CAN YOU GET A PLATE/DAGERREOTYPE LOOK BY UNDEREXPOSING AND OR PULLING CURRENT FILMS?

<p>Dear Members<br>

I have experimented for years on a budget from Kodak Agfa etc but those days are lonnnng gone lol<br>

My great great grandfather was one of the first photographers a Swedish painter who moved to Russia<br>

Karl peter Mazer and contemporary of Daguerre who he was close with.</p>

<p>http://dag-ru.livejournal.com/2029.html</p>

<p>My grandfather was a renowned portraitists in the early 1900s in Argentina. here is a shot of my eldest brother with glass plate.</p>

<p>My question is can pulling- underexposing be used to mimic the ISO 1 LOOK ?</p>

<p>I already use wet plates on my cameras and glass plates with the shen hao adapter but just curious.</p>

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<p>I suspect that pulling- underexposing would not give you the look you require as you would lose contrast as well.</p>

<p>What about trying the Harman Direct Positive paper in your camera which will give you that ultra low speed look?</p>

<p>Another approach might be to try to investigate paper/developer/toner combinations - sulfide toning might give the brown/black look on a paper only minimally suited to it so as to not give too toned an appearance.</p>

<p>As far a the daguerreotype look I suspect you will be out of luck because, as you know, these were produced on a metal plate.</p>

<p>Forty years ago you could get metallic photo papers (was it Kentmere made them?) which might get you on the road to producing the look, but these are probably now long gone.</p>

<p>Nick</p>

<p>Wet Plate is also blue/UV sensitive. Unless you find a film near that spectrum it won't look like collodion. In addition, film clumps so detail/sharpness isn't at molecular level</p>

<p>You might try ortho/litho film developed in diluted paper developer, dektol 1:7 or 1:9. Also classic lenses have a very distinct look. A 4 element uncoated f/8 Rapid Rectilinear or Aplant lens can give a nice sharp/soft look to your portraits. A classic uncoated 6 element Goertz Dagor will give a very nice image.<br>

Chris</p>

<p>in an issue of polaroid's "test" magazine ( 25 years ago ) they explained how to do it with their materials. i am certain you can do it with current materials. it didn't require exotic toning &c.</p>

<p>Great Responses<br>

BTW there is a guy on NYC doing wet plate workshops and may be by now selling plates he coats himself.<br>

Ultimately this can be easily done in ps . The info on wet plate being on the blue side makes sense as tends to have dense skin tones wondering if using a blue filter may help. I agree that uncoated lenses are a good aid and work with tessars and heliars a lot.</p>

<p>I do not have a deep technical or experiential knowledge of wet plate or Daguerreotype processes. Yet I suspect that a significant aspect of "The Look" is the requirement for the subject to not move for many seconds. A line of experimentation may be to use studio lighting that requires exposures from 5 sec upwards toward 30 sec and longer. This will allow for aperatures that will mimic the older lenses. If you are already doing wet plate and Dag imaging, you may already have vintage lenses. </p>

<p>Another aspect of "The Look" to consider is that the spectral response of wet plate and Daguerreotypes was skewed towards the blue end with nothing at the red end. Perhaps this van be addressed with filtration.<br>

Best wishes in your quest. Let us know how it goes.</p>

<p>Drew bedo</p>

<p> </p>

<p>WL<br>

have you considered coating your own <em>dry</em> plates using either self made ( go to thelightfarm.com to learn now ) or store bought silver gelatin emulsion ? it might give you the results you are looking for.</p>

<p>To answer your question...yes - by underexposing by one or two values, you can then place the resultant negative against a black background (like black felt), emulsion facing upwards, and then, when viewed with a slightly oblique light - the negative image will appear as a positive, much the same as an Ambrotype, which it emulates directly in principle.</p>

<p>@john layton<br /> while it is sort of ez to make a sheet of film look / behave like a reversal in certain light, as i look at the image the OP uploaded it doesn't look at all like an ambrotype/tintype type photograph, but something printed on POP or albumenized paper. the tonality is ortho-type / old school dry plate ( or similar ) emulsion, and the print looks like it was long scale UV or salted gelatin ( azo type ) that might have been toned a little bit. it has that <em>classic </em>1920s/teens look to it. maybe i am way off, but it looks like the stack of portraits i have from the late teens early 20s ...</p>

<p>John That is brilliant!!!<br>

It just gave me a great idea </p>