This has been an incredible journey. I first read about Albumen on Glass (dry plate negative) 15 years ago and even gave it a try. The exposures were ridiculously long, so I stayed with the Wet Collodion process. I didn’t care too much for the Dry Collodion negatives. They looked too much like silver gelatin film to me. Nothing wrong with that, it just wasn’t the aesthetic I wanted. So years later, I’m still at it. Trying to find a dry process that will give the negatives I want for Platinum Palladium printing. And I think I may have found that process.
I don’t know anyone who’s made Collodio-Albumen Negatives. I’m not even sure when the last one was made. It’s probably been 160 years or so. This process fell out of fashion when other dry plate methods became easier and more dependable. I’m not sure though, maybe someone out there has made perfect Collodio-Albumen Negatives for years. I doubt it, but who knows.
This is one of four Half Plates I exposed today. I only processed this one because I’m out of DH2O and didn’t have my fresh pyrogallic acid with me in the darkroom. I used tap water to develop this negative and very old pyrogallic acid. I can’t believe how well it worked. I do have a chemical burn on the plate. A small grain of undissolved silver or pyro hit the plate and made that little gremlin. The water was very cold too. It’s not important, the important bit is that it works and works well. I’ll gear up and go for some Whole Plate negatives now. I will process the other negatives too.
A Half Plate Collodio-Albumen Negative sitting on my light tablet. This was a six minute exposure at f/16.
A Half Plate Collodio-Albumen Negative sitting on my light tablet. This was a six minute exposure at f/16. Image is inverted.
The original scene. I guess I could’ve picked better light, but I was excited to test the process!
My Chamonix 10x10 camera and a Dallmeyer 3B lens stopped down to f/16.
You can see my bellows extension here. Not too bad - this plate was six (6) minutes at f/16. I’ll get my water and fresh chemistry squared away and let’s see what the other negatives look like - 5 minutes, 4 minutes, and 3 minute exposures.