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Archive for the 'ambrotype' Category

Wednesday, March 13th, 2024

DIY Ambrotype/Glass cleaning clamp for wet plate photographers

Cleaning ambrotypes is a very tedious task. Especially when you want to prepare many plates. Thats why I wanted to get one of these glass clamps for cleaning. Most clamps I found online were not what I was looking for. Then I found the one Adam Savage made for Gary Oldman: https://youtu.be/4MVxJNawefM?si=sxB__Zr7kcl_g1rQ
I guess lots of you guys did not know that mr. Oldman is also one of us who the path down the rabbit hole to work with the wet plate process.
Inspired by the wonderful design of Adam Savage I started to design my own version that can be 3D printed. Even the wooden version of Adam Savage is much more beautiful, my printed design may be easier to clean. You can download the files for 3D printing from my Patreon page
No membership is needed, but consider it if you want to support me. Or buy me a tea or PayPal me


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  • Posted by Markus | Filed in 3d print, ambrotype, wetplate | Comment now »

     

    Wednesday, July 12th, 2023

    It’s time to say goodbye – a story about an end and a new start

    In todays post I’ll use photography to make memories for my cherry tree that I grew up with since I was a little boy.

    Many years ago I renovated the house of my grandma and with that came also a big garden full of trees. Every year I am lucky to harvest fresh raspberries, apples, pears, cherries and many other fruits. It’s so wonderful to wake up in the morning and get yourself some fresh breakfast from the garden.

    This was the garden when I inherited it, you can see parts of the huge cherry tree in the background

    The biggest and probably oldest tree of all is my cherry tree. I remember climbing it when I was little. It brings a wonderful big shade during the hot days and it’s fruits are so delicious.

    you can see how big my cherry tree was many years ago
    The recent years thunder storms and heavy rain hit really hard on the tree. Its missing about half of its branches on one side.

    I always thought this giant beauty will outlive me for sure. But after the last visit from a gardner I learned that the tree is probably completely hollow already and it it will be soon not save anymore to walk under it. That really made me sad, because I have so many memories with this tree. That was the moment, when I realised, that I want to capture a last memory on an ultra large format ambrotype. I captured already a tintype of some cherry blossoms of this tree many years ago. and I am really glad that I did.

    For this project I brought my 12×16″ wooden Ultra Large Format came into my garden. Lenswise I decided to go with my 360mm Voigtländer Heliar universal.

    I did a similar plate with the same setup last year, when I captured the rebirth of one of my apple trees.
    The tree looked like It was dying, but it grew out of it self again. When I thought it was dying, I gave it another year. And exactly in this year it grew new branches. And yesterday I had the first of its apples again for breakfast.

    I exposed the apple tree ambrotype for the trunk of the tree to get a bright look. With that I get lots of solarization where the branches touch the sky and I think this looks great on glass plates.

    But for the cherry tree I wanted to do things a bit differently. Thats why I used a very old collodion, old developer and a stronger fixer. With overexposing again, this should give me a warmer look with again lots of solarization.

    The wet plate process is mostly seeing blue light and thats why the sky is easily overexposed. I really love how this turned out.

    Maybe you ask yourself why I exposed for the tree trunk on both of these images. If I would have exposed for the green leaves or thin branches, the ambrotypes would have been much more contrasty you may think. My thoughts are, that the trunk is one of the most important parts of the tree. If it gets hollow, there is a great chance, that the tree will die.

    As always I did a scan of the plate, to have kind of a copy of it. If you want to know more about this huge scanner, have a look here: https://youtu.be/Oi3Tef3zZPE
    I always try to get the scan as close to the real thing, but to see the light reflecting on the silver when it hits the glass plate is not is something you can not replicate in a scan.
    This will be a memory that lasts forever . To see these two plates side by side, please check the end of my video, a photo or scan just won’t do justice. For me the apple tree plate stands for a new beginning and the Cherry tree p late for the end.
    I am really sad that the tree must go. But where life ends there will be a new one. After it is gone, I will plant a new cherry tree there. And for sure I will do some plates of it. portrait (c) Michael Liebert

    I chose these portrait of me here, because it fits in perfectly into this story. Some time ago I booked a portrait session with Michael Liebert. He knew that I am connected to my garden and to this tree, thats why he choose to take my portrait there. And now this portrait is the prefect fit for my story today.

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

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    Wednesday, March 15th, 2023

    Testing 6 Types of Wet Plate Varnish

    I did a live stream about different types of varnish for my Patreon supporters (If you join tier 2, you can rewatch the recording of the live stream). Because some of you complained after my posting about Lukas varnish that this one is not available in your country, I bought more different ones and did this video. Enjoy guys: I show tested lots of interesting alternatives. My favourite right now is the Cobra odourless varnish gloss 102. You can get it here: international https://amzn.to/3YAVx8k Germany https://amzn.to/429li2D

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
  • Posted by Markus | Filed in ambrotype, collodion, diy, nassplatte, varnish, wetplate | Comment now »

     

    Friday, November 18th, 2022

    Wet Plate Strobe Calculator with Light Modifier Comparison

    How much power do I need for my wet plate setup? I get this and similar questions asked a lot. Thats the reason I build a calculator for that. With the calculator, there comes also a knowledge base. Because there is much more to know about strobes and the wet collodion process. This is exclusive for Patreon supporters (Tier 2). With tier 2 support you get, also wet plate troubleshooting, access to recorded Patreon videos, early access to videos and much more. Link to this Patreon posting: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wet-plate-strobe-74548519
    More about the calculator in this video:

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
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    Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022

    A Wet Plate Collodion Experience in Slovenia

    I went to Slovenia to join Borut Peterlin’s Wet Plate Experience. It was great and I had finally some time to slow down and find myself again. There were so many nice people there. I am glad I met everyone of you. I hope to see you guys again next year. This video reflects how I felt there and how it slowed me down. In a second part I will show an analog portrait series and talk a bit more about my experience there. You will also find another Artist in the video who joined my inspired series – Let me introduce you to Lara Ješe – Lara Ješe is an artist who loves to express her inner worlds through animal shapes. Step into her menagerie anytime and bring some snacks for the horses..

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
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    Wednesday, May 4th, 2022

    Building a Wet Plate Frankenstein Camera and Capture a Ghost

    Corrine of www.corrinewestmedia.co.uk booked a wet plate workshop before the pandemic started. Two years later we were finally able to do it. The main subject was to get comfortable with the wet collodion process and to create images similar to the ones of spirit photographer William H. Mumler. Mr. Mumler created images (probably double exposures) where his clients could take a picture with their deceased relatives. The photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the “ghost” of her husband (Abraham Lincoln) was his most famous one. Corrine found my double exposure wet plates and that was the reason she contacted me in the first place. About two months before the workshop Corrine surprised me with a question: “Can we build a wet plate camera together?”. I talked with a friend and after a long visit at a DIY market I was sure that we can do it. A DIY Camera and capturing ghosts, that sounds like a fun workshop for me 🙂

    I could not capture everything in the video, because I was focused to deliver a great workshop experience. So let me explain a bit here. I build a diy camera kit so to say. But I did not want to build everything. It was important for me that we put the major parts together in person, to really create a camera and an understanding how a camera works.

    the camera kit

    It took me a long time to figure everything out, I wanted to create a diy camera, that is adaptable and upgradeable without any special parts. It also should be able to shoot portraits and landscape and if something breaks, just go to your diy marked and get a replacement part. The only thing needed is my self designed camera back. I wanted to invent/adapt something that you can get in the market, but I was without luck finding such a part. The 3D printed design took many hours and a lot of filament to work as expected.

    The first prototype of the camera back with an international film holder

    For the lens I went for a 150mm Leitz Dimaron (F2.8), Elmaron (F2.8) or Hektor (F2.5). These lenses have three things in common. 150mm is kind of a “normal” lens for the 4×5 large format and they all have the same diameter and not too expensive if you buy them online. All of them are pretty sharp as well as you could see in the video (this was a Dimaron)

    one lens mount, lots of options without breaking the bank

    The camera and lens support is build like this one in that posting: Camera and Lens support

    For the Film/Plate holder I decided to go for the std international 4×5 holders. I had them water jet cut for a clean look and we modified it with silver wires, because these are more resistant against acid and fit into the silver nitrate workflow

    std 4×5 film holder modified for the wet collodion process

    We were super happy with our first result. The portrait looked awesome and the resolution of the lens is great. When you look closely at the video you will see, that we used two boxes for portrait distance.

    the ground worked also great – here is a explanation how we did it
    https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2019/12/ho-to-make-a-ground-glass-for-a-large-format-camera/
    For me it’s always exciting to see my idea come to life.

    Here is a detail scan of Corrine’s eye – pretty impressive result of a 4×5 plate shot with a self made camera and a projection lens.

    a scan of Corrine’s eye with my Screen Cezanne Scanner

    For the spirit photographs that are inspired by Mr. Mumler we wend for wet plate double exposures.
    To make our live easier, we marked all positions with sticky tape on the ground.

    tape is always your friend for any photography project

    We decided to use my Dallmeyer 3B Petzval lens for the first double exposure, because it fits better to the time when the original images were captured.

    William H. Mumler. inspired wet plate double exposure

    The second double exposure was a bit more modern, but also should get the ghost look. For that we used a Zeiss 300mm F4.5 Tessar lens. This lens is pretty new (about 2ß-30 years old) and is very crisp. I thought that makes more sense for this kind of image and also fits to the story (see caption of the image)

    Profession – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow An image about photography has changed

    What a great 3 Day workshop that was. We created so many different portraits. (more in the gallery) and time flew so fast. At this point I want to say thanks again to Corrine for visiting my workshop and trusting me with the camera design. I looking forward to see what she will do for her PHD with the wet collodion process.

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
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    Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

    Never give up – a 300mm Zeiss Tessar project with lots of fails

    In todays video I documented my fails (wood working and 3d printing with sidewinder x1 – also building plate change of the sidewinder x1) while I tried to mount my new lens on my camera. I got this lens, because I do more and more wet plate family portraits and for that I wanted a sharp affordable lens. Normally I would show you guys how I did a family wet plate portrait(its online now, scroll down for the second part). But I couldn’t do it, because of our lockdowns. So I worked on a self portrait. To make this easier, I turned my studio into a darkroom, so I can move without getting a ghosty image on the plate. Because I put metal sheets into the ceiling during my studio renovation, I could mount the red light easily with magnets. To see the whole story, watch the video 🙂

    First Part

    Second Part

    To find all the tools I used, check list.mhaustria.com

  • Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

  • Find all the tools I use here : http://list.mhaustria.com

  • Looking for wet plate gear? http://gear.mhaustria.com

  • Buy me a tea: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mhaustria

  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

  • Get cool analog shirts here http://shirts.mhaustria.com
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    Thursday, July 15th, 2021

    The First Analog Photography Festival After The Pandemic

    This was such a great experience! It was not only great to meet people again at the Camera Obscura Festival, but it was also awesome to meet artists that are interested in an analog workflow. Another great thing is, that this festival is not an exclusive “wet plate event” it is also for people who work with the analog medium in any way. That was so cool, with this option you will experience things you may not have seen before. Like Large Format Cameras build from Legos. It was so nice to meet all of you guys finally in person another big thanks to Stefan, Christian and Denis for organising this great event! If you want to be notified for the next Camera Obscura Festival, register here: http://cof.mhaustria.com

    Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com

    Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com

    For online wet plate workshops, visit this http://online.mhaustria.com

    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/

     

    Tuesday, March 16th, 2021

    Inspired

    Today I want to inspire you with amazing people in front and behind my camera with my new collodion wet plate portrait project “inspired”. This project will be published in a book, register here to get the latest news about it inspired.mhaustria.com.

    It all started with a Dallmeyer 3B Petzval lens, my dream lens that finally found the way to me. Denis of wetplatedreams.com found it for me. The condition is amazing. So is also the date from when it was made – it’s from 1876.

    Denis is such a passionate person with a lot of knowledge when it comes to historic lenses and cameras.

    wetplatedreams

    And then there is Andreas – his passion is the building process of lens caps. It’s like he is meditating during the process of making one of his beauties. Unthinkable these days that somebody works 5+ hour on a lens cap, but he does. You can see in the video how beautiful one of his outcomes is.

    Andreas

    There were also lots of other people involved who made my inspired portrait project possible. Like Mr. Dallmeyer or Mr. Petzval. More about these gentlemen in my video.

    Now I want to talk about the people that were in front of my camera. 
    One of them is Michael White – a former Producer/Director/Author.
    His historical documentary – Azorian The Raising of the K-129 has received international praise and has been shown by Networks in the US, Europe, Australasia, Asia.
    Also his Book over the same story – Project Azorian the CIA and the Raising of the K-129 received positive critics in the US and worldwide. 
    He worked as special effects technician in his earlier career on many well known movies, like Superman the Movie, Flash Gordon, The Pink Panther, The Never Ending Story Enemy Mine, for name a few. 
    For more information on Michael White visit www.white.at.

    Another person that inspires me with his work is the tattoo artist Manuel Soultan. His tattoos look like vivid three dimensional photographs. He designs every artwork by himself to create a one of a kind tattoo. You can check out his work on his website http://www.msctattoos.at or on his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manuelsoultantattoos/

    This is just the beginning of the project. You can find already much more amazing people on inspired.mhaustria.com

    If you want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art

    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
    Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/

     

    Thursday, January 14th, 2021

    Touchable Bokeh – 3D Printed Wet Plates

    have you ever felt a photograph? I guess not, so maybe my latest project about 3D printed wet plates will change that.

    These beautiful prints (litophane) took a pretty long time to finish. My printer was working on them for 17 hours per print to make them as beautiful as possible. And that does not include all the fails, the search for the right filament and to find the right settings. But I am so happy that it worked out. If you want to have one of these beautiful artworks for yourself, check out my Ebay store http://ebay.mhaustria.com or contact me directly here.
    Visit also my analog store for shirts and other cool stuff: http://store.mhaustria.com

    For private wetplate workshops contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
    Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/

    Fine Art Shop http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/

    become a Patreon and support me: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria

    If you guys want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/

    Posted by Markus | Filed in 3d print, ambrotype, collodion, video, wetplate | 12 Comments »