Old Workhorse Fast Clear – Side Note
From the “Big Collodion Test” I did a while back the Old Workhorse Fast Clear stood out to me as it gave me a much shorter exposure time. Having used it a bit more, including for negatives, I have come across something I don’t like, namely striations. Firstly I’ll repost the formula again so we all know what I’m talking about exactly:
240 ml USP Collodion
200 ml Alcohol
200 ml Ether
1,6 gr Cadmium Bromide
1,4 gr Ammonium Bromide
5,0 gr Ammonium Iodide
When making positives the plates did not suffer from striations. When making negatives however this was extremely apparent. After having talked some more with Mark Osterman it came to my understanding that the Ammonium Iodide was the culprit here. On ambrotypes made on black glass with lots of contrast they’re less prone to show but on clear glass with an unbroken gradient of tonality they will be very apparent.
It’s also the chemical compound that gives this formula the “fast clear”. Now, personally I don’t care whether a solution is fast clear or not, usually when I make a fresh batch I don’t intend to use it straight away.
Cutting back on the Ammonium Iodide or substitute it with Potassium Iodide would solve this matter and (hopefully) retain the speed I’m after. The next batch will be the same formula as mentioned above but instead of Ammonium Iodide using Potassium Iodide, the original Old Workhorse formula that is. Will report back!
The Big Collodion Test
So..here we go! Yesterday I’ve shot 12 plates (2 plates were to determine exposure time) of 5 different collodion formulas and 2 developer formulas. Please keep in mind this test is performed under my specific conditions, with my chemistry, age of silver bath etc etc so all conclusions that I draw here may not be consistent with your findings or may not turn out the same when you give them a go.
Having learned that a formula is just a formula and has to be adjusted according to specific circumstances (temp, humidity, age of silver bath, amount of alcohol used etc etc) this is by no means a ‘scientific’ test or whatsoever, merely meant for me to see how a 2 salted collodion will compare to a 4 salted collodion, if I would gain anything in speed from one of the formulas and how the tonal range would vary. Anyway, enough of this diplomatic stuff 
The difference in developer is not really that interesting, the difference you might see may just as well be caused by flowing too much developer over the plate, wiping off some of that precious silver thus changing the result. I used the Osterman developer and the Lea’s Sugar developer (for the exact formulas see this former post). The latter because of the amount of restrainer used (sugar) might be interesting to use in hot conditions so I’ll surely be bringing it out when summer hits our land to see how it fares. I’ll post all of the photos anyway, if you’d like to have them mailed to you to give them a closer look, shoot me an email and I’ll send them to you.
Above the test setup I used to make the photos. A lot of different colors to see how they would come out on the plates. A color chart and a grey scale to check out tonal range and dynamic range. Orange carrots and orange mandarins, oh how different they look on the plates!
Specific Circumstances of the Test:
Silver bath – Specific Gravity: 1,06
Silver bath – Acidity: 4,5 -5
Silver bath – Age: +- 2,5 years old
Temperature: 17,6 degrees
Humidity: 51%
Fixer: Sodium Thiosulfate 30% (I can’t stand the smell of KCN so never use this indoors at home)
Lighting: 2 Falcon Eyes 928 lights in an approx. angle of 45 degrees on the subject, 1 on each side.
Medium: 4×5″ Black Glass Ambrotypes
Lens: Steinheil 230mm
Aperture: f/5,6
All the plates are unvarnished as I didn’t want to run the risk of screwing up plates
1 New Guy Collodion - My standard developer - 35 seconds exposure time
2 New Guy Collodion - Osterman Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
3 Lea's Landscape #7 No Additional Ether - Osterman Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
4 Lea's Landscape #7 No Additional Ether - Lea's Sugar Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
5 Lea's Traditional Landscape #7 - Osterman Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
6 Lea's Traditional Landscape #7 - Lea's Sugar Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
7b Old Workhorse Fast Clear - Osterman Developer - 17 seconds (!) exposure time
8 Old Workhorse - Sugar Developer - 17 seconds (!) exposure time
9 Two-salted Collodion, No CadmiumBromide - Osterman Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
10 Two-salted Collodion, No CadmiumBromide - Sugar Developer - 35 seconds exposure time
I don’t have much to say about No.1 +2. This is the formula I’ve used exclusively until now.
No. 3+4 are the etherless versions and the first thing that I noticed was that with both plates I have an inconsistency in the background at about the same locations. They are the only two plates that have this. On the scan it is not that apparent but on the plates it is.
The plates that really stood out to me are No. 7b+8. No. 7 + 7a were over exposed as you can imagine. 7b is still on the light side so it saves me over HALF the exposure time, at least one stop that is. For studio use this will definitely be the one I’ll be working with. For outside use it’s probably a bit too fast, or I’ll have to stop down the lens of course but I might give Lea’s Traditional Landscape a go and the OWH.
The plates that surprised me the most are No. 9+10. This particular formula didn’t clear at all. Lot’s of undissolved salts at the bottom of the bottle which I decanted before using. I also filtered this collodion version before use but didn’t make much of a difference in the clearing part. I didn’t expect anything from it when using so I was surprised something came up on the plate. I should’ve dissolved the salts first in water before mixing with the alcohol and ether (stupid me) but it worked nonetheless.
Another thing that’s odd on plate 9+10 is that the SUN bottle on 9 is much lighter than on 10. Seeing that this is the only thing coming out much lighter it’s probably a flaw in my development, having poured off some of the silver with the developer. This is however my best guess as to what has happened there. I don’t recall the exact development, curiosities etc anymore from these plates.
For people not eager to work with Cadmium Bromide this is a proper way to go I guess. It’s a contrasty plate, pretty even all over and compared to the other formulas (except the OWH) comparable in speed. It also gave the most detail in the SUN bottle of all the other plates, together with 1 +2.
The plates developed with the Osterman formula seem the most consistent which gives cleaner more even plates (except with the Lea’s traditional formula, sugar is also fine). It’s a developer I’ll take as a starting point from now on and learn how to adjust it when needed.
Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this overview, I sure did! Doing the testing was a good thing to do for me. I now have a good place to start from and I’m really happy to have found a formula which gives me shorter exposure times with good tonality.
Maybe I’ve forgotten things which I may add or adjust in the future. Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!
- 
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All Collodion Formulas Prepared – Ready for Testing!
All I have to wait for is…time! Luckily I happen to have Friday and Saturday off (an unusual luxury) so I’ll probably get around testing the different formulas. I’ll describe all the formulas below.
Nr 1 The standard Quinn’s New Guy Formula (the one I normally use)
120 ml USP Collodion
80 ml Ether
80 ml Alcohol
1,5 gr Cadmium Bromide
2 gr Ammonium Iodide
Nr 2 Lea’s Landscape #7 Alternate Formula – no additional ether
300 mL USP Collodion
300 ml Alcohol
1,5g Cadmium Bromide
1,3 g Ammonium Bromide
3,4 g Cadmium Iodide
2,6 g Ammonium Iodide
Nr 3 Traditional Lea’s Landscape #7
300 ml USP Collodion
125 ml Alcohol
75 ml Ether
1,5 gr Cadmium Bromide
1,3 gr Ammonium Bromide
3,4 gr Cadmium Iodide
2,6 gr Ammonium Iodide
Nr 4 John Coffer’s Old Workhorse – Fast Clear
240 ml USP Collodion
200 ml Alcohol
200 ml Ether
1,6 gr Cadmium Bromide
1,4 gr Ammonium Bromide
5,0 gr Ammonium Iodide
Nr 5 Scully & Osterman’s Formula without Cadmium Bromide
118 ml USP Collodion
77 ml Alcohol
77 ml Ether
2 gr Pottasium Iodide
1,5 gr Pottasium Bromide
Now, that all sounds fantastic on its own but…the tricky part is, and probably the part where this test will fail beforehand is that all recipes need a matching developer and silver bath. I don’t have the time, and perhaps not even the interest, to try out all the possible combinations to find out which is the ultimate combo for each variation of collodion, developer and silver bath. Not to mention exterior factors that will have its impact on how it will all react; humidity, heat, just to name a few. So, this will not be a scientific test, merely for me to see what different formulas in my own setup will do.
The ether less variation interests me but I know beforehand I will not be using this as my collodion formula in the future, read to many issues with that formula. Besides, ether less working collodion, what’s the point? There’s ether in the USP Collodion so why bother bringing in technical difficulties with little to nothing to gain. The version without Cadmium Bromide interests me because of well, it’s without the use of a cadmium salt. I know some people don’t want to work with the process or are reluctant to because of it. Would be nice to see how that works out.
The one I’m interested in working with in the future is either Lea’s Traditional Landscape or Osterman’s Old Workhorse. We’ll see!
I’ve also made some new developers. Found Quinn’s developer to react too fast so want a more timid one. I made the following:
Lea’s Sugar Developer
15 gr Ferrous Sulfate
355 ml Distilled water
20 gr White table sugar
20 ml Glacial Acetic Acid
20 ml Alcohol
Scully & Ostermans Formula
15 gr Ferrous Sulfate
355 ml Distilled water
18 ml Alcohol
14 ml Glacial acetic acid
Keep in mind that what I wrote in a previous post about the amount of alcohol in the developer is related to the age of the silver bath and so on…These are just standards to work from and adjusted when needed.
Anyway, that was it so far… Have a great night!
From LTR: Lea’s Landscape no ether, Lea’s Traditional Landscape, Old Workhorse, No Cadmium Bromide version (note how that has to clear tremendously)
Byebye!!!
10×10″ Collodion Negative meets Lith
Easter gave me the opportunity of making some collodion images and to print them in the darkroom. I started the day with cutting the plates. I have a lot of clear glass left over from some frames of which I didn’t use the glass (back then) and was so smart as to save it. I cut some 10×10″ plates and started on a series I’ve been having on my mind for quite some time now. It’s about nightmares, paranoia, etc. I still have to come up with a title. These are the first shots in this series. Luckily I still have to practice on my negatives (subbing them with albumen for example, had lifting of the collodion, or perhaps, cleaning them even better) so they came out anything but perfect. The exact raw feeling that I was after when thinking out the images in my head.
I shot the plates on the first day of Easter and varnished them that same very day. I was ready for the second day of Easter. Darkroom. Lith printing. I wanted that grainy and raw feel lith can give you so it wasn’t too hard figuring out which way to go with these. The images are contact printed (I love the 10×10″ size) on Rollei Vintage Paper 131 developed in Rollei Superlith developer 24+24+600.
I still have a lot to learn regarding the making of decent collodion negatives but for lith printing they work out just fine so far. If anything I’m having fun!
Interesting Collodion Talk
As I’m in the process of trying different collodion & developer formulas I had the pleasure to have a virtual chat with Mark Osterman. I learned some great insights which will help me control the process on a more sophisticated level. I wish to share these with you.
First of all: Remember that the solvents in collodion affect:
Anyway, I’ve still got a lot to learn. Hope that my chemicals will arrive shortly and I can start experimenting some more. Simply trying out different formulas will not cut it I’m afraid seeing that the collodion, developer and silver bath used really are very related to each other, as well as the circumstances that have their own set of influences on the result, but I hope this will give me more insight into the process itself.
The discussions I’m having right now are most interesting, so it’s already been worth the trouble! Thank you all!
P.s. I sometimes wish the Matrix would be real. I’d plug myself into “knowledgable” people and suck up all there is to know! At the same time it would make knowledge pretty worthless but still…
Lea’s Landscape #7 Alternate Formula (no additional ether)
I’ve been wanting to try different collodion formulas for quite some time now but never gotten around to it. Having seen a collodion image made with a solution containing 3 salts and seemingly resulting in a wider scale of tonality I figured the time had come to get some tests done with different formulas.
I talked about it with Jeroen, a friend, and he also mentioned a formula containing 4 salts. I was able to borrow some of his salts as buying them required getting a large quantity and resulting in an empty wallet Today I’ve mixed my first batch of a formula I wanted to try. It’s called: Lea’s Landscape #7 Alternate Formula, leaving out the additional ether and using 4 salts. I’ll post the recipe below and a photo of how it looks freshly mixed. I’ll have to let it sit for a couple of days though before being able to use it. Still waiting for other chemicals to arrive to make the other formulas so no problem!
Stock Alcoholic Bromo-Iodizing Solution:
100mL Ethanol (or grain alcohol or whatever you have at your disposal)
1,5g Cadmium Bromide
1,3 g Ammonium Bromide
3,4 g Cadmium Iodide
2,6 g Ammonium Iodide
First, dissolve the cadmium bromide in the alcohol. Then, dissolve the ammonium bromide into that solution followed by the other two salts.
Working strength formula:
100 mL Alcoholic Bromo-Iodizing Solution from above
200 mL Ethanol
300 mL USP Collodion
The working collodion should be fully ripened and ready to use within 2-3 days. I’ll post a photo of the solution in a couple of days to see the change in color and luminosity.
Hopefully I’ll receive my other chemicals somewhere this week so I can make the other batches. The ones you can expect are Lea’s Traditional Landscape Formula #7 (with additional ether), John Coffer’s Old Workhorse (fast clear) and Ostermans Formula (no cadmium) . More on the exact formulas later!
As you probably noticed both Lea’s formulas contain two cadmium salts and according to the guiding literature this results in longer storage life and a slightly greater sensitivity than some other formulas but the collodion tends to be more fragile and has the tendency to lift from the plate surface. Subbing the edges with a cotton swab saturated with albumen helps adhere this collodion film to the plate.
Note to self: Make albumen!
Formula for albumen for edging (in case anyone wonders, I know I did);
1 egg white
1000 mL distilled water
Filter through a cheesecloth and ready to use!
N.B. For the ones having read the first formula of albumen I put here…that was the formula for making albumen prints so different than the one used for edging. Sorry for the mix up!
Wet Plate Collodion Demo Picto in Rixensart (BE)
Last Sunday we had our 3-monthly gathering of Picto Benelux and this time it was time for the wet plate collodion ambrotype process. Jeroen de Wijs and I prepared for a demo and Sunday morning Jeroen arrived at my place so we could drive together to Rixensart Belgium.
We decided to take my gear with us to do the demo and Jeroen prepared his “speech”, brought some lenses and examples of old original ambrotypes and ferrotypes. Bart wanted to drive so when Jeroen arrived we started packing everything into our car. Time to leave…NOT. The car refused to start (while it did half an hour ago..). So, loaded everything out of the car in to Jeroen’s car, not enough place for Bart so we left him behind, and finally took off to what turned out to be my worst demo ever
All photos are the courtesy of Stefan de Pauw.
Oehhh lovely goodies!!!
Wet Plate Collodion Ambrotype looks to be a negative...
Ohh no, it's a positive!!
Once arrived I started setting up the darkroom tent with help of others, filled up the silver tank etc. etc. The theoretical part went well but took quite a bit of time since everything had to be translated to French (Belgium). Not that that was a problem but the light diminished quite rapidly and by the time we were ready for the practical part of the demo it turned out to be quite a challenge.
Jeroen showing the plate holder
The darkroom tent
The darkroom tent was inside with the temperature around 24 degrees (thanks Jacques, really ). I blew the dust of the plate, poured collodion on and placed it in the silver tank. So far so good. We anticipated to making the photo outside, it was pretty decent weather so that would work great. Once outside it was pretty damn cold, around 6 degrees. Positioned the attendees and got ready for the photo….guesstimated the exposure time around 15 seconds f4.
Went inside, got into the darkroom, pulled the plate out and developed…oops, that did not look very good…developed plate showing stains but no image… Oh well, let’s put it in the fixer bath. Black…and ow..I didn’t place the plate correctly on the holder so it fell into the tank.. Luckily Kal was handy enough to get it out for me (thanks), broke the plate (thought that was supposed to bring luck but I guess I should’ve shattered it into a million pieces) and I set up for a new one.
When we got outside the light was even less (of course) so we finally decided on an exposure time of 2 minutes. Not as many people gathered for the photo this time
Two minutes were pretty long in the cold so everybody was glad to be able to go inside again, looking forward to seeing the result of trembling for two whole minutes. I got back into the darkroom, developed the plate and…not much on the plate again besides some very obvious peeling. Darn…got outside, placed it in the fixer (good this time) and wow, some faces turned up from the dark. But for the most part it remained just dark.
The show must go on so I dried the plate and prepared to varnish. Heated the plate, heated the varnish, poured it on the plate and… gone it was. This only happened to me once with the plate Quinn made from me. I blamed it on the difference in alcohol being used back then but this was all my chemistry, working fine just 2 weeks ago. And now it decided to eat up my plate. Oh well, showed everyone just how cumbersome this process can be, including me
So..that was the end of that. I blame the peeling on the huge difference in temperature, about 18 degrees, the low UV light outside combined with the older collodion resulting in a lower-sensitivity which does not help in this case and resulted in too dark images. As far as the varnish is concerned..not sure. Will have to check it later to make sure it works again.
Last but not least: the self-made darkroom box by Rene Smet. Really pretty although it seems a bit tight for as a working space so have to keep the plates small I suppose but pretty nonetheless!
Enjoy my post about this failed demo and see you next time
Demo & Lecture Margraten
I’ve been asked by the photo club in Margraten to hold a lecture and a demo of the Wet Plate Collodion process.
- When: November 20th 2011
- Time: 14:00 hr
- Duration: 2-3 hours
- Location: Jongerencentrum Camion, Hoenderstraat 2b, Margraten
- There’s a large parking lot at the scene
My “All-New” Wooden Darkbox
Well, not so new anymore….it took me quite a long time but I’m back again! Went on holiday for two weeks to Italy (had a wonderful time, even rode on horses again yeayyy!) right after we got back I went to pick up my new little bunny rabbit! He’s very cute and horribly distracting and just can’t get myself to go back to the 50+ working week. Maybe it’s a hint I should try and lay back a little but we need to get work done right ?! With doing nothing you get exactly that: nothing. And I don’t get up for nothing in the morning
Anyway, enough of that mumbo jumbo talk. I promised I’d get back on that dark box that was in the making. Well, it’s ready and in use. Awesome thing about it: I can use it without the help of someone else. Downside: it’s a tad too small for the big plates (but it works so for now I’m good) and I’ll have to heighten the table somewhat more to get it on a more relaxed working height. But other than that….brilliant! Now, apart from the dragging part, I can do it all on my own. The dragging I’m also able to do on my own but an extra set of hands are always welcome!
On to the photos…
Darkbox Front - Closed
Darkbox Side - Closed
Darkbox Side - Half opened
Darkbox Side - Here you can see how the lid is being kept open by a chain which is attached to a small nail at the back of the box
Darkbox Front - Fully opened - Here you can see how the dark cloth is attached to the wooden pillars on the box to keep it open during working. You can see where the three pillars are placed on the photo above.
Darkbox - Outside in full working mode (beware lame photo qual of iPhone 3GS)
Darkbox - In full working mode. You can see the silver box etc standing inside (beware lame photo qual of iPhone 3GS)
I have put duct tape on the bottom inside the box to keep the wood protected from the spillage of fluids in there (which is bound to happen). The silver box is not sunken into the dark box, which I will adjust in the future as to create a bit more working space. I also forgot to make a hangup-system for the LED lights and I’m surely going to change that too. Leaving them on the bottom results in an unnecessary loss of light.
For more info on the dark cloth click here.
Anyway, love the box as I can work on my own now ❤
Ow, and for those wondering what the hell this bunny looks like..here is one photo of him. And then you will fully understand why he is so bloody distracting 🐰
Dino, the French Lop
Exhibition “Evanescence” gemeentehuis Beek (NL)
I’d like to invite you all to the opening of my upcoming exhibition “Evanescence” showing my wet plate work, some lith prints and some more.
Opening: September 30th starting at 20:00 hr
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri 09:00 – 12:30, Wed 14:00 – 19:00 Sat 2 Oct 14:00
Location: Gemeentehuis Beek, Raadhuisstraat 9, Beek (Limburg – NL)
Opening Speech: Carlo Valkenborgh
Music: Imro Moonen
Hope to see you there!
Wet Plate Collodion Workshop October 9th 2011
I have one place left for a workshop Wet Plate Collodion I’ll be giving coming October 9th. Feel free to send me an email for more information regarding this event at indra [at] contrastique [dot] nl
Best,
Indra
Lith Print of a Clear Glass Ambrotype
As said before I also made my first real clear glass ambrotype, aka a glass negative, in Montzen. Yesterday I tried to make a lith print out of it. Very much to my liking! The grain really adds to the ambience and feel of the image.
I used Rollei Vintage 131 Fiber paper and made the first print on 18×24 cm paper to try it out. I loved it so much I”ll be making a large print as soon as the paper arrives: 50×60 cm. Also, this was my first go with the Omega D2 enlarger…wow..that thing is awesome!!! Beautiful machine which I’ll use a whole lot more often now that I got it working with the 4×5″ glass plate holder.
The only thing needed to be done was the toning part. I always used selenium toner before but also bought gold toner a while back. With selenium the tone, or wouldn’t hardly change, or make it more red. Both was just not what I had in mind. Luckily I remembered my gold toner in time so I ordered 2 more liters for the large print and tonight tested it. The prints are still wet so I’ll scan and post them tomorrow. Impressions: 4 minutes were too long; too blue. With 2 minutes I kept a little warmish yellow and got a little blueish and that was exactly what I was after.
Sure, with lith printing the true characteristics of Collodion have practically gone (though not really if you look carefully) so you might wonder why. First of all, because I couldn’t wait making and printing my first collodion negative! Secondly, lith printing is what I know (a little) and came to love (traditional bw printing has gotten boring to me) so this was the way to go for now. I’m still trying to figure out which processes I’m going to dive into for printing the collodion negatives but time has not really been on my side so far. Thirdly and most importantly, because I like it! So eat it!
Anyway, a happy goose here and I’m looking forward to the big print!
-Indra
La Gare de Montzen (BE)
Yesterday the weather had finally decided to give us a break thus some great photographic moments we just had to seize! My dad and I visited La gare de Montzen in 2005 and we decided to head back yesterday to see what has changed and of course to photograph it again. In 2005 I took my digital SLR and, because I was getting back in touch with analog, also my Nikon F100. This time I went collodion all the way!
The place had been severely abused since last time and gave me the creeps even more (which is great!). We were able to get the car pretty close to one of the sort of entrances and didn’t have to drag our ass off getting all the stuff inside. Once setup finding objects and sceneries was not that hard. But time flew by like mad and I ended up with 4 great bga’s of 4×10″ and one 4×5″ glass negative. The latter I’d like to print in my darkroom for the upcoming exhibition. Have not yet found a proper process to print it with so I’ll probably stick with lith for now to see where that’ll get me. On to the photos!
The plates were all fixed using KCN 2%. Exposure time varied between 3 to 13 seconds up in the end.
Anyway, hope the weather will keep on being the good guy and hopefully we’ll soon travel to another abandoned little gem!
-Enjoy, Indra
Enci Maastricht on Collodion
Yesterday finally was a day where I had the time to go out with my collodion stuff again! Had to wait til after three as the weather was a bit unstable. “Buienradar” is a wonderful site to keep track of these nasty rainy moments. Gave a green light after 3 and came out right!
Brought too little water with me, just 5 liters, normally at least 10, but it had to do. Shot 4×10″ plates and used up quite a bit to pinpoint exposure. There was a lot of UV, times when stopped down to at least f22, where 1 a 2 seconds which is very little. Today I fiddled a bit around with them, removing a little veil with a cotton ball and varnished them old-shool to give them that little extra weight. They came out just fine! Looking forward to the next shoot, hopefully this Sunday!
Anyway, I’m one happy goose so good night y’all!
-Indra
Rubytype Rubyred Rubybrother
Last week I went to Tilburg to buy me some glass. They had lots including all kinds of colored plates. Red jumped out. Ruby red to be exact. In Collodion it’s not all that uncommon to experiment with different colors of glass. A friend of mine recently told me that all of these colored variations are called rubytypes, even though the color is not ruby red, but it happened to be so in my case.
Two days ago my brother visited me and I had a day off so the perfect opportunity to try some of these. The first I noticed was that the collodion peeled off way too easily with these plates. They had the same treatment as the black glass which I also bought that day and they came out just fine. It was like the collodion just wasn’t willing to stick to the glass. Anyway, will have to look into that some more, maybe treat the edges with albumen to keep the collodion from peeling.
Anyweez…the results were quite pleasing! The first photo I took (on the left) is qua composition the most appealing to the eye but was a tad overexposed, which I adjusted with the second plate (on the right), but unfortunately the peeling was worse. Black glass has deeper blacks but with the red glass the blacks are deeper, meaning they are more dynamic. They have this special look which is impossible to convey on a screen with a scan, you’ll have to do with it. Below I’ll post the way they look when held to the light and when scanned with a black backing. Ruby red. Lovely red.
This is a fun and nice survey into a different dynamic layer in Collodion photography. I’m looking forward doing some more soon. These were 4×5″ plates but I also have some 8×10″ and 10×10″, the latter being an incredibly sexy size! Yes. Size DOES matter. Have a good evening
Workshop with Jacques
Yesterday I gave a Collodion workshop to Jacques who had contacted me a couple of weeks ago. It was a great day with an enthusiastic participant. He worked very clean and ended up with very beautiful plates of himself! The weather allowed us to work outside which was great. There’s nothing wrong with sniffing a bit of sun in between the ether
Everything set up, ready for action!
Putting the plate in the silver bath
Jacques varnishing his plate
First plate; over-exposed
Thank you Jacques for a wonderful day and for sharing the photos with me. The plates were photographed outside hence the reflections you see in them. Not that many photos were made, we were just too busy working the collodion process which is more fun anyway
-Indra
“Black Art” – 1856
Geert-Jan Heyda was kind enough to share some old material he found on the collodion process, dating from 1856. It was written in such fun and engaging manner, containing useful information letting you gain insight in the process thenadays I thought it to be interesting sharing it on here as well. (Source: Google Books)
Click on the link below to gain access to the pdf with the notes on Collodion:
Enjoy the read and have a great evening!
Indra
Varnished or Tarnished ?
Having read many horror stories concerning varnishing with the traditional stuff (sandarac, ethanol & lavender oil) which made images disappear at times I felt very lucky never to have encountered this. I began to think maybe other people were just being sloppy with their varnish. Up until yesterday.
Quinn made a plate of me the first time I went to the photo fair in Bièvres and it was beautiful. They just didn’t have time to varnish the photo but I offered to do so myself back home. Once back home I never dared to varnish it thinking something might go wrong and at a certain point even forgetting about it. Until yesterday.
My boyfriend went to varnish the plates, he has more fireproof hands than I have, and he came back up showing me the plate of Quinn partially having vanished. What caused it? I don’t know. The plates before and after that one came out just fine. Maybe the plate was too old? Maybe the ethanol used in my varnish decided to fight with the ethanol used in the collodion mix by Quinn? Who knows. It happened and this is the way it looks…
At least now I know the plate will live for over a 100 years
Alexander Simays Project – Part 2
Last Sunday I finally had the time to actually start with photographing Alexanders locations. I decided to start at the “Markt” in Maastricht. There were three spots there I had to be so I’d be able to hit multiple flies at once. It took about two hours to pack everything and load the bike (it’s been awhile and my new camera is bigger than the former one so had to relocate some things) but finally we were ready to get it off
Bike with the "Big Boy" and all the stuff
We arrived at the square and started building up the darkroom tent and someone who we knew came up as she knew we were planning this and she wanted to see it. I made test plate, decided I had to double the exposure and went for a “real” version on 18×24 black glass. While working people gathered around the tent as they got curious (who wouldn’t) and by the time the successful plate was made I had people from “Handhaving” which means something like never-got-around-to-be-a-real-Cop-kind-of-people and they asked me if I had a license to do this. I go like what? A licence to make photos? But since I was using “public space” (mind the word public) I needed a license to put up a tent on the square.
The All-Evil-In-Public-Space-Darkroom-Tent
Bart asked their names and we complied to packing up our stuff and leave (damnnn). Luckily I had already made one good shot so I wasn’t all that upset but for a 2-hour preparation I had hoped for a little more. Unfortunately these guys were very hard set and unfriendly on top of that so we figured it’d be better not to be too stubborn as I have to be there more than once. So we started packing. They left and 5 minutes later their boss came around to check. He was much nicer and if we’d met him first good chance we could’ve continued working. Oh well…He advised us to contact the municipality to get a license for doing what I wanted. So I did today, unfortunately the person we needed wasn’t around. To be continued….
Markt Maastricht @ Wet Plate Collodion BGA 18x24 cm
Anyway, this story will continue and hopefully with more prosper than up until now…I have my hopes up
-Indra
Indras Devolution vs Mondiaans Evolution – Remake
As mentioned above this is a remake of the version before. I have deleted that one as I choose what you get to see and I have decided it to be my final on this matter only. The reasoning behind the edit is that I found the former ones (“Ruin” & “Birth”) too unsharp and the model in “Ruin” was not centered enough. Still isn’t perfectly in the middle; that photo didn’t seem to like that and lived its own life for a bit which really suited the thoughts behind it (yes, I can do the blabla-bullshit too).
When I was in high school we visited the “Haags GemeenteMuseum” where a lot of Piet Mondriaan’s (1872-1944) work is on display. One that particularly attracted me was his painting “Evolution” made in 1911. The painting contains a lot of theosophical influences and symbolism, the latter always fascinated me in art. With this painting Mondriaan hoped that people looking at it would convert to being more spiritual and less influenced by material and earthly ways.
“A cosmic, mystical evolution progressing from matter through soul to spirit, influenced by Rudolf Steiner’s Theosophy, a combination of mysticism and new science. Three nude female figures, or perhaps one figure seen from three different points of evolution: the terrestrial or earthly body on the left with the red shapes behind her(red signifying earthly passion) and the triangles indicating nipples and navel pointing downward to earth; the soul at center with the white light behind her and her eyes wide open (Steiner felt young girls (hence the why I used a male) had extra visionary powers due to their supreme feelings of devotion and he thought full enlightenment only came with eyes open) with her nipples and navel triangles pointing upwards to a higher plane; and finally the Divine Spirit on the right with yellow stars behind her whose nipples and navel triangles point both up and down in a perfect harmony of the spheres through a dynamic balancing of opposing forces. The spiritual and physical in unison.” (Source: CSULB)
Of course, as one can tell from my former posts, I don’t believe in human kind being able to act as a spiritual society as a whole. We become too polluted by money and power. It is my belief that one day this will cause the ruin of mankind as we know it. So, when Carlo (my former teacher at SASK) came by to ask me if I wanted to work on the theme “Seven Deadly Sins” I was more than compelled to do so. Only to make 7 photos, each of them depicting one of the sins, seemed quite boring and rather cliche to me. Also, the Catholic Church came up with these categories as those are the sins all bad human behavior can be narrowed down to. But Man made these, not God. I wish to convict mankind in its entirety for they created everything and thus should be held responsible. The painting of Mondriaan hopped back into my thoughts one day and I decided to remake them, my way. “Devolution” as I see no hope for humankind because they are so susceptible to these so called “Seven Sins”.
I’ll post the photos separately below with the explanation for the ones interested. If you wish to remain blissfully ignorant, please refrain from reading the last bit, if you can
Birth: This is the purest, most innocent humankind will ever be. Hence the lilies, the shape of the nipples and belly button, the eyes & the position of the head pointed towards the sky / heaven
Narcis: As you grow you become polluted by money, power etc. You base decisions on what works out best, firstly for yourself. Self love and preservation. Egoism. Hence the choice for the narcis flower, the eyes looking a little over the audiance, the view into one self only explained differently than Mondriaan's version. Here it means getting influenced but you remain the center of all.
Ruin: No explanation needed I think. The dead branches stand for doom. The eyes closed, the shape of the nipples etc pointed towards the earth, completely materialised. Ruin.
All images are 18x24cm black glass ambrotypes. Exposure time: about 20 seconds. Fixer: Sodium Thiosulphate 30%
I’ve gotten around the way I would like to present them. They will be printed on 70 x 100 cm (inkjet, I don’t want the print itself add anything to the photo besides making it bigger) with a white border from around 10 cm’s on each side. The prints will be mounted on foam board to keep them from fluctuating in the frame and then framed in black aluminum frames without glass.
The order of the images has also changed. First I wanted to present them in the same manner Mondriaan did, the final image, the result by that I mean, in the middle. But “Narcist” fits better in the middle, not just qua meaning and thoughts behind it, but also qua look of the image. It just fits better there hence the choice.
Anyway, I am looking forward to some more reactions on this work! Have a great evening!
-Indra
Collodion Test 03-04-11
Today I found the time to do some testing. My “fresh” batch of collodion causes stripes on the plates, not all of them all as “bad” as the other, that’s what made it a bit awkward. But time to figure out what was causing it. At first I though it was the non- room temperature (I used collodion straight from the fridge, then I thought adding a little alcohol would do the trick and it did help in the beginning but the stripes returned again. Yesterday I added some ether / alcohol mix I still had in my fridge to my pouring batch and kept it at room temperature so today I would have the good stuff to work with.
Catch of the day from LTR: 18x24 BGA; 18x24 BGA unfortunately unsharp, 8x10" Collodion Negative
Another thing I noticed from the last shoot was that I poured 7 plates from my pouring bottle and it was empty. Wayyyy too fast, indicating the collodion was too thick, suggesting too little ether / alcohol. The batch poured / flowed much better today and the stripes were, except from a few minor ones, gone! I even tried a negative 8×10″ of clear glass I cut recently. The latter also being very interesting to show at the workshop and demos I am about to give.
Mixed some fresh fixer and continued with the filtering of the varnish, that last bit taking up quite a bit of time; goes very slowly. Once done I’ll have some great stuff to be working with though, particularly smelling very nice!
Have a good day!!
Alexander Simays Part 1
Some time ago a friend of mine, Angelina Valleau, pointed me towards photos of Alexander Simays. He documented Maastricht a long time ago, between 1912 and 1940. Lots of the places he photographed no longer exist the way they do now. Angelina mentioned the photos having been made using the wet plate collodion process. That of course raised my interest. However, after having seen his images I wasn’t convinced they were made using collodion but rather on dry plates as that was the way to go from around the 1880′s. Much less of a hassle.
Alexander Simays - Self Portrait August 1933
Having said that I went on with my life and came up with the idea, after having totally forgotten about Mr. Simays work, to photograph Maastricht in Collodion. Not so much because of the now but with the idea of it becoming really interesting in 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years from now. Maastricht is still changing pretty rapidly and I think it’s awesome to look back in a few years to be remembered of what has changed exactly. Memories tend to let down when aging. When I told a friend my idea and that there was a photographer from approx. 100 years ago who did the same he was like..why don’t you photograph the exact same locations he did? Still can’t believe I didn’t come up with that myself
So, I bought the book “Maastrichtse Monumentenzorg in ZwartWit” written by Ingrid M.H. Evers and published by Stichting Historische Reeks Maastricht. This book documents the changes in the policy of Maastricht regarding monumental care between the 1850′s and 1900′s. guided by the commissioned work of Alexander Simays, photographs of Maastricht (monuments) between 1912 and 1940.
Maastrichtse Monumentenzorg in ZwartWit - ISBN: 90 5842 007 8
Today I received the book and was so excited to see that all the information on date and locations was carefully logged by Alexander Simays. This will most obviously come in handy when trying to nail those exact spots.
Needless to say I’m extremely looking forward to starting with this project although “finishing” will take up quite a bit of time. I mentioned wanting to make this series on 4×10″ but after having seen his photographs 8×10″ will be the size to go as it will resemble the original proportions better. 4×10″ will be used for “my own” images.
-Indra
P.S. permission asked and granted to use the self portrait of Alexander Simays.
1st of May 2011: World Wet Plate Day
Get your gear up, your baths rolling and get ready for World Wet Plate Day 2011!
This year it will be held on Sunday May the 1st. Quinn Jacobson is working on the book of 2010 which has not been published yet due to time issues and the like, and will also be making the 2011 edition. Keep up with the latest news on this site: Wet Plate Day. You can also upload your photo made on the 1st of May there to be included on the website and / or book of 2011.
Happy pouring!!
