Glass Plate Negatives from the 1900's

[titrisol]

Robert, the sharpness of those is great!
Some professional for sure

[Brazile]

Thanks, Graham. These, of course, were commercial plates of the period, obviously. My own are mostly much more boring, as I’ve spent the past few years slowly mastering the art of making and pouring the plates, then improving the sensitivity of the emulsion. As a result, most of my own plates are test shots of various kinds. But I’m getting reasonably consistent with the process now and feel some internal pressure to start making better photographs with them.

It’s fun to do regardless. Takes a very similar mindset to cooking, at least if you’re willing to be methodical about it; if one is an “intuitive” cook, I fear it may be a wild ride…unless you love “happy accidents”…those are easy to come by.

Here is a recent example of one of mine. Nothing very interesting about it, just a quick shot taken one dull day when I had cabin fever and had to go shoot something:


I4P-0113, Hancock Church, Lexington by Robert Brazile, on Flickr

It has some “pepper” grains likely caused by my failure to filter the emulsion before pouring the plate, but I had just spent several hours color and speed-sensitizing a batch and I just wanted a quick plate to test the results with so I neither filtered nor “doctored” it (in this case, adding a bit of ethyl alcohol— to the emulsion, not me—to help it’s viscosity) before pouring. But I think it illustrates the potential well enough.

Robert

[GrahamS]

The proof is in the pudding plate! Superb tonality there, and good detail. What size do you make?

[Brazile]

Thank you! This was a 4x5 (5x4 if you prefer). I have made 2x3, 4x5, 5x7, whole plate, 8x10 and 11x14 so far. Mostly I shoot 4x5 and 5x7, though. I like whole plate, though, so I will probably do more of that.

That is one of the chief advantages of pouring your own: any size you like is within range, assuming you can get glass at that size or larger. Thus all kinds of things are possible (e.g., making a ginormous pinhole camera), because you don't have to worry about the availability of film, and the cost is not really a factor -- pouring a bit more emulsion on a larger plate is not that big a deal. Just means you have to make more, and wait longer for it to dry, and need bigger trays for developing, etc., so there are practical/logistical considerations, but it's not like trying to buy, say, 20x24 HP5+!

Also, as these plates are either blue-sensitive only, or orthochromatic, you can develop by inspection under safe lights, which I really appreciate, especially in the larger sizes.

So while it does seem a bit silly to call making your own emulsions and pouring glass plate negatives "practical", in truth it is somewhat practical...or at least more practical than film if you like shooting either odd-sized, rare-sized, or very large format negatives.

Robert

[GrahamS]

Presumably, you have suitable cameras for those large sizes. Drool....

[Brazile]

Ha, yes, I mostly picked them up here and there for cheap when nobody wanted them. Except for the 11x14, which was lent to me by a generous friend (who, it must be said, hated the camera and wanted it out of her house, which is another story). The most I paid for any of them was $300 and several were free. They don't quite seek me out the way enlargers seem to (ugh, I really don't need another "free" enlarger, but I recently was warned another might be coming my way) but I have more than my fair share.

The result (I've never actually totaled them up before, was afraid to): 2x3 Speed Graphic, 4x5 Speed Graphic, 4x5 Crown Graphic, 4x5 Calumet CC-400, 4x5 Bender, 4x5 Intrepid, 5x7 Seneca New Improved View (thanks Scott!), 5x7 Agfa Ansco, whole plate Seneca New Improved View, 8x10 Kodak 2D, 8x10 Intrepid, 11x14 Gibellini (on loan), 11x14 homemade sliding box camera (so ugly and pathetic it inspired my friend to send me hers). Oh, and a 4x5 Curtis color separation camera (prism plus three integral backs!) that I haven't even tried out yet. Way too many, they just follow me home sometimes. Definitely out of acquisition mode at this point.

None are new (well, except for the Intrepids) or top of the line, but all are perfectly usable. So I have no (good) excuse for not shooting more!

Robert

[GrahamS]

Wonderful collection. Show us some photos of them sometime.

[Brazile]

Ooof. Yes, I suppose I should do that. No time like the present to confront hoarding behavior. :-/

Robert

[alexvaras]

One of my photo-vacation-learning-tours includes a visit to Robert and learn how to do the dry plates

[Brazile]

You're on Alex, would be delighted to walk you through it.

Robert