A Chat With Wet Plate Photographer Will Dunniway

I had the privilege to chat with Wet Plate Photography master  Will Dunniway. He is an amazing resource and passed on some really great advice.  I've summarized our talk in the following notes for the benefit of others.

Chemicals

• Will prefers to mix all his chemicals from scratch instead of using pre-mixed chemicals.  He suggests others do the same.
• UV Photographics is a good source : http://uvphotographics.com/raw-chemicals/

The Silver Bath

• Mix your bath silver bath at 9% silver nitrate.  
• You can only make wet plate photos if the bath is between 55F and 80F.  Beyond that range you will have problems. 
• Once you've used the bath to make a picture, it will have some ether and other chemicals in it.  Treat the bath as light sensitive.  Otherwise, you will get veiling on your images due to the particles that build up in the silver bath when exposed to light.  Of you do get veiling, use a cotton ball to swab the image and remove it. 
• The bath will accumulate ether.  You need to let it ventilate.  When doing an event, take a break at lunch time for a couple hours or overnight and let the silver bath ventilate in safe light with the lid off. 
• Once mixed, measure the specific gravity.  You can then use this to measure later to determine how depleted your bath has become.
• Over time, the bath will get depleted.  Keep track of how many plates you've made with it.  You'll need to recharge it.  In the field, Will carries carries two backup silver baths.
• Will also carries a "recharge" bath which is 200ml of water with 50 grams of silver nitrate to replenish the silver when depleted.  He just adds a little "glug glug" to the bath to replenish.
• Make sure you always use distilled water, never tap water. 

The Developer

• Never leave your plate in the developer for more than 15 or 30 seconds.  Modern darkroom chemistry allows you to "push" or "pull" by varying development time but that does not work with wet plate.  Keep your development time consistent. 
• Watch for the shadows under the eyes.  Having a good bright safe light will help with this. 
• Once development is done, wash the plate in distilled water to remove developer before fixing.  You can now safely expose the plate to light and fix in regular light.
• Adding a pinch of household sugar to 1000ml of developer to help slow down the development process. Acid slows it as well, but too much acid will fog the plate. 
• When mixing in the alcohol, make sure you have 90% (180 proof). In some states, EverClear is only 75% alcohol (150 proof)so you'll have too much water. 

Fixer 

• KCN is easier to work with than Hypo if you can get it.  You can rinse a KCN plate in a bucket of water.  Hypo requires running water and much more time. 
• After the fix, wash with tap water.  When removing from tap water, rinse with distilled water - This keeps water spots off of your work.  
• When using KCN, If you ever see blue in your Fixer, this means you have somehow gotten developer into your fixer and made Prussian blue.  This is a warning sign.  Something is wrong with your process.  You should not be getting developer mixed with fixer

Collodion

• Carry two collodions into the field.  One fresh and and newly made, and one older.  This will help with troubleshooting.   If collodion gets too old, it can cause problems.  Specifically:
• Older collodion is more contrasty and less sensitive.  It needs more light.
• Very old collodion can give problems when you varnish.  The varnish can melt the image. 
• The "Old Reliable" collodion mixture will last about a year. This is because it does not have Ammonium Bromide.  The Ammonium Bromide solutions are only good for three months.  Will uses Potassium Iodide and Cadmium Bromide. 
• You can actually make collodion using nitrated cotton (14% nitrogen).  Note that this is NOT gun cotton.  Nitrated cotton is not explosive.  You would need to make this from scratch at home since you can't easily ship it. 

Camera

• It's really best to get a period camera and period lenses.  This is going to give you your best results. 
• Lots of folks have problems trying to use a converted dry plate camera.  For starters, the film holders do not have as much clearance so you sometimes get streaks across the plate when you open and close the plate holder. 

Darkroom

• Safelight - When working at home, use Thomas Duplex safelights. They use a Sodium Vapor lamp that takes about 5 minutes to warm up, but are very bright and will help you see the plate as it developers.
• Color - Many of the early Darkrooms were yellow.  Will toured a few of them and they are all painted yellow. Will suggests painting yours "Curb Yellow" since it keeps it bright, but does not reflect blue or UV.
• For your field darkroom you should have interchangeable lenses.  You'll want yellow in the morning, then warm orange, finally dark red at noon.  This allows you to protect your plates as the light changes. 

Exposure

• To prevent light leaks, wrap the entire camera in cloth.  To prevent glare when you take the photo, hold the slide over the top of the lens. 
• If you have problems with your photo being too dark or too light, change your exposure.  Do not try to fix exposure problems in the darkroom.  Always fix your problems in the camera.
• For you backdrop, use either Teal, or 19% gray. 
• Exposure will change during the day.  In the morning, there is a lot of blue.  Around noon, the colors get more muddy and there is more red.  Many folks will not shoot between Noon and 2PM.  In the later afternoon, things get better.  

Other Notable Wet Plate Artists

Will also recommended some of his other colleagues to use as resources for learning the process.

• Quinn Jacobs -  http://studioq.com/  Quinn has some great resources on line and has published the Chemical Pictures book which is also a great resource. 
• John Coffer - https://www.johncoffer.com/ Lives a 19th century lifestyle and teaches classes on his farm.  
• Mark Osterman - http://www.collodion.org/ One of the best wet plate photographers in the world.  Understands the process at a very detailed level.  Mark is also associated with the George Eastman Museum. 

Tintype Exposure Problems 

We talked about a few plates I had taken and I asked his advice on some problems.

• Black Streaks- These two photos were taken consecutively.  The first was OK, though it did have some gray splotches (that rub off, discussed later).  The second was taken immediately afterwards, but had black streaks throughout the photo.  This often happens when the door to your film holder is dirty with silver.  The silver can rub across the plate.

• Silver Scum!  - Will warned about letting your silver bath get exposed to light.  This is the result.  You get veiling over the image.  This can be removed with a cotton ball.  These images show before and after cleaning off the veiling. 

• Tip Up Your Hat - On this photo, I forgot to ask the subject to tip up their hat.  The uniform, hands, and background are clear, but the face is dark.  Folks usually don't want a photo where they can not see their face.  Will noted that many of the old west photos have cowboys with their hats tipped back.  This was by request of the photographer.  It was not an old west style, it was a way to make sure the photographer got an image of your face!

•  Muddy Plates - These look like improper exposure/development ratio.  Will strongly advises using a period camera instead of a converted dry plate camera.  It's also worth checking for light leaks and checking temperature of the silver bath.  Make sure not to leave your plate in the developer for more than 15-30 seconds. 

 

Will On You Tube

There are also some really good YouTube videos of Will from some of his workshops and classes.  Here are a couple that are packed full of information. 

Wet Plate Introduction

Here is an introduction to the process with lots of good historic details.

Choosing a Lens

This video is specifically about older lenses.  Some of the following suppliers are discussed

• C.C. Harrison - probably the best, but inconsistent quality. 
• Dallmeyer - were considered the best in their day.
• Darlot - Talked about the pillbox design

Varnishing

 In this video Will demonstrates varnishing. 

Learning Wet Plate Photography - Our First Public Event

My son and I have been on an adventure to learn wet plate photography for an event at his school.  After several experiments in the backyard, we tried photography in the field at the Fort Tejon Dragoon Days event.  We then practiced some more in the backyard making photos for the neighbors throughout the day.  We felt pretty confident that we could consistently make an image.

Since I help out at Fort Tejon, we decided to try setting up a photo booth at the event as a fund raiser for the fort.  It would be a great way to get more practice in the field and would also be a chance to raise some money for the fort.  Since the plan was to basically break even and give profits to the fort, we priced the photos at $20.  We figure our 4x5 Tintypes cost us between $3 and $5 each to make in materials, so we'd make enough to cover gas and food and raise some money for the FTHA.  I know a lot of folks charge more for tintypes, but we are just getting started.

Our Booth

We set up our shelter that we use for other events and I borrowed my wife's craft fair booth from RandomSacks.  We set up our darkroom on the table and worked in the open so folks could watch the process.  Here is Brandon mixing some developer.

Here he's  heading off to take a photo.

We set up an assembly line to process the photos then put them out on green felt to dry.

Things went pretty well for the morning.  We made several photos that came out pretty decent.  We had a few happy customers and made a few extra portraits of interesting people and the family.

Though,  in the afternoon, we had problems... lots of problems.  We started getting images that were covered with fog.

After several failed photos, I tried to isolate the problem.  Was it light leaks?  Was it a chemistry problem?  I tried pouring a plate, sensitizing it in the silver bath,  and then putting is straight into the developer.  I was horrified with what I saw.  The plate was muddied with gray, it should have been totally black!

Since we couldn't make clear images, we decided to stop for the day. We were just wasting plates and chemicals.  We'd go home, figure things out, then return for a future event.

So What Happend?

We were stumped for a while till I found out some advice from Will Dunniway -  he says to "Treat Your Silver Bath like it is light sensitive".   You see, as you make tintypes, it carries ether and other chemicals into your sliver bath.  Your silver bath becomes light sensitive.  If the bath exposed to light, you carry exposed silver halides on to your plate.  When you develop the plate,  you end up with a developed haze over your image!!!

Although we didn't know it at the time,  this silver haze actually cleans off!!

You actually can clean the plate this while it is still wet.  You can't easily touch the plate, but you can use a cotton ball to rub it clean!  So, now I know.  Keep your silver bath clean, and treat like it is light sensitive!  Also, ventilate in your darkroom it at lunch time or overnight to help the solvents evaporate!

Continue With Wet Plate?

We really enjoyed the event at Fort Tejon, but it was clear we still have a lot to learn.  We'll probably continue to practice at future Fort Tejon events to get better. Hopefully, we can get good enough to attend other events as period photographers.