[alt-photo] Re: tintypes

[etienne garbaux]

Kenneth wrote:

>When it is close to freezing and one is working outside it takes the 
>most of a minute wait between poring and the placing the plate into 
>the silver bath to prevent lift

In cold weather, 19th century practitioners used candles to warm 
their plates prior to pouring the collodion.  I have warmed plates, 
too, but NOT with a flame in a confined space with collodion!

>I have never had any issue that I could track to how wet the plate 
>may be out of the silver bath. Just let it drain a bit and put it in my holder.

If there is standing surface water when you load the plate, you can 
sometimes see the prismatic effects of uneven sheeting in the exposed 
media.  I have seen this in the work of neo-wet plate practitioners, 
but never that I can recall in original 19th century work -- leading 
me to conclude that at least some modern practitioners have been 
taught to load plates much wetter than their 19th century forbears 
ever did.  But in general, it's just a matter of how much of a mess 
you are willing to make of your plate holders and camera.

Best regards,

etienne