Stu,
Traditional daguerreotype is pretty tricky because of toxic material.
Somewhere on the web you can download a historical manual, I think it's
called the American Manual of Daguerreotype, or something like that.
There is an alternative developing method called the Bequerell process
that involves exposing the exposed plate to daylight filtered through a
piece of ambrolith film instead of developing with mercury film. You
can get beautiful results although the plates are quite slow and
incredibly contrasty (a contrast range of about two stops). And the
best way to learn this is to take a workshop with Jerry Spagnoli who is
teaching at Photographers Formulary in Montana (I think) and Penland
School of Crafts in North Carolina ( I know) next summer. Maybe some
other places as well. He's a wonderful teacher and knows everything
about this process. Beqeurell processing is described in several
alternative process books, but I don't remember which ones off hand.
I don't know much about traditional ambrotype--it's a variant of the
wet collodion process. Penland School is also having a workshop next
summer on the adapted version of ambrotype using contemporary liquid
emulsions. Full disclosure--I work at Penland School which is how I
know what's coming up in the program. Don't look for this info on the
Penland website until January.
You can use any large format camera to expose dags and, I assume,
ambrotypes. Old glass plate holders are good, but I've made dags in
regular film holders. You just have to tape the plate in place and you
have to adjust your focus by a sixteenth of an inch before you shoot.
Robin Dreyer
On Thursday, December 11, 2003, at 08:23 PM, Stuart Plotkin wrote:
> So lets talk about some real old processes. I am brand new to the
> newsgroup so I don't know what was previously discussed but I am
> interested in doing some Dagureotype and ambrotype photography. My
> first question , if anyone knows is assuming I can do the chemical
> processing, what type of camera can I use that will hold the plates. I
> want to do 4x5 size prints. Any ideas- Thanks Stu
Received on Thu Dec 11 21:05:03 2003
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