What are “Waterhouse stops”? Waterhouse stops were common in the "brass barrel" era of camera lenses, and are named after British astronomer John Waterhouse. In the late 1850s, Waterhouse invented a system using plates with different aperture diameters that could be inserted into a slot in the lens barrel.
I recently hired Markus Hofstaetter, in Austria, to create a set of stops for me for one of my lenses. He’s a great guy and does great work. I highly recommend him if you need work like this done. Check out his website - www.markus-hofstaetter.at.
Items from Markus’ package. The stops have a little red case too!
For this project, I’m using (mostly) my Dallmeyer 3B lens (290mm ~f/4). It’s from the 1870s and uses Waterhouse stops. I only have one original stop, an f/5.6. This was used as the pattern for Markus Hofstaetter to “3D print” the other stop values.
So what’s the big deal? Well, as you might know, I’m starting a new project about sacred rock formations, culturally modified trees, and special places of the Ute Indians. Their origin story begins at the Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs). They say they were created there and that they’ve been here since the beginning of time. I’m hoping the work will reflect the beauty and the uniqueness of this (their) land.
I’m also on a technical quest - trying to make the perfect negative and printing for a 19th-century aesthetic. This requires a lot of things, but one of them is the ability to “stop down” the lens. Stopping down the lens (using a smaller aperture) will create a very sharp image with a deep depth of field. That will allow me to exploit the Platinum Palladium printing processes to achieve a look and feel from the 19th-century.
As I’ve said in previous blogs, I’ll be experimenting with some dry plate processes with this project as well. The Albumen on Glass process and the Collodio-Albumen process (dry plates). These processes will be important to use because some of the places will not be accessible and almost impossible to use wet collodion. My biggest concern is aesthetics. I want a dry process that looks right - not like sheet film (silver gelatin) - that’s a big concern for me.
I’m excited to run some f/16 and f/22 test plates with these new stops. Stay tuned!
All six stops. F/4 - F/22