Wedding Portraits on Glass

Wedding Portrait Session with Sorcha and Gabi:

Tulips.

Wet plate imperfections (2). Dirty glass.

Long, long time ago (2 years ago) I wrote a post about collodion imperfections, concentrating on silver stains on collodion plates: LINK. This was meant to be a start of a series of posts about collodion artefacts or problems, showing their examples.

Then I thought, that the simple examples, that I can show and write about with confidence, are probably too obvious for collodion photographers and I've abandoned the idea. 

However I've got a feedback from my students and people who are only starting with the process and would like to see even these 'obvious', (not for everyone), examples of fails. I hope more experienced collodionist will contribute to these examples, showing their problems, solutions and comments.

So here we go - with dirty glass problems.

Those of you, who has put their hands on the process, know how crucial it is to have a perfectly clean glass and how much effort it can take. Simply a dirty glass can cause peeling off the collodion layer in worse case scenario and offer plenty of marks and stains, as a better option.

Glass can be cleaned in many ways. It is recommended to implement at least two different ways of cleaning.

My way of cleaning glass? Well, enough to say, that this part of the process is not my favourite...

When I use collodion formulas with big content of alcohol, (which causes, that collodion film sticks better to glass),usually Poe Boy, I am cleaning glass with warm water with washing liquid first and, when dry - with alcohol.

When I have a bigger batch to clean, I simply do the first step in the dishwasher. Then I wipe each plate individually with alcohol, applied with cotton pad and rub the plate well. If not absolutely happy after these 2 steps and breath test, I rub and polish more, with clean flannel.

When I use collodion mix, which takes extra ether I sub the edges with albumen (1 white of egg + 250 ml of distilled water). Collodion sticks to it very well.

I used to use Rottenstone or Whiting, (as a second step, after washing with water and washing liquid) but it took much more effort and sometimes this method was giving me cleaning marks, although the plate seemed to be perfectly clean. Sometimes it happened even after adding 3rd step and wiping the plate with an alcohol at the end.

I gave it up in favour of the methods described above, which work for me perfectly.

Here are the examples of plates with cleaning marks (residue of Rottenstone) and peeling of edges.

These examples can give an idea on how you can manipulate the process, and create scratches and marks on purpose, (if you want to). 

Wet plate outdoors.

Finally, after a long, long break I took a few plates outside!

It feels great and I hope to do it often this year. 

These images were taken close to my house, so I didn't use a portable darkroom (just 'regular' one), but still, climbing down and up a steep hill and jumping through the river with heavy tripod and 4x5 camera, was quite an adventure (and a good exercise too). Here are the results and technical info:

''Shape'', 

4x5 ambrotype, Poe Boy Collodion, Toyo View, Schneider Apo Symmar 150mm @ f8:

''Glencree River'', 

4x5 ambrotype, Poe Boy Collodion, Toyo View, Schneider Apo Symmar 150mm @ f8:

and backstage image of the location:

I ate that bird...

4x5 ambrotype

Toyo View Camera

Schneider Symmar 150mm, f 5.6

Poe Boy Collodion

Hand tinted tomato and lemon.

I always preferred sketches and drawings, never liked painting or colouring, but I'm really enjoying this:

4x5 ambrotype

4x5 ambrotype

Tinted Pear

This is my first attempt of hand tinting a collodion image. 

I've been interested in the subject of hand colouring black and white and collodion photographs for a long time, but somehow there was always something more important on the way. 

And it really can't be easier to start!

For a quick trial I got myself a set of 12 Faber Castell soft pastels in Art & Hobby shop and gave it a try. I was a bit surpriced that the effect is so soft and weak, and it took a moment until I started to see any results. The image I've chosen for a test was a bit flat and overexposed and color actually made it much nicer.

I quite like the visible brush strokes here, I've removed them later and the result was more ordinary. Anyway it is very easy to remove the colour, even unintentionally.. 

Looking forward to further tests.

Ghostly photos for Halloween

I took these photographs a while ago and discarded them. Found them recently and realised I quite like them. They represent my memories of Zuzana's early childhood. 

Happy Halloween :)

Wet Plate Workshops in The Gallery of Photography

I am pleased to announce another wet plate workshop held in the Gallery of Photography, on the 8th&9th June:

This year, some of my group workshops are provided in the Gallery of Photography, in Temple Bar, Dublin. We had two workshops so far and they turned out very well. As always - lovely and very interesting people, a lot of fun and a lot of chemicals poured away. This is how I like it!.

Here is a few shots and an example of plates made during our first gathering in April (photographs by Stuart Hill)/well done everyone!/:

Wet plate imperfections (1). Silver lines.

Imperfections or better - artefacts  are so unique in the wet plate process that they are the main reason which draws photographers and artists into it.
At the beginning of the journey with wet plate they seem to be unexpected and mysterious, usually welcomed eagerly, adding a new dimension to the work. /Of course not always and not all of them , it is still the artist who decides if the 'accident' that happened adds something special to the photograph./
Some artists stay with this approach and do not seek for a perfect clean plates (not looking too far - Sally Mann could be a great example). Some are creating dirty plates on purpose, adding dust and dirt or even blood or fingertips ( so many options open!)

After a while of working with collodion each photographer realises, that even if he or she doesn't have a background or deep understanding of chemistry, the 'mystery' faults have reasons and are, to some extent, controllable. And this is when a big journey starts.
Over a time of using wet plate, photographers  learn to approach difficulties systematicly, selecting and eliminating elements that can cause the fault. The knowledge of the process is the ability to solve the problem and it is not always easy.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to source images  showing and explaining different artefacts and faults of the collodion process. All what is offered in literature is a written description and I found it difficult to recognise which description suits best to the problem I had at the time.

I started to collect the images showing different problems and would like to show a few examples of more typical faults, characteristic for collodion technique.

I would like to start with one of the simplest examples - silver lines.

Lines, bubbles, lace like or organic patterns - these marks are created when it comes to rapid and uneven coverege of the plate with silver nitrate sensitizing solution. They are more likely to happen when using a tray for sensitizing and this is the reason why it is usefull to have a special vertical tank with a dipper for this step of the process.
Sensitizing in a tray can result in this type of image:

The following plate was accidentaly droped  into a tray with silver nitrate, it slipped out from my hands, when working with darkbox on location. Splash caused bubbles and stains (centre of the image):

And one more, more subtle example - on the left bottom edge the lace like pattern shows that tray was used this time as well:

Collodion prints without a camera.

I know what some of you may think about it and I've got ambivalent feelings about this too. But it is good to experiment a little bit sometimes and check what comes out from the connection of 'the new' and 'the old'. I think it's exciting.

Recently I did some contact prints and enlargements on collodion, using transparencies.

This is a collodion contact print of a positive image printed digitally on transparency, exposed under the enralger light:

This digital (sic!) image was taken a while ago in Italian Dolomites, (while climbing ferrata Giuseppe Olivieri, Tofane). I printed it as a rather week, B&W transparency and gave it 90s exposure @ f4.5, (5 months old collodion, poor boy).

I put the transparency directly on the wet plate (printed side up), but I was lucky it came out well. I think it would be better to put it somehow with a little distance to the plate.When putting it on the plate it is quite easy to create some stains, get air bubbles between transparency and the collodion film or scratch the plate. (and this was just 4x5 print, I'd imagine it would be even more difficult with something bigger)

The second image is an example of an enlarged print, from 6x6 colour transparency, 90 s exposure, with  dodging/burning the sky :).(it is cropped, enlarged on 4x5 glass)

I must agree that once you know how the image was made you can feel cheated. Someone may say there is no 'life' in it,  it's like an image of an image. But on the other hand it opens a lot of interesting possibilities, overcoming the limits of the collodion process and allowing to use collodion expression with any image.
I'd rather concentrate here on 'technicalities' and possibilities and leave the decision, if it's right to use collodion this way, to you...

I didn't make too many tests, just wanted to check how it goes and works. I have a very limited sources of transparencies (rather don't use them) and I randomly chose an image for printing on transparency, giving it one-off try. I've made an enlargement of 6x6 digitally printed B&W transparency and it's also working.
With neither of the image I got the quality that I'm getting from the camera and taking into account some loss of the quality caused by the enlargement, I guess it would be difficult.
However, I think that a little bit more experiments with different densities and contrasts of the transparencies would allow to achieve quite nice and interesting prints.

Collodion meets Holga

Finally I've tried it. I didn't transform my holga at all as I still want to use it with film. I just stick my aluminium plate inside the camera body with an electrical tape, along two edges, to prevent it from moving. Working with such a small plate is challenging, but it's a good fun. Wondering if it will be feasible with 35mm?
Exposure times not that bad:

Holga 120 GN
Optical lens 60mm
6x6 tintype, 40s exposure:

6x6 tintype,1min 15s (low light conditions, a bit overdeveloped) :

Close To Closure

Close to Closure is an ongoing group exhibition, in Dublin, where I'm presenting a series of wet plate portraits I took recently. The exhibition brings together eight photographers (myself, Rebecca McGetrick, Artur Sikora, Sharon Murphy, Jeanette Lowe, Calin Ploscar, Fiona O’Donnell and Hugh McCabe) from different backgrounds and nationalities who first came together in NCAD in 2009. 

Close to Closure is our first time exhibiting together and it is a of part of Irish photography festival -PhotoIreland 2012. We had a vibrant and nice opening on last Wednesday night with artist Sean Hillen launching the exhibition. Below is an example of some of the nine portraits I'm showing, but there is much more intersting projects on the walls, so if you are around please drop in. Tomorrow is the last day! 

Location : Backloft Gallery, Augustine Street, Dublin 8.

Adam

Sarah

Lucy

and the instalation itself, on the wall:

Wet plate gathering in Killruddery 2

Last weekend I've met with a group of lovely people (Martin, Dermot, Sarah & Cindy/from left to right) to pour some plates in Killruddery. 

What, I think, I like the most about the workshops is watching how the creative people find their individual approach to work with collodion (what sometimes is very inspiring). For example - Sarah brought many different objects to photograph and we also tested her father's old wooden 5x7 camera and tintypes.

Cindy got lost in Killruderry's old stables and sheds discovering interesting requisites. Martin was playing with different patterns and holes created by a specific pouring of collodion and tested his pinhole camera. And Dermot tried a little bit of everything with his own Graflex camera.

It was a great weekend and we've poured away o lot of chemicals. Irish changeable weather didn't make establishing exposure times easy, as usual, but even though we did a lot of nice plates (examples below)

Backstage images on FB: link

photograph by Cindy Morrissey

photograph by Sarah McNally

Photograph by Martin Hughes

Photograph by Dermot Marrey

WPC workshop, Killruddery, 23rd&24th June

Attention! the date of the Killruddery Workshop is changed. 
It is moved on the 23rd and 24th of June.
http://www.facebook.com/events/414328385265945/

2 days, intensive, group of 4, 
chemicals, equipment, manual and lunches provided,

Brief Program:

Day 1, morning

1. Introduction:
History and overview of the process, chemicals, equipment needed,
darkroom set up, organization,
Health and safety recommendations.
Care and maintenance of chemicals. 
Mixing chemicals.

2. Preparation of glass plates, sanding edges and cleaning.

3. Demonstration of the complete process. (camera set up, pouring a glass
plate, sensitization, exposure, development, fixing and washing)

Day 1 afternoon, day 2

4. Practicing, practicing, practising

Making plates by student – as many as you can, 
Individual guidance with the process, trouble shooting, 
work with natural and artificial lightning, 
work with darkbox in more remote areas of the Gardens

5. Demonstration of the varnishing technique. Varnishing.

for more information contact me at:
fabijanczykphotography@gmail.com
0860783053

WPC workshop Killruddery summary.

Although it's already 3 weeks after the workshop in Killruddery I'd like to make a short resume of this event and introduce a lovely group of brave photographers, who decided to take part in this dangerous and exhausting venture :)

This is an ending portrait, so, as you can see they stayed in quite a good form after all this.

my lovely workshop group: Alice, Nick, Stephen an Sally (from left to right)

They worked very hard  throughout the whole weekend. They cleaned a huge amount of glass:

this is just a small part of what was cleaned, they seemed to enjoy it ....

they were blinding themselves with bright lights, trying to sit still and motionless for a loooong time....

they were concentrated...

...very concentrated....

and they were choosing their subjects very carefully...

But sometimes they had enough and were trying to hide....

....well,  'Mystic, awful was the process.'(Lewis Carroll, 'Hiawathas Photographing')...

All in all everything went very well and a couple of nice plates were done. Here is the proof - a sample of their results. Well done everyone and thank you all, it was a great weekend!