I turned 55 on 28th February and we used that as an excuse to invite friends around on Sunday 1st March for an open house. This is something we only do once every five years or so. This time I set up what is basically a Victorian photo booth. I really wanted to practice making my ambrotypes. I made sixteen plates between mid day and about nine at night. It was tough going but fun and I think people enjoyed seeing how the process worked and what the looked like. Here are some of the images.
For wet plate collodion buffs – I used Poe Boy mixed four weeks beforehand and decanted after two weeks. I use Hypo as a fixer warmed in a baby warmer to about 30C. I restricted my self to half plate size black Perspex to keep things simple. I don’t varnish but use two layers Renaissance Wax. My whole process has to be low toxic and low impact as it is all done in our two bedroom flat.
What f-number was the lens? How do you apply the reneissance wax?
I used a “modern” (1980’s) 210mm process lens (Carl Zeiss Jenna – East German). I believe it was wide open at f/4.5. These lenses are not designed to be used wide open, that’s just for focussing, so they look a bit more funky like old lenses. I used the same lens here and you can see the effect.
I applied Renaissance wax with cotton facial wipes. Very cheap. Very useful.
wow thanks for quick reply! can you also tell me about that lighting setup? are they falcon eyes FCL lights?
thanks for the quick reply! how about those fovitec lights – can you tell me how many watts total? did you really get 3 second exposures with them? that sounds excellent.
Each light has 4 cfl lights but also 50w of LED UV lights. You used to be able to get units that just screw in – for discos I guess!