Wet Plate Collodion Course

Wet plate portrait of me by Alastair Cook

Back in June 2019 I was lucky enough to do a Wet Plate Collodion course, with the very talented photographer and artist Alastair Cook in Dunbar in Scotland. Wet Plate Collodion is a very early photographic process which dates back to the 1850’s. The photographs are made directly onto a piece of glass or metal, using a mixture of chemicals.  Just as the very first photographers did back in the Victorian era, I got to carry out the whole procedure from sensitising the plate, right through to developing and fixing it. For me Wet Plate Collodion is a mixture of chemistry, photography and black magic all rolled into one. Here’s how it works below:

Coating the plate with collodion

Remove excess collodion before adding silver nitrate

1) To begin the process you have to pour the collodion onto a glass plate, then the tilt the plate until its entire surface is coated with the solution. Then pour the excess collodion back into its bottle. (see photos above)


2) While the plate is still wet, dip it into a solution that contains silver nitrate (This stage has to do be done under a red light in a darkroom). The silver nitrate binds with the iodide and bromide to make a silver halide coating, which is sensitive to light. You then wipe the silver nitrate solution off the back of the plate with a clean cloth.


3) While still in the darkroom, insert the plate into a light-proof holder, which is constructed to fit in your camera. Take the holder to the camera and insert. There’s a slide in the holder that covers the glass plate. Remove the slide. The collodion plate is now ready for exposure.


4) Expose the plate by removing the lens cap. This will allow light to enter the camera and strike the light-sensitive collodion. For my photographs I was doing 2 second exposures, meaning the subject had to sit completely still to avoid being blurry in the photographs. 

Me focusing the camera under the hood

Under the watchful eye of Alastair

Removing the slide and ready to expose the image

Removing the lens cap and exposing the image for 2 seconds

5) Reinsert the holder’s slide. The holder can now be safely removed from the camera and taken back to the darkroom. Remove the glass plate from the holder. While holding the plate over a tray, pour the developer over the plate. The developer is a solution of iron sulfate and acetic acid. It turns the silver-halide grains that have been struck by light into a metallic silver. Rinse the glass plate with water to remove the developer. You can now take the plate out of the darkroom and watch in awe as the image begins to appear.



6) This is where the magic happens. The grains of metallic silver are still on the plate, as are the silver halide grains not struck by light. Remove the unexposed silver-halide by placing the plate in a tray of sodium thiosulfate, which acts as a fixing agent. At this point the image slowly appears before your eyes and it’s absolutely mind blowing. (see video below)

The finished plate

Here are my finished wet plates above. A huge thanks again to Alastair Cook for his wonderful tuition.  It was engaging, fun and exciting in equal measures! You can see some more of Alastair’s work over on his website here:


https://alastaircook.com 

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