New adventures in Wet Plate Collodion process

Oh… man I’ve been working so hard these days. Actually hard is not a proper word. Intense is better. When I get excited for something I dive into like a kamikaze! Where do I start. OK. Chronologically in reverse order.

Friday, 20.1.2012
Here are two landscape images and two portraits of my wife done with more then 100 years old lens Rodenstock’s Bistigmat 18×24. It’s quite a dark lens and I had problems with focusing, but it’s also true that I’ve used it on 12×16,5 cm format, whereas a proper results of a lens would be on format 18×24 cm. I suspect the lens does have this vintage vignetting on edges of format, but since my format was cropping the image projected by the lens, I don’t know what the effect is. Nevertheless here are results. Right image of a church is way overexposed (180sec), but the best thing about this Wet Plate Collodion photography is that you can cut down developing time if you notice that you overexposed it. It’s crap result for an ambrotype, but if you scan it and tweak it, then you can get away from it. Left picture is my second try and it’s perfectly exposed, 40 sec. At the image of a church on right side, I love crazy lines and patterns that I achieved it by spilling very little developer in the middle of plate and then I shake it in circular way, so centrifugal force spreads developer toward edges of plate. I could evenly disperse developer, but that’s too perfect (read boring!)

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Wednesday, 18.1.2012
I bought three lenses Rodenstock’s Bistigmat 18×24, Schneider 500mm f/5,5 and Voigtlander Heliar 300mm f/4,5. Where did I found them? With help of this blog and Facebook people send me information about certain items they have or notice on a flea market. Pancolart from Celje sold me first two lenses and Heliar was bought in Hoče with a guy that collects antiques and sell them on flea market. T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. please send me more! I’m still looking for a wooden camera of format 18×24 cm or 8×10″

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Wednesday, 18.1.2012
I met Matej Modrinjak, son of Dragiša Modrinjak a famous Slovenian camera collector. He showed me a storage room of photo museum to be. Here on this page there are some jewels you can peak in. I was astonished by a collection of over 6000 cameras and many more items. We talked about future ideas how to realize that photo-museum and that its collection would be presented to a wider audience. One of great ideas is to invite an artist to borrow some camera from the museum and make art with it and make an exhibition.

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Wednesday, 18.1.2012
I’ve made a portrait of Jelena Rusjan for Mladina weekly. We tried on Tuesday to make her conventional (digital) portrait, but after an hour of trying I failed to make a decent portrait. I showed Jelena what kind of work I do in my free time and she really loved it and suggested to make her portrait in this way. I did this portrait and we both loved it. It’s published in this issue of Mladina. This was an exception, don’t expect this kind of portraits in Mladina.

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Sunday and Monday, 15.-16.1.2012
I made a really nice proposal pictures for a corporate job in Wet Plate Collodion, but I can’t publish that just yet. Laterrrrr…

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Saturday, 14.1.2012
I photographed my daughter after her riding lesson with Kodak Brownie on a glass plate with (of course) Wet Plate Collodion technique. Brownie was not made to fit 2mm glass plates and there was some light leaking. Tomorrow I might redo the portrait with proper Wet Plate camera.


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Oak tree in Wet Plate Collodion technique

This morning I photographed an oak tree. Horizontal image is tintype taken with Kodak Folding Brownie and vertical one is with 5×7″ view camera. I’m not satisfied with vertical image, I had only one glass plate left, if I would have three I would make it much better. It was cold 2C, but Wet Plate Collodion chemicals were working a bit slower, but just as nice. I love it! I can’t get enough of this “hands on photography”!

Tomorrow I’m going to visit Josip Pelikan’s studio. “The studio is without a doubt one of the best preserved luxurious glass photographic ateliers in Europe with original equipment used by the famous Slovene photographer Josip Pelikan (1885–1977). The 19th-century glass photographic studio on the second floor makes daylight photography possible even today.”

Then I’ll visit two camera collectors in Celje and in Maribor Dragiša Modrinjak, who established a photo-museum. I hope he’ll introduce me to this lady. On the end I’ll visit an exhibition of Alenka Sottler in Maribor. So… stay tuned & don’t forget to rate, if you like the images above

Wet Plate Collodion photography in the morning at 4C (39F)

This morning it was temperature 4C (39F) and it was perfect to try out how does Wet Plate Collodion process work at this temperature. I had an alcohol burner (not my liver) with which I could heat up chemicals if I would need to, but it was surprisingly not needed. I did prolonged time of sensitizing a plate from 3min to 6 min and developing was a bit longer, but that was the only difference of usual procedure. I photographed an old apple tree that was sunbathing.

I used my Kodak Folding Brownie At my first exposure I didn’t fixed lens properly and it was out of focus. I repeated the shot, but I kind of like the un-fucused picture just as well. This two pics are tintypes then I repeat the shot, but I poured collodion on glass plate. I’m attaching a picture as a glass negative looks on a black velvet. That principle of backing a collodion negative with a black background it’s called an ambrotype. Check this negative bellow, half it’s on a black velvet and half is on a white paper. A pure magic, I tell you!

Great day to portray in Wet Plate Collodion technique!

Happy new year everybody! Today it was really nice sunny winter weather (without snow though) and our family had a lunch together and I decided to make a group picture. I’ve made really nice group picture in about the same time six years ago, when my younger daughter and nephew Tilen wasn’t born yet (not to mention my short hair!). I tried to make a group picture with Wet Plate Collodion, but it didn’t work. It’s just too precise procedure to be in front and behind the lens. I knew I was pushing my luck with Wet Plate Collodion technique and it’s very likely not to succeed, so I took another picture on a normal sheet film of a format 9x12cm with Linhof Technika.

Beside the group picture I also took portraits of nephew Tilen, niece Enja and daughter Brina (hoover above an image for a name). I’m becoming really comfortable working with this Wet Plate Collodion technique. Can’t wait to get new chemicals, because I have so little silvernitrate that the level of the fluid is not covering the glass plate, so I need to constantly rock a tray, to get fluid evenly on a plate. I know… annoying and I feel stupid standing there rocking a tray for five minutes for every picture, but then again, I rather do that then sit and wait for a postman to come

Now I’ve decided that I’ll keep on doing Wet Plate Collodion and since I’ve done such a beautiful portraits of our children, also my wife recognize benefits of this kind of photography, so I need a new camera. A big camera! This Linhof Technika and the large format camera for Wet Plate Collodion process are borrowed. I need to make some money to buy this monster, so my plan is to hire a studio for a day and do portraits for people. Are you interested to have that kind of portrait? Send me an email and I’ll send you back all the info. Email: borutpeterlin@hotmail.com

PS: I’m publishing also an older picture of my neighbor with her newborn.

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Srečno novo leto vsem! Danes je bil čudovit sončen zimski dan (samo še sneg je manjkal) in imeli smo družinsko kosilo, tako sem odločil, da je čas za novo skupinsko družinsko sliko. Pred kakimi šestimi leti sem prav tako v prvih dnevih leta naredil eno čudovito fotko, a takrat se še ni rodila hčerka Brina in nečak Tilen (da ne omenjam mojih kratkih las!). Poizkusil sem narediti skupinsko fotko v tehniki mokri kolodij, a proces je prezahteven in prenatančen, da bi lahko bil pred in za objektivom. Ker sem vedel, da izzivam srečo, sem pred tem naredil še posnetek s klasičnim filmom, to je črnobelim plan filmom formata 9×12 cm in sicer z lepotico od kamere Linhof Techniko.

Poleg skupinskega portreta sem naredil še individualne portrete nečaka Tilna, nečakinje Enje in mlajše hčerke Brine. Res fajn mi je delat s tem mokrim kolodijem na steklenih ploščah in komaj čakam nove, sveže kemikalije. Srebrovega nitrata mi že tako zmanjkuje, da moram banjico konstantno zibat, da je tekočina enakomerno prekrije ploščo. Vem… zelo zoprno in se počutim neumneo, ko za vsako fotko pet minut ujčkam banjico s srebrovim nitratom, a jebiga, raje to kot, da sedim in čakam na poštarja.

Sedaj sem se odločil, da je mokri kolodij prava stvar zame in bom vztrajal v tej tehniki. Glede na to, da sem naredil čudovite portrete otrok, tudi moja žena spoznava prednosti te tehnike in sprejema odločitev, da potrebujem (še eno) novo kamero. In to veliko kamero! Prej omenjena Linhofca ni moja in prav tako je veliko formatna kamera izposojena, tako potrebujem nov prihodek, da plačam za to zver. Moj plan je, da za kak dan najamem studio in naredim en kup portretov v tej tehniki. Bi morda želeli svoj portret ali portret svojega otroka v tej tehniki? Pošljite mi email na borutpeterlin@hotmail.com in vam odgovorim s podrobnosti.

PS: Objavljam še eno starejšo fotografijo sosede z novorojencem.

Wet Plate Collodion portraits with studio flashes

Today I’ve made four more portraits of my family. I started with my grandmother and after I developed the glass plate, I grabbed a bottle for which I thought is a fixer, but I realized that it’s not and I’ve learned that it’s not good to keep fixer in the same kind of bottle as distilled water. I washed developer away sit in a car and drove home that was 15 min away. I was driving like it’s an emergency, I was saving an image after all!!! Next portrait was from my wife. She blinked and she didn’t had time or patience to repeat the shot. When I was drying plate above the fire, the glass broke. But it cracked really nicely and this coincidence on the end made the picture! Last two are portraits of my parents.

I’m quite happy with my progress in Wet Plate photography process, I just need to work a bit more with flashes. I have few options in mind that might work better. I used:
Wet Plate Collodion, glass plate format 5×7″ glass plate, lens: Carl Zeis Tessar 250mm f/4,5. Illuminated by two studio flashes of joined power of 2250 Ws.

How do you like this portraits?
Rate, comment and Rock&Roll!

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Danes sem naredil še par portretov moje družine. Začel sem z babico in po razvijanju steklene plošče, sem jo hotel fiksirati, a ugotovil, da ni dobro imeti fiksirja v enaki steklenici kot destilirano vodo, se pravi, nisem imel fiksirja pri sebi. Vsedel sem se v avto in dirjal domov, kot bi bil rešilec. Pa saj sem reševal fotko, kaj ni to dober vzrok za nujno vožnjo?!? Naslednji potretiranka je bila moja žen, ki pa je med ekspozicijo tako na muč zamižala. Bil sem kar nejevoljen, še posebej, ker ni imela ne časa ne volje, da bi portret ponovili. No, ko sem lakiral portret, je steklo počilo in to na tak način, da je dejansko super izpadlo. Ne bi mogel bolje te črte potegniti!

Ob koncu dneva sem kar zadovoljen z napredkom v tej tehniki fotografije 19. stoletja. Morda vidim še kar nekaj potenciala z lučmi, oziroma bliskavicama, moram preizkusiti še par opcij.
Na koncu statistika:
Tehnika mokri kolodij na steklo, format 12 x 16,5 cm, objektiv Zeis Tessar, 250mm f/4,5, osvetljeno z dvema studijskima bliskavicama v skupni moči 2250 Ws. Ne pozabite ozvezdit ta zapis in kakopak komentirat!
Rok in rol,
B5

New Wet Plate Collodion images

After a month in Wet Plate Collodion 19th Century photography, I’ve learned quite a lot. My results are far from perfect, but I did paddle through mistakes that you can make in this process and no doubt many more are expected to come. Here are some newer results. Plates are dirty, I know. As a beginner I don’t have a proper silver bath (like that) and I’m using normal photo trays which results in a lot of dust and particles. I was filtering a lot in the beginning but after a month the level of silvernitrate has fallen from 250ml to 150ml and the fluid bearly covers a plate, so no filtering before I don’t get a new silver nitrate.

Portraits of children with dark background are illuminated by two flashes of joint power of 2250 Ws. I needed only one burst at aperture of f/4,5. Last time I was going crazy with proper illumination of a plate with joint power of 67.500 Ws, but I made a big mistake since I was using soft-boxes. Soft box filters UV light and since collodion is sensitive to blue-violet and ultra violet light, I needed so much power last time. This time I used without softboxes. Anyway I hope you will like it. Rate, comment and rock & roll!

Splashing creative portrait of Multipraktik collective

Multipraktik is a creative collective and this is how we shot their portrait. This portrait was actually produced by Multipraktik group. Usually I take care about everything for the shoot, but this time guys did a fantastic work, from an idea to taping a studio in protecting plastic sheets, not to mention the sacrifice Luckily I have quite some experience with this kind of splashing shoots as you can see it HERE or HERE. Commissioned by Mladina weekly. LINK to a series of my creative portraits.

My first glass plate – Wet Plate Collodion technique

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Readers of my blog (and everybody that meet me) knows about my adventure into 19th Century photography. Until now I was limited to my Kodak Folding Brownie, but I was looking for proper large format view camera that will work with glass plates in wet plate collodion technique. I searched on many websites, places and talked to many colleagues, but yesterday morning I woke up with a memory that I know a store where there used to be a view camera standing in a corner. I was probably wrong, but since I was in Ljubljana I drove down to the store. I was shocked to see it in the corner waiting for me
I thought it will be a wooden camera, but since it was made out of metal, I was sure it’s using normal film holder, but to my surprise it had a wooden back with adaptors for various formats. Camera is manufactured by Idro Celje from Slovenia, a company that doesn’t exist anymore, but obviously they were making bulletproof cameras for usage in reprography. I named it Panzer camera as it reminds me on Panzer IV tank. It uses a 25cm Carl Zeiss lens and it’s interesting how aperture is marked. There is no f stop, just the size of radios of the aperture. I never saw a lens like that. It’s meant for a work in reprography so you can not screw it on a normal tripod. Today we had a chance visit of a family friend that makes stuff from metal and I asked him to make an adapter for this camera. With the adapter I will be able to photograph outside on a normal tripod. Life is smooth when I’m tuned in photography

I’ve bought 2mm glass that was cut on format of 12 x 16,5 cm and without really learning how to properly clean the glass and prepare it for collodion layer, I started with spilling collodion and the rest of Wet Plate Collodion ritual. I’ve made a set up with my cameras (Kiev – my first camera) and exposed it with two Balcar flashes with joint power of 2250 Ws. I was shocked how much light I needed to properly exposed it. I needed 30 bursts and if my math is correct it emitted 67.500 Ws. And my collodion is young like three weeks, so it should needed less light then an old collodion. Perhaps flash is emitting very little UV light upon which collodion is most sensitive on. I don’t know, I have much to learn. Anyway I’m overwhelmed with my first glass plate and I made also a contact print on a normal resin coated silver-bromide paper. Easy Sparky I’m not that far to make albumen prints, at least not yet. After first success I noticed that collodion is starting to peel of the glass. I know… It’s not good to skip lessons in photography, but hey, it’s fun nevertheless!
PS: My daughters love the magic box as we call the camera

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Transportable darkroom for Wet Plate Collodion Process

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I’m a beginner in Wet Plate Collodion process and I was blogging about a workshop that I took in Serbia (link). When I came home I was trying to make a good picture, but without success. I mean I’ve made this portrait, but you see the picture only because I scanned it and corrected the contrast and curves. Mišo Keskenović was telling me that my collodion is young and therefore lacking contrast. I knew it’s not only young collodion, but I didn’t had a constant working conditions, results were everywhere from bad ones to un-recognizible ones. But now I made myself a darkroom I can use on the field. I bought second hand Fujifilm darkroom and cut two holes in it and made a hood for it. It’s tight, but it works perfectly. Well I’ll try it out tomorrow outside, but it will work for sure.

Today I’ve made a tests trying to establish a correct exposure. I reckoned that I was overexposing my shots and then cutting the developing time and I had correct density of silver, but it was so uncontrasty the motif was barely recognizable. Now I decided to establish the correct exposure with studio flash, so I will have constant light during the test. First I tried on an old and dirty tinplate and I cut down exposure. Immediately I noticed it’s underexposed but with nice contrast. On the next tintype plate I spread collodion perfectly and illuminated it with four flash bursts of 1500Ws each. The result above is as you see it. No postproduction with curves and stuff. Actually if you see it live, it’s amazing, because you’re looking at pure silver and the image is incredibly sharp. Really! You can not get the sharpness like that with any Hasselblad, because the lens is projecting directly on the tintype without any interference of film negative. Of course just dead center is razor sharp.

My estimation is that if I set f/11 on my Kodak Folding Brownie the exposure time should be somewhere like a light meter would be set at aperture f/32, ISO 25. I will try my theory tomorrow and I’ll post the result. My collodion is now three weeks old. If it’s 1-3 months old it gives best results, but the exposure time is prolonged with aging of collodion. And apparently wet plate collodion is most sensitive on UV light, so reading with conventional lightmeter is only an estimate. FUN!

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A theater performance Dom za igralce from Anton Podbevšek Teater

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I’m proud to present my new photo-movie on theater performance Dom za igralce, directed by Matjaž Farič and produced by Anton Podbevšek Teater. I’ve shot tons of photographs and then I was asked to make a teaser that will include also video. It’s challenging to make a video and I know what weakness and advantages are if you are shooting video with a video camera or if you’re making it with a photo-camera (nikon D3s and D7000). I was checking videos from other theater performances, but I soon decided I’ll make my own narrative. I mixed ambient sound from the performance, clean studio sound recording from the performance, an interview with the theater director Matjaž Farič, video recording from the performance and last but not least, photographs. I am foremost a photographer
How do you like it? Does it work? I know if you don’t speak the proper language it’s hard to get the full impression, but still.

Rate, comment, rock and roll!

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