Wet plating is a Beautiful form of photography

in photography •  7 years ago 

For several years now one of my primary forms of photography has been wet plate collodion. An historic technique that uses a wet, sensitised plate exposed to light. It was invented in 1851 and known for its quality to detail. In fact it was so good it was used right up until the 1950s. Only in the last decade has there been a resurgence.

Here I am in my gallery a couple of years ago.

tumblr_nsxmucIvoA1qbcavto1_1280.jpg

It's very likely that I'll share many different stories about plates I've done over the years, as and when I come to them, however today I'd like to show you just one. Some of the happiest times of my life were spent living in an end terraced house in Wales with a group of friends. On the last day before moving out, we took a momento of the occasion. It was a happy, but sad moment.

Here's a video of the set up:

And this is the resulting plate:

tumblr_m6gefaYyrf1qbcavto1_1280.png

I'll be sharing more wetplate related posts in due course, amongst the other styles of photography, art and astronomer, so make sure you comment & follow.

Sam.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

Awesome. I shoot digital, but always love seeing other styles.

Photography is a journey. Digital is of course a great beginning, but soon you'll get that urge to try out other techniques, just to learn how it works.

Very interesting man. Honestly never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing. The result of the last photo is pretty rad. Upvoted and followed! :)

Ah, brill. Glad to have shared something that helps people learn. Wet plate is surging in popularity of late. You can book workshops with any proficient photographer.

Great post upvoted and followed,look forward to seeing more of your posts. @litcoinkid if you want to look at my drone photos,Thank you

Did you like the music? :)

Thanks for the heads up, I'll follow you back.

Sam.

Extremely cool process, thanks for sharing Sam!

My pleasure! It's a very time consuming process. I'll post more about it in the future with more examples. For about a year I shared daily wetplates on Periscope (Twitter) which filmed the entire process.

Oh, these kinds of processes are being lost to the digital era, glad there are still people out there practicing it :)

I do believe there's been a huge resurgence of late in film photography. I think it'll only continue as more youngsters born into the world of digital discover it.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I have noticed that too, my friends and I shoot film as well, but nothing more complicated than 135 or 120 film! I've also tried pinhole, which is fun as well.

I am a 35mm advocate, through and through. In fact I've just upgraded my Canon 5 to a 3. Oh it is just so dreamy.

Very nice!