The black art: wet plate collodion photography

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Күн бұрын

Photographer Adrian Cook uses one of the oldest photographic processes to make unique images on aluminium plates. Guardian Australia's picture editor, Jonny Weeks, joins him in his portable darkroom for a shoot on Sydney Harbour. Cook talks through his processes and explains the appeal of wet plate collodion photography in the digital age
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Пікірлер: 92

@elguapo5620 5 жыл бұрын

In the world of never ending Megapixel arms race. People have completely lost the plot about Photography. This is so refreshing that man is going back to basics...back to romance. This is the art of Photography.

@trulyinfamous 4 жыл бұрын

Photos have no compression, they are as sharp as the camera and film will allow. If you've ever seen 16 millimeter film, the resolution is incredible.

@marcd7332 4 жыл бұрын

The resolution of this is equivalent to 200mpx

@AbigailGonzalezbigui1964 4 жыл бұрын

"This is the art of Photography." It is. Truly.

@baboom007 4 жыл бұрын

true

@calvinf9218 3 жыл бұрын

and the effective resolution of an 8x10 wet plate photograph is roughly 100 megapixel. And people were doing this in 1851!

@KevinRusso 11 ай бұрын

It never gets old. Seeing an image develop on a plate or paper. It's always a zen moment.

@TheJACKCOLORADO 6 жыл бұрын

I practice this myself and I never tire of watching the magic happen.

@tubelator 4 жыл бұрын

Do you know a good site that talks about all the basics and prices it involves to get started? I would really like to get a camera that is also 100y old with a old lens to get it all down to vintage look :)

@JWheeler331 4 жыл бұрын

@@tubelator You could start with facebook groups. The forums are kind of void these days of any real talk. Get a manual such as John Coffer's manual or Mark Osterman's. There are a couple other good manuals but those are two of the tops. I personally have both and learned most of the things through the Coffer manual but both are good and have different information.

@JWheeler331 4 жыл бұрын

That was a heck of a run to and from the darkroom. I had a pull behind trailer for a dark room also. It makes things nice. I never done a shoot that far from it but I can attest to how nice it is having a dark room like that over a dark box.

@crtmojo2705 6 жыл бұрын

I'm actually building a 3D model of a wet plate camera and I needed to know how they worked. Thank you! Very cool.

@SHDEdits 5 жыл бұрын

sounds productive

@garfield4863 4 жыл бұрын

CRT Mojo hey, did you ever finish it?

@deathempire70 4 жыл бұрын

Did it work out?

@MichaelWellman1955 5 жыл бұрын

I love the idea of using a trailer as your portable darkroom. After composing for the pic you have to leave your camera unattended while you prepare the plate and then leave it when you develop the plate the camera is left unattended. Do you have someone watching it or are trusting it will still be there? Great pic

@lokyinphotography 2 жыл бұрын

There has to be someone watching the camera

@Glensfallsart 4 жыл бұрын

Began working with wet plate collodion photography methods eight years ago and the process continues to amaze me!

@mrnaseem6507 3 жыл бұрын

Heck of a work everything was back then. Now its just in your fingertips. How hard things were and it tells about where we have came from. Absolutely amazing 😍

@etherlords88 5 жыл бұрын

absolutely fantastic...

@damariuswingfield2144 5 жыл бұрын

Beautiful performance.

@paultaylorphotography9499 9 ай бұрын

Had the pleasure of photographing Adrian in action today at fotofest 23 in Hastings New Zealand. Incredible process love it.

@RaspySquares 4 жыл бұрын

This is very inspirational. Might be my new hobby.

@ayenoppa4717 4 жыл бұрын

Looks amazing, I wish I could do that

@ZR1Terror 5 жыл бұрын

Wow so beautiful

@sharronneedles6721 6 жыл бұрын

From the people in the comments saying this looks better than digital, it does allow me to explain. When taking these pictures you are exposing the silver nitrate to the actual world real light, with a digital you are running sort of like a printer it scans the environment.

@wuzihuzi 5 жыл бұрын

What? In my understanding digital is millions of RGB photosensors that capture light and when stitched together create a picture and it's instant. No scan lines like a CRT tv or printing motion. You're replacing photosensitive emulsions with a photosensitive sensor.

@luca_hc_gruber 4 жыл бұрын

@@wuzihuzi There are rolling shutters and global shutters on electronic cameras. Most use a rolling shutter, because its cheaper, and in that process the pixels are scanned like a CRT. So for example during Video recording if you pan the camera very fast, straight objects appear curved.

@chuckkuong8534 3 жыл бұрын

@@wuzihuzi Thas's the analogue side of digital photography you mentioned. After the sensor received the light, it will transmit it to digital signal. The rest is all data.

@gur262 Жыл бұрын

Blah. I've shot a 30s 6x9 cam and it's kinda nice. I've shot 35mm ..and it's just. Not that different from digital. I'm better of focussing on light, pose and idea shooting digital. However large format sorta instant things like these are still kinda thrilling to me ...cause I can't afford a din A4 sensor

@sleepingwaste 4 жыл бұрын

And I thought using film cameras was inconvenient

@marcosgarcia2643 4 жыл бұрын

Amazing technique still alive!

@neilhowe2665 5 жыл бұрын

keepin' it alive...!

@Raychristofer 6 жыл бұрын

That is so legit. great piece.

@AnimeshBis 6 жыл бұрын

Love it.

@minisla 4 жыл бұрын

Amazing

@Raevenswood 3 жыл бұрын

brilliant idea to have the trailer as a darkroom

@gui4j 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome

@ziyadkhader 6 жыл бұрын

amazing MAAAGIC :)

@IainHC1 3 жыл бұрын

Always amazes me :-)

@GuardianAustralia 3 жыл бұрын

You and me both!

@gui4j 4 жыл бұрын

Analog and wet plate and are fantastic ways to shoot...

@dictionaryofwords1108 4 жыл бұрын

While partially true, I like many others, prefer the digital wetplate

@gui4j 4 жыл бұрын

dictionaryofwords that’s nice well you in joy . Putting your experience Sony Nikon canon , though a chemical bath !!:D

@skoplpnews9450 4 жыл бұрын

This is a very well done video, including some backstory, chemistry and a great documentary on the process - the only thing that is missing is "the bit to watch" ;)

@carinam.5767 4 жыл бұрын

When you look into the camera lens why is the view upside down? Its really cool though that it still turns out beautiful! Wow I appreciate how patient photographers were back in the day. Imagine having to reshoot a photograph if they didn’t like the outcome of the photo.

@user-wc6vb3fn1s 3 жыл бұрын

Well, that's just how lenses work

@rockstardonut777 Жыл бұрын

Just like our eyes actually. The lens isn't a window but more like a pinhole. Light rays travel in a straight line towards the lens and from there keeps going the same direction, so the top of a building appears at the bottom and vice-versa. Same happens with left and right.

@clear_image_photos5477 Жыл бұрын

im really thinking about finding a way to adapt wet or dry plates to an instax mini pin hole camera. lol only issue is, i don't have room for developing or making the plates

@mandyblush 4 ай бұрын

Wow

@gregfarley5737 5 жыл бұрын

The inception of photography was by Thomas Wedgewood in late 1778 or 9. Source: Thr History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall.

@juegoshermanados3321 4 жыл бұрын

And how is that useful for this video?

@oldschoolcollodion 2 жыл бұрын

Also you need to see when it’s ready, during development. It’s not an act of faith. But I still love this video.

@juegoshermanados3321 4 жыл бұрын

"Why that?" "Sounds romantinc"

@anta40 Ай бұрын

Only for the really dedicated film shooters, because doing this requires you to have portable darkroom. Ah I'm happy with the more modern & convenient roll and sheet films :D

@roosters93 6 жыл бұрын

where is that? that's a great spot

@davewell 6 жыл бұрын

wendy whitely's secret garden

@roosters93 6 жыл бұрын

Dave Carswell thanks Dave

@gunnargrindvoll4390 6 жыл бұрын

next time park the caravan bit closer :)

@wuzihuzi 5 жыл бұрын

In Sydney.

@kellyeson9506 11 ай бұрын

😍😍

@Superbustr Жыл бұрын

Digital is going in the direct where every single digital image will be perfect, high resolution, sharp, perfect color, low noise, just perfect. Perfect is boring when it comes to photos. You need some imperfections or mistakes to make the best photographs. That is why film will always be the number one medium for photography. Because it just isn't quite perfect and when you reach your first goals new goal posts are extended as the film world is far more vast than the digital world.

@jin9311 3 жыл бұрын

Hello I am a subscriber to South Korea. There is no information about collodion wet plate in South Korea. So I want to ask you some questions. I am using a poeboy collodion (Cadmium bromide is not available in South Korea ) The picture is still blurry or the contrast is poor. I'm not sure if it's a silver nitrate issue or a developer issue. Collodion was definitely well made. The developer made it well by adding iron sulfate, acetic acid and ethanol. But the picture is blurry. I am doing an ambro type. Is it a problem with silver nitrate? Specific gravity is exactly 1.07. If the pH of silver nitrate is about 5~6, can the picture be blurry or the contrast is weak?

@GuardianAustralia 3 жыл бұрын

Hi there, the real expert is Adrian Cook, thestudio.sydney/about

@vintagelife5195 4 жыл бұрын

That is why I went with dry plate instead. No rush.

@hiltsyartnstuff1142 4 жыл бұрын

can you use the same camera for both?

@myronhensel 5 жыл бұрын

How do you meter and properly expose wet plates? Some people say not to use a light meter some say iso 2 is a good place to start. I'm aware it's most sensitive to blue light.

@DeceptiChic 5 жыл бұрын

Myron Hensel honestly, I’ve been told that it mainly takes practice, or you do certain calculations to figure out how long to expose.

@jacopoabbruscato9271 4 жыл бұрын

It's practice. Since you won't be using a mechanically accurate shutter but rather just taking the cap off the lens, you won't be able to be as accurate. But at the same time you won't need to, 1/10 of a second more of exposure doesn't change much if you're around 4 seconds.

@rockstardonut777 Жыл бұрын

It's a little difficult because as far as I know it will mostly (only?) capture UV light, so it depends how much UV light the scene reflects. Sensitivity is around ISO 1. You'd want to meter and make a test exposure and then go from there. It's useful to meter so you can make sure the scene didn't get darker or brighter between the two exposures (not obvious if you're busy preparing and developing plates...), and if it did you can adjust accordingly to the EV value.

@jackiepiasecki5401 Жыл бұрын

Bro imagen being a photographer back than it'd be stressful not to mention a free work out not to sure I'd wanna do all that if I have to run around lol

@johnbowyer6902 Жыл бұрын

Oh Boy! taking a chance, that the camera will still be there when you rushed back. Haha! This would be a disaster if you were in the Bronx. Haha!😅 great vlog though, thanks.