Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
Salt print process with the help of Potassium Bichromate
Salt print process was invented by Henry Fox Talbot in 1839 and it’s known as a very low contrast printing technique. From The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes I’ve learned a technique to chemically raise a contrast of a salt print. You add a drop or two of potassium bichromate to a 28ml of sensitizer and heat it up to about 40C, expose it in the shadow, best under daylight UV skylight and then do a 5 minute prewash in a hot (cca 40C) distilled water with another 3 drops of potassium bichromate. It does raise a contrast, but it also cause speckling so you need to work with heated solutions and expect that it will not work the first time. Check how many test prints I’ve done until I figure it all out…
After the opening of my show
Myself and Misa Keskenovic, doing chameleon thing, blending with the landscape.
OK, the exhibition was a success. Many people show up, lots of media attention and feelings were great! At the opening Društvo mrtvih pesnikov were playing, which is an big honor. As I wrote in the previous post, the series is devoted to a painter Božidar Jakac. Concept is best captured with words of Tone Pavcek engraved on his grave: “You’ve remained part of the landscape, its pain and its beauties. And this concept is mirrored in the images. I wanted that in every of image there would be a presence of beauty and pain. More about the concept in the previous post (LINK). I’ve designed the exhibition to be dynamic. I’ve exhibited original tintypes, ambrotype glass plates, toned cyanotype contact copies and also some inkjets.
For the exhibition I must express my gratitude to the Gallery Krka for invitation, Miša Keskenović for teaching me this noble art and to Mark Osterman for generous support in my learning of wet plate collodion negative. Inkjet prints and framing was done by Luminus.si
I invite you to see images in better quality on my website borutpeterlin.com. Exhibition in open until 23.5.2013 in Galerija Krka, upravna stavba Krka d.d., Šmarješka cesta 6, Novo mesto, Slovenia, EU.
PS: Prints are for sale. Prices are from 50 EUR for a cyanotype print to notforsale tintype of frozen river Krka that I’ve done at temperature -17C (link on the post). My email address is borutpeterlin(a)gmail.com
Wet Plate Collodion + digital illustration = a creative portrait of Kaja Avberšek
Kaja Avberšek, an illustrator
Month ago I’ve made this portrait, but haven’t published it on my blog. Kaja Avberšek is an illustrator, so I suggested her that I’ll make a wet plate and then she’ll draw on it. Unfortunately I was doing small 4×5″ plates, on the field, so she didn’t draw directly on the plate, but did it on her computer. This is the result. It was published in Mladina weekly and I love how it turned out. Sometimes the publication is an icing on a cake and many times it’s just the opposite, but this time it’s definitely presenting my picture in the best way. Is it a bird? Is it Superman? Or is it topshit?
OK, I’m introducing a new rubric on my blog. It’s a quizzzzzz!!! I’ll be publishing my mistakes I have done with a question what is the cause of the mistake and few days later I’ll publish the answer. Of course if you will not guess it first. Let’s start with an easy one. Here are two plates. Problematic plate has some lines in blacks and in the right bottom corner even collodion lifted off. The other plate has perfect blacks, no peeling problems. What was the cause of those lines on the crappy plate?
Today’s wetplate session in Josip Pelikan skylight’s studio
Christoph Staber, a photography student from Graz, Austria, portrayed in Studio Pelikan by Borut Peterlin. 6.4.2013, Celje, Slovenia, EU.
Here’s today’s portrait in Josip Pelikan skylight studio. The studio was built in 1898 and Josip Pelikan was working in it from 1920 to his death 1977. Now it’s a part of Museum of Recent History Celje.
On the plate I have some lines from not perfectly cleaned plate. I cleaned it several days ago and I thought it’ll be OK, but after few days, a plate in a box, needs to be cleaned again. I like it as it is but I strive to achieve Quinn’s perfection and then scratch it if I want 
Those edges are from albumen coating, because I had that box prepared for wetplate negative. Nevertheless it’s kind of cool, I might use the effect in the future.
Below there is a wet plate collodion negative format 10×12″ (25x30cm), digitally inverted into positive. I wanted that everything would be sharp, so I had an exposure of 15 minutes at aperture f/32. It’s cool one, although I knew at the time that perfect exposure would be 25min, but I was afraid that the plate would get dry. It was quite warm in the studio.
The portrait was done with modified Plaubel Peco 5×7″ camera and Voigtlander Heliar 300mm f/4,5. Exposure 6 seconds, f/4.5
The studio was photographed with Vageeswari 10×12″ camera and same Voigtlander Heliar 300mm f/4,5. Exposure 15 minutes, f/32.
PS: Do you see the difference between collodion negative picture and the digital one? I didn’t notice that while I was developing the plate the keeper of the gallery changed a small detail and I don’t mean my 4×5″ camera. Leave a comment Internet!
Flooded tree in wet plate collodion negative
A flooded tree by river Krka. This is a digital scan from Wet Plate Collodion negative, format 5×7″. Photograph taken with (modified) Plaubel Peco camera and Voigtlander Heliar 300mm, f4.5, lens. Exposure 10 seconds at f/16.
Two days ago I saw this flooded tree and I knew immediately it will look good on picture, but there was too much water, I couldn’t come near the tree. Yesterday I saw the water level has fallen, but didn’t had time to make the picture and on other hand I knew the flood will be gone by tomorrow, so today I decided to make the picture. Only problem was that I had to work in Ljubljana, to make half a dozen on location portraits for Mladina weekly. OK, I did it with digital camera, but still a lot of work. I decided I have an hour to make the collodion image, no more. I drove to the place, set up the tent, made a test and then also the plate. All that in 42 minutes. I cleaned the set up and head to digital work.
A cold, but good wetplate day (no April fools joke :-)
Today was a good day. I was preparing yesterday several hours, cleaning plates, subbing them with albumen, calibrating chemicals, mixing fresh developer, getting gear together, nevertheless I succeed to forgot my plate holder at home, but luckily I’m shooting my neighborhood so I drove back home and picked it up. It was cold again! Zero degrees Celsius! I prepared stronger developer and for wetplate negative the sensitization was 7 minutes. I wanted to be eight, but I was getting some weird pimples on my plates. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s because of albumen, low temperature, collodion drying, thin collodion film, longer sensitisation in silvernitrate and stuff, I know, but lesson learned, for the next time I’ll be subbing only edges of plates with albumen.
I’ve done several plates, but with these two wetplate negatives and I’m very happy. Working in this conditions it’s hard, especially doing a negative, but the results that wetplate negative is delivering is justifying all the pain.
As you’ve noticed, I’ve redone the image of a tree trunk in the water. The image from the earlier post was done with Kodak Folding Brownie and I wasn’t satisfied, so this time I used my Schneider Kreuznach Tele-Xenar lens 500mm f/5.5. I like it a lot!
PS: By the way, this Saturday, 6th of April, I’m working in Josip Pelikan studio and if you want, I will make you a portrait.
Wet wetplate photographer
Weather is horrible everywhere and forecast is not promising, so when I saw that raining stopped for few hours, I packed my wetplate kit and head to the river Krka, to make new plates. In a month time I have an exhibition in Galerija Krka in Novo mesto, Slovenia, so I need to make a good use of every moment that is left. I had to work fast, so I decided to use my fuji darkbox and Kodak Folding Brownie 3A. I decided to go for wetplate negatives. It was quite cold, 4C degrees Celsius, so I was sensitizing plate for 7 minutes, but real problem was developing. The key to make a good negative is proper developing that goes from 1 to 3 minutes. I was developing in my dark-box, but while I was breathing, glass was starting to fog and after a minute I couldn’t see nothing, so I continued for a while, then I stopped. Consequentially negatives were weak. Then raining started again and I got all wet, but that’s appropriate for a wet plate photographer isn’t. At home I redeveloped the negative to build up some density. Now I’m looking the plates and I see the first one, that had a hole in the center of the image is actually more appealing then the second one that is technically better.
Before and after effect of redeveloping after fixing.
Interior design by Borut Peterlin
Workplace of digital (above) and analog photographer (bellow). Interior design by Borut Peterlin
Hey guys, we moved to our new house two and a half years ago and a year ago I changed my working room into darkroom. My modest opinion is that I have a huge talent for interior design and it’s comforting to know that if I will fail as a photographer I still can become a millionaire as an interior designer. In fact I know what you want to ask me, so my answer is YES, you can send me an email and we will discuss an option of you hiring me, but I must warn you I will not repeat the mistake that I’ve made as a photographer, talent like myself demands a grease fee! Here are few more details.
PS: In 2008 I’ve redesigned my old darkroom into sauna. I admit, that was a mistake, but as every great artist I learn on my mistakes.
A short clip from yesterday’s Photo-fair in Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia, EU
Boris Primožič, a photographer, portrayed in wet plate collodion technique by Borut Peterlin
Gregor Cokan, a photographer, portrayed in Wet plate collodion technique
On Saturday there was a photo-fair in Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia, EU and I presented my work and promote the revival of Studio Pelikan. It was fun, I’ve sold two cyanotypes and wet wetplate portraits, but more then that I’ve met many colleagues and friends. Here are two portraits that I’ve done on the location and on the bottom there is a short 46 seconds video how I was sharing my love.
A giant leap in my Wet Plate Collodion process / negative and ambrotype
I’m still working hard on Wet Plate Collodion process, but negative on glass, not positive – an ambrotype. Two days ago I gave myself a challenging task. To do a nice wetplate negative in challenging conditions. I set up my darkroom tent in a park near my house, choose one motif, two view cameras and devote eight hours to make a good ambrotype and a good negative. It’s still winter in this corner of the world (Slovenia,EU), so I mixed my chemicals for -1⁰C temperature, but in my tent there was + 5C, so developing was quite demanding. Nevertheless it was a good day. Very good!
Print for sale. Size 30x40cm, FomaBrom baryt paper, toned with sodium sulfide and sellenium toners. Bidding auction on ebay. [/caption] Today I’ve printed the wet plate negative, format 5×7″, on a classic gelatine photographic paper. I was doing tests what combination of paper, exposure and toning works best. I decided to go for split toning with sodium sulfide for highlights and selenium toner for shadows. The toning increases stability of silver, so it will remain like this for at least a century. This print was done on FomaBrom fiber based paper, size 30x40cm (12×16″). All process were done by museum archival standards. I’m selling this print on ebay – LINK. Still learning how this ebay works, so I’m opening a bidding auction. This goes for the first print in edition of 12. Rock and Roll!
