Wet Plate Gallery

Wet plate photography is a process from the 1850's of taking a blank surface, if glass it is called an ambrotype, if metal a tintype. The surface is coated black before if a tintype and after if an ambrotype. The surface is then coated in a solution of collodion, a mixture of nitrocellulose dissolved in diethyl ether, diluted in ethyl alcohol, salted with bromide and iodide salts. In my case I use potassium iodide and potassium bromide salts known as a "po-boy collodion" recipe. Many people will use cadmium bromide which has better contrast; however, the carcinogenic nature of cadmium makes me prefer the potassium-based salts. The coating process is then followed by a dip in a bath of 10% silver nitrate for approximately 3 minutes. The time for this is not critical, however longer is better than shorter. The plate is then loaded into the plate holder and transported to the camera. The exposure is taken. I tend to like longer exposures averaging around 5 minutes. If the exposure is too long the solution dries up and is ruined; I find this tends to happen around 10 minutes or so on a ~70°F day (at ~7000ft elevation). After the exposure the plate is immediately developed in a solution of ferric sulfate, ethyl alcohol, and acetic acid heavily diluted with water to stretch the development time to 10–20 seconds. The development is stopped by a bath of ammonium thiosulfate which also fixes the image. A strong wash is then applied to the final image to remove any excess chemicals.