I Think I'm There! Dry Collodion Negatives and Siderotype Prints

Although this is just beginning, I feel like I’ve found the negative making process I want to use for my project. It’s been almost a year since I started researching the (collodion) dry plate processes. I’ve made several Tannin plates in the past, and I’ve even taught the process at the end of wet plate workshops. I knew what they could do and what their limitations were. I wanted to find a way to overcome the shortcomings of the dry plate process and produce “perfect” negatives for printing with the siderotype printing processes.

Each dry plate process method has its advantages and disadvantages. What I’ve tried to do is a hybrid method, if you will, of the best collodion dry plate methods of the 19th century. I tweaked the collodion and tweaked the development method. I am using albumen, (slightly) bromo-iodized collodion, and gallic acid. My methods are a bit different than what the old books talk about and have made negatives that fall into the 1.4 - 1.8 density range. Full of information!

I realize that I’m not going to get “speed” over quality. I’m still experimenting with some ISO enhancers, but for me, making a dry plate negative, that will print well, will be at least a minute exposure or longer. I’m not as concerned with that as I am with the quality of the negative, A combination of Sutton and Mudd (authors of the Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate and the Dry Collodion (Tannin) modified method, will get me there. I’ve made a collodion that seems to capture both the information and the density needed. I’m using a pre-development method that is amazing! The key is the development and correct exposure. That is an obvious statement but the trick is knowing how to get the negative you want without pushing or pulling the process.

I’ve successfully completed what I was after. In the next few days, I’m putting it to a real test - I’m going to hike back into a cove, called Paradise Cove (see photo), not far from our property, and make the first real attempt at a photo for my project. I may have to go back later in the Spring, but I’ll revisit the places as many times as I need to get the negative I want. It’s a 45-minute hike into the area where the cove is located and I need to time it for the light. It will be a challenge, no doubt, but I’m up for that!

This is a Platinum Palladium print (mostly Palladium) - my negative may be a little too dense for this process. I’m going to make a toned Kallitype with this negative and see if I can improve it a little bit.

Paradise Cove - the place where I’ll run my first “real” dry plate test. I’m hoping to get some mind-twisting plates from these places around me.

Platinum Toned Kallitype

This print dried down and turned out amazing! I cannot believe that this is a Kallitype print! Yes, I did platinum tone it, but wow! Amazing stuff.

If you had this in your hand, you'd be challenged to tell me that it's not a Platinum Palladium print. These tests are really blowing my mind!

Zoom in on that bad boy!!! Wow!

Kallitype Prints: Adjusting Color

I really like the “red” from the iron and citric acid in the Kallitype prints. I’ve printed a few of these now and am really liking the “look and feel”. When you tone them (with platinum, palladium, or gold), you can stop the toning at any “color” you want (or any red color, I should say). This print has a nice color to my eye. I know it doesn’t translate online, but you can at least see the “red” tone here. I’m after that color in my new work.

This print is one from the Ghost Dance work. I never printed it or published it. It’s of the massacre site on the eastern plains of Colorado. The Battle of Arikaree Fork or Battle of Beecher Island, 1868. This is what’s left of the river.

Here’s an old photo of the same place, many moons ago. The site of the 1868 Battle of Beecher Island — as it appeared in 1917. Located in Yuma County, northeastern Colorado. The Arickaree flows near the camp. The south channel of the Arickaree has closed up, owing to the stream's sifting silt depositions.

Platinum Toned Kallitype - Wet Collodion Negative

This is the print with a 5-minute platinum tone. The exposure was 4 minutes (overcast sky) and 8 minutes of developing time. As you can see, I used 12 drops of 20% Ferric Oxalate, 12 drops of AgNO3, and 2 drops of Tween. The platinum toner I used was 10 drops of 20% platinum, 10 g citric acid, and 1000 m DH2O.

I wanted to see what some of my negatives look like printed out with the Kallitype process. If you make Platinum Palladium prints, Kallitypes are easy.

Rather than using platinum and palladium salts, you use silver nitrate. The ferric oxalate is the base and the silver nitrate is the compound that is reduced to silver.

I love the red color, I wish I could keep it in that stage. Some of my next experiments will be doing a gum over with the red oxide pigment. I could do a gum over Kallitype here - maybe I will. I’m still knee-deep in the dry plate experiments and want to continue with that before Spring gets here. I hope to be ready to get on the road in May.

Platinum Palladium Print From Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate

Here’s something that I’ve never seen before: A platinum palladium print from a collodio-albumen dry plate negative. I’m not sure when the last collodio-albumen dry plate negative was made, but I would be willing to bet that there hasn’t been one made in 150 - 160 years. Let me know if you’ve made any.

No, it’s not the best technical negative (see the chemistry stain?), nor is it really even interesting (the picture), but it is significant in the sense of bringing a “dead” process back to life in the 21st century. “It can be done” is the most exciting thing and it’s encouraging.

My dry plate work has just begun. I’ve had much better results in my testing after this was made. I’m trying to test three different types/styles of dry plate - no gelatin - only collodion or collodion and albumen. Stay tuned to see what I end up using for my project this year.

Platinum Palladium print from a Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate Negative - 6 minutes at f/11 - Dallmeyer 3B

Backpacking and Making Dry Plate Images

We got out in the nice weather today and made a couple of Collodio-Albumen Dry Plates. It was a lot of fun. When you have 12 acres you can hike around on, it makes for easy access to things. Although, you couldn’t get a camera and all of the gear you need without a camera backpack. The F64 backpack works great. It holds my Chamonix 10x10 camera, two vintages lenses, lens board, loupe, stopwatch, dark cloth and a loaded plate holder. I can fasten the tripod on it too.

Working my way through the processes. This was a great exercise in understanding exposure times, development times, and general workflow. Jeanne came with me and carried a loaded plate holder and assisted me with the set up. Looking forward to doing this all spring and summer!

Me and my F64 camera backpack - it works great for hiking around in the rocks and mountains. I’m carrying all of the gear - a 10x10 camera. lenses, etc. Photo by Jeanne Jacobson.

Making the exposure of a rock that looks like a dolphin. 4.5 minutes at f/6 - about a 7 minute development. Photo by Jeanne Jacobson

“Log and Rocks” Collodio-Albumen Dry plate. 5 minutes at f/8

Log and Rocks - scanned, desaturated and inverted.

Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate - First Run With Whole Plate

We had a beautiful day here on the mountain. Sunny and 63F (17C) - the same for tomorrow. Winter isn’t too bad up here, but I love the sunshine and warm weather!

Well, I gave it a go and I’m super excited!! I exposed one of the four plates I prepped for the CADP dry plate process. In my haste, I forgot to ALBUMENIZE THE PLATES BEFORE I poured the collodion. So, inevitably, I had MAJOR peeling, wrinkling. and lifting. I knew this would happen but I did it anyway. I picked the worse one for the test. Having said that, the test was a MAJOR success. These negatives are so different than wet collodion negatives. I can see already the extreme detail and the possibilities this holds. I love it because it still looks like a “wet” process but has a lot more detail.

I set up at 12:30 - I made one exposure at f/11 for 4 minutes. I developed for 5 minutes using the methodology Mudd describes in his book with a couple of changes. Super excited to get this process in my pocket. Really get it down, the preparation, the exposures, the development, and ultimately, nail the prints. That’s my goal. This now gives me access to places the world has never seen before as glass plate negatives and Platinum Palladium prints (w/Gum Over Palladium).

Tomorrow, I’ll expose two more plates and develop them. I hope to stop the lifting and peeling (so bad). The next batch of plates will be perfect. I can have this process down in a few weeks’ time.

Scanned and inverted. Looks like something they found in the archive at LOC ;-)

Plates for Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate Process Prepared

There are a few things that need to be resolved with the plate preparation for the Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate process (CADP).

First, the collodion I used this time is ALL IODIDE collodion, it contains NO BROMIDES. That’s not a problem, I just wonder if I’m going to get the mid-tones as well without bromides. It makes me nervous, but we’ll find out.

Secondly, it’s very difficult to see the Iodized Albumen as you pour it on the plate. The Half Plate was no problem, it’s small and you can cover it like water and catch all of the runoff. The Whole Plate is a bit of a challenge. It would be great if I could figure out a dye to add to the Iodized Albumen that shows well in red light. Also, I made 500 ml of Iodized Albumen and used 100 ml to cover four (4) Whole Plates - about 25 ml per plate. Not too bad. 40 Whole Plates per liter. You would actually get a lot more reusing it. But this is in a “one use” scenario. I can live with that. I know I probably overkilled it, but I wanted to be sure I covered the plate (twice). I do have a little system with a “B” Bottle to catch the runoff. It can be reused until it’s gone. I’m happy about that or I’d be cracking eggs once a week!

Here you can see Saddleback Mountain (peak in the distance - objects appear farther away in the picture than in real life). And my studio and darkroom building is to the left. You can see the pure ACTINIC light I get up here - 8,500 feet above sea level. This is looking west.

And lastly, I’m going to have to set up a system in my darkroom where I can prepare about 20 - 30 plates at a time. There will be about a 10% loss, but 30 plates ready to use will get me going. It will take some thought of how best to do this - I would like to set up two silver baths, which would cut my time in half. So 30 plates might take 3 hours - 10 plates per hour. I’ll get better as I go!

Tomorrow, March 2, 2022, I’m going to expose at least one of the four plates I prepped today. I want a well-lighted scene. I wandered around the property and found this - a granite rock and tree scene. DIverse in color and texture. I’ll set up between 1200 and 1300 hours - the sun is highest at that point right now. I’ll start with a 3-minute exposure with my Dallmeyer 290mm lens stopped down to f/11. That’s probably too much, but we’ll find out. If I’m successful, that means my exposure times in June and July will be around 1 minute. I can live with that.

If I make a horizontal plate, it will look something like this. Well lighted, texture, color, perfect for a test.

If I make a vertical plate, it will look something like this. Well lighted, texture, color, perfect for a test. I might like this composition better. What do you think?

These turned out really nice. My iPhone couldn’t handle the red light.

Four plates drying and ready for tomorrow! Exciting stuff for me!

Preparing Whole Plate Chemistry for the Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate Process

I’m not 100% sure, but the Collodio-Albumen Dry Plate process is probably going to be my negative-making method for this project. Here’s why.

The first and foremost reason is quality. I can see from my Half Plate tests that these negatives have a range and quality that surpass wet plate negatives. The extreme detail, or information in them is mind-boggling. The second reason is that the preparation is easier, or more stable, than other dry plate processes. I can prepare all the plates I want over the winter, photograph and process plates all spring, summer, and fall. I plan to print a lot in the winter, too. And finally, durability, and archivability. Honestly, I’m more interested in how “tough” the albumen is - you don’t even have to varnish these negatives if you don’t want to! I will in fact, varnish my negatives.

I’m very excited to have a few nice days of weather coming up. I plan to test this process in the Whole Plate format (my final format) making some negatives around the property. I’m hoping that my exposure times are in the range of 2 to 5 minutes. That is with the 290mm (Dallmeyer 3B) lens stopped down to f/11. I’m pretty sure that if I can get that speed on the first of March, my exposure times up here in June and July will be 1 to 2 minutes. That’s what really excites me. I get the QUALITY of the negative (unmatched) and the speeds of (almost) wet-plate - not really - but so much better than 10 or 20 minutes. I wouldn’t have that kind of time for an exposure at this elevation. Weather can change very fast up here. I want to stay under 3 minutes. And I think I can make that happen.

In other posts, I’ve mentioned that this work will be printed with the Mare-Walde POP Platinum process, mostly palladium actually. And then I’ll do a single gum over with this transparent red oxide pigment. I think the prints will be so unique in quality that they will raise the bar on POP! (in a good way)

Transparent Oxide Red - this will used for my Gum Over Palladium.

It was a gorgeous day today so I started the process of making all of the chemistry for the negatives I want to make in the next few days. The Iodized Albumen takes the longest, but there’s also maintenance that has to be done. The Aceto-Nitrate Silver Bath needed some love. I had already made some of the chemistry to test on Half Plate. I’m waiting to mix ANY pyrogallic acid or gallic acid until the day of developing. Oxidation is not your friend.

Beat the egg whites to “peaks”.

“Peaks”!

Sutton's Dry Plates, Ute Pottery, and My Print Stamp

SUTTON’S DRY PLATE TEST
I manage to expose two of the four dry plates I prepared. The results weren’t great, but a stepping stone toward making the plates work. I think I know what the problem is; Sutton talks about the importance of bromide in the process. He compares it to the Daguerreotype. I need to revisit the proportion of bromides in the collodion. There should be an equal amount of iodides and bromides. I learned some really valuable things. I feel like the failures are important in these processes, that’s how you really get to know them.

Plate #1 - f/11 for 15 seconds. Sutton’s Rapid Dry Plate process.

Plate #1 - Very thin, barely a positive. But it did work! Sutton’s Rapid Dry Plate process.

In short, I basically made dry plate positives. Weak positives at that. It’s a sensitivity issue for sure. I exposed the first plate (Plate #1) at f/11 for 15 seconds, trying to match what a wet collodion plate would require. After developing the first plate, I was curious if it was the exposure time or the chemistry, I opened up the aperture to f/5.6 and gave 20 seconds to the second plate (Plate #2).

I’ll go back and make some new collodion with the bromides and iodides perfectly balanced. Everything else seemed to work fine. I see a lot of potential in this process. It does, in fact, LOOK like wet collodion, which I want. I’m not that excited by some of the processes that look like film. I would just shoot sheet film if I wanted that. I want that “look” that wet collodion gives and I think I can get it with this process or the Collodio-Albumen process. I really believe this will be a lot faster, in terms of exposure times, than any of the other dry plate processes (several minute exposures, this will be seconds, not minutes). I can see that already. As fast as wet collodion? Maybe not quite, but close.

Plate #2 - f/5.6 for 20 seconds. Sutton’s Rapid Dry Plate process.

Plate #2 - basically an underexposed positive plate. Sutton’s Rapid Dry Plate process.

MY PRINT STAMP
I’ll be offering (selling) prints from the work I do over the next year or so. I wanted to make these prints special not only with the process but with a signature and stamp. I don’t like to use anything on prints other than pencil and didn’t want an ink stamp. I ended up getting this stamp made from a guy on Etsy. I think it looks very good and will make my prints forever mine!

My new print stamp. Looks great!

My new print stamp. Looks great!

UTE POTTERY BY L. POSEY
I purchased this pot made by a Ute artist named L. Posey. This is a special piece for me because I will use it for the project this year. It will hold the special plants of the area that I will photograph. Things like Bear Root, Yucca, and many other plants and vegetation. The colors and design will look amazing in a print.

Ute pottery by L. Posey

Ute pottery by L. Posey - bottom of the bowl - signed and authenticated,