Wet Collodian process was invented in 1848 by F. Scott Archer (1813-1857) and was a significant advancement to the French Daguerreotype and English Calotype* processes that were invented in 1839 and 1840 respectively. The new technique could produce a much finer and faster image than its predecessors.

On glass, Wet Collodian is produced both as a negative and a positive plates. Negatives are used to reproduce images from. Positive plates are blackened on the rear of the plate; the milky image appears, as if by magic, to become positive and can be framed as a unique image. When Wet Collodian is applied to black coated tin it is called a Tintype and these became very popular during the Victorian era with the addition of hand painted colour.

*Calotype Photography is the direct ancestor of modern photography; a waxed translucent paper image was used as a negative from which a positive image was printed.

A sheet of glass or tin is coated with a solution of gun cotton dissolved in ether, which is immediately sensitised in a solution of salts of silver and exposed in a camera whilst still tacky. The process is immediate, though it is limited to having a darkroom close at hand to process the images. A mobile darkroom tent can allow for mobility when taking photographs of landscapes.