From: Christopher Lovenguth (zantzant@hotmail.com)
Date: 06/25/02-05:10:05 PM Z
I want to thank everyone on this list over the last 6-9 months for helping
out with facts about making daguerreotypes. It has been a long time in the
making but I have my first 4x5 daguerreotype. Actually it is my second since
I totally destroyed my first (and the plate) while trying to gild it two
weekends ago. (Long story short, forgot to add hypo to the gold chloride to
make gilding mixture AND had a 1% solution of gold heating but thought it
was 5%. First time I ever not labeled a bottle and look where it lands me!
Needless to say my whole plate went chocolate in about 1/2 a second.)
The image isn't very exciting (shot taken from the window of my apartment in
SF) and I over exposed it, but it's still there in all its detail and glory!
Seeing an image gave me that feeling I haven't had in years. You know that
first time you see an image appear in the darkroom when doing your first
photogram or something else basic B&W…I was in awe.
Anyway I can't wait until I get an image I'm really proud of to show off on
a website or something. This one just has the honor of existing more then
one hour. Once I get another image I'll probably buff this one off (maybe
not since I'm the sentimental sort, I still have my first photogram of a
pencil and car keys). Funny thing is, it's quite beautiful in the negative
with lots of tones and a beautiful brownish coloring, but when you look at
it properly, the positive is washed out (about 1/2 the tonal detail that are
represented in the negative) and over exposed and the color slightly green
(not warm or cold, sort of in between). I think I borderline solorized the
image and that's why. Plus I didn't gild this one (after my last experience
I decided to hold off).
Now to some questions…
I have notice compared to 19th century daguerreotypes I have, the angle at
which the image stays in positive on mine is much narrower. A slight head
tilt and it goes negative in parts of the image. Does anyone know why this
is? I'm guessing it might be the size, 4x5. Or is it possibly that my image
is over exposed and maybe such a build up of material (whites in the image)
on my plate makes it go negative more easily? I have one image from the
19th century that I can be perpendicular at for proper viewing and tilt
until almost 90 degrees and still see positive faces. Of course I have
another more like mine that tilting a little makes it go negative but it not
until at least 45 degrees. But none are as extreme as the one I have made.
If anyone has some insight it would be appreciated.
Thanks –Chris Lovenguth
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