Re: Daguerreotypes and Tintypes

The work of making Daguerreotypes is relatively simple. The difficulty
is in striking the right
harmony with each of the details of the craft. Few people have the
temperament for attending to
the devil in the details.

A careful study of the available literature that has been reprinted from
the early days, in my opinion,
is an *Excellent *way to learn the process. I guess this might depend on
how keen one's ability is
to visualize what one is reading. The early manuals were written for the
very purpose of teaching
the process without a tutor.

I recommend Levi L. Hill's "Treatise on Daguerreotype"; possibly the
first manual on photography
to be printed in the USA. It was an extremely popular work going through
many editions. The
last editions were titled "Photographic Manipulations". An Arno Press
reprint edition is fairly easy
to find in libraries. Another is Robert J. Bingham's "Photogenic
Manipulation" which was also
reprinted by Arno Press.

If you suffer from Chemophobia, this is not the Alt process for you. The
chemistry involved is
simple however: silver plated copper sheets, rottenstone and alcohol,
rouge, iodine, bromine,
mercury, hypo and gold chloride. The names are the same today as they
were in the 1850's
except for hypo (hyposulphite of soda) which we now call sodium
thiosulphate.

Feel free to contact me off list if you have specific questions
regarding the details of the process
as you progress.

-Phillip

Ehud Yaniv wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I lost the message from the gentleman who is doing Daguerreotypes but it got
> me thinking.
>
> I will preface my request by stating that I understand that the process is
> difficult and can be dangerous and that it should not be attempted without
> instruction by a practitioner. That said, however, are there any
> contemporary and easy to find books that detail the process with enough
> details that one could do the process? The same question goes regarding
> Tintypes.
>
> I am asking this now as the topic came up (which it rarely does).
>
> Thanks in advance and back to lurking.
>
> Ehud
>
>
>
Received on Wed Apr 19 05:42:51 2006