Markus Hofstaetter's blog

Archive for the 'collodium' Category

Saturday, August 12th, 2023

my portrait at one of the most beautiful places in Austria

One of the most beautiful places in Austria – During poppy flower season there is a beautiful place to visit here in Austria. The Mohndorf (poppy seed village) in Armschlag. At exactly that place our „Menschenbilderausstellung“ (human pictures exhibition) was exhibited with one of my inspired series portrait. I love that place. Beautiful scenery, good food and a wonderful exhibition.

Wednesday, May 10th, 2023

Shooting a HDR tintype with a super fast lens (and get them on Ebay)

When shooting wet plates, you deal with a very light insensitive process (about iso 0.5). So most wet plate artists wants to get their hand on a fast lens. Wolfgang, a former participant of my wet plate workshop got his hand on a very fast lens and sent it over to me. For the first time, you can get the plates from this project on eBay, starting from 1 Euro – http://ebay.mhaustria.com

This Delta HD-6C ML lens is pretty huge and was used in vintage HD protectors many years ago. If you want to know more about this kind of lenses, check this blog post: blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/2023/03/shooting-an-ultra-fast-lens-140mm-f1-with-an-ultra-large-format-camera/

See the full transformation in my video

The yellow part of the flower absorbs a lot of UV light and thats the reason it appears dark when I exposed the plate normally. Thats why I did this series of 4 different exposures. I think every single one of them has something special in it. Just for fun, I created a digital HDR image out of them

Monday, January 9th, 2023

How to load Analog FIlm into a Sony A7 – An Analog Portrait Photographers view of the upcoming year 2023 and why AI is not the End

My own prediction about what will photography be in the future and what I will do about it

I am not doing a rewind or recap this year. I think there are too many of these out there and I have mostly the feeling it’s only a fill-in. You can watch my “end of 2022 studio tour” video or my recent scanner renovation video if you want to watch something instead of reading this article.

The pink elephant in the room

It’s there, and everybody is seeing it (Also non photographers). Some people are scared, some are angry and others ignore it. What I am talking about? AI, like Midjourney, Dall-E or the text focused chatGPT. This will not change our world, it changed it already. The ai integration in our lives started a little sneaky, with some cool filters for example, google recaptcha, or enhancements for our phone cameras. Text-wise, we had chat bots that were mostly bad and voice assistants that were somewhere inbetween. Close your eyes and paint your own picture about how you felt about ai at the beginning of 2022. And now face reality and think how much it has improved in the last 5 Months and how much it improves now on a daily bases. For me it’s crazy how great these generated images/portraits look like and how they get better by the hour. It gets harder and harder for me to identify these generated images. I think these “calculated” pictures can be very useful sometimes and many of them look great.

I wrote a German article for c’t Fotografie (online pay or paper magazine) about this topic, you can read it here: https://www.heise.de/select/ct-foto/2023/1/2219314550220514230 This includes also an interview with an portrait artist that uses ai: Klaudia Ratzinger

But I also think that all these generated images should have a digital watermark, so social media and websites can tag them as generated. People need to know if that image they are looking at is real or generated. I know that there is Photoshop as well, but these ai tools can be operated form a 5 year old and the results will fool you. Ai affects already so many business, not only photography, but also writers, lawyers, translators, book authors and many many more. I recently saw an article that a guy used chatGPT to create a children’s book. He also asked chatGPT to write down descriptions for pictures, so other ai picture generators can create imagery for the book from this description. He is selling the finished product now on Amazon. I also read a reddit thread where there was the need for a letter from a lawyer. Somebody asked chatGPT to write a letter and the user asking for a lawyer letter had success with it. You don’t have any programming skills? just ask chatGPT to write a script/program for you.

“Words can be powerful” gets a totally new meaning these days.
Talking with chatGPT can also be hilarious – more at the end of this posting

Does that mean we need to be scared as a photographer? I don’t think so. Let me explain:

• At the beginning of photography, painters were upset because photographers had no idea about posing and light. Of course it was much easier to get a portrait from one day to another. That changed crime scene documentation totally.
• Later black and white film photographers were upset about color film photography.
• At the beginning of 2000, film photographers were upset about digital photography
• And later digital photographers were upset about phone cameras
• And now the same discussion starts with ai generated images. Even we use ai already for many years in our phones (or how do you think it was possible to capture a detailed moon photo with your phone?)
  

And today all these mentioned techniques are still coexisting. That’s why I think they will also coexist in the future. I think good photographers must be “stage managers” these days. They need to sell an experience. Something the customer will remember for a very long time. For example, when somebody gets their wet plate portrait taken in my studio, they for sure will remember that forever.

This kind of photography is so different in our fast moving world. Sure, people could use a tintype filter. But that is like seeing a great dinner on a photograph instead of going there and enjoying it. Or think of a wet plate workshop, or any other kind of photography workshop. Creating something by yourself is always exciting and fun.

This works also for digital. I just had a business shooting for two days and this can be a great experience as well. People were excited and happy.

I think that may be a different story for non portrait photographers, like food, architecture or product photographers. But a lot of companies are working already with generated (3D renderings) images for their catalogs. And as far as I know, these generated images are directed by photographers.
Please comment how you think other photography business will be affected by ai.

Relax

That is something I am not very good of. I have so much in my mind and want to do everything at once. But I try to go for walks every day to relax. Instead of my camera, I bring my new binoculars with me. I got myself some cool ones for Christmas (US click here – German click here for the ones I bought). So why I am telling you this? Because I felt the need sometimes to bring my camera to my walks, to capture deers, swans and other wildlife scenes. The binoculars are a great substitute for that. They will calm you down, because you can not use them to take pictures. I use them to watch wildlife and enjoy it a lot.

My new year resolutions for 2023

Don’t seek for perfect wet plate portraits all the time, accept the one you did and appreciate it. Look for more assignments that you enjoy and less that you don’t. Work more on your own projects you love.

How to load analog film into a Sony A7 digital camera?

Let’s end this post with something fun. I asked chatGPT some questions about wet plate and analog photography. And at the end, chatGPT ended up explaining me how to load film into a Sony A7 camera and why medium format film would not fit in. And no worries, the sensor cleaning and the ibis of the Sony A7 will not destroy your film either. And if you ever looked for a film rewind button on your digital camera, chat GPT got you covered. In that case chatGPT acts like a little child that made a mistake and makes up more facts to cover it. Please be aware that all other answers about the wet plate process and so on contains also false information (I won’t explain everything, but for insiders it’s fun to read). As always, if you are interested in that process, take a workshop or read a book (chatGPT tells you the same). Enjoy the answers guys (You need to open some screenshots in a new browser tab to be able to read them):

[Show as slideshow]

How does a digital camera that loads analog film look like?

I asked that question Midjourney and got these results 🙂

[Show as slideshow]

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022

Varnishing Wet Plates with Lukas Varnish

At an external event I had once the issue, that I could not get rid of the dust on the varnish. So I worked out this solution with Stefan Schubert. You can find the links to all tools here: list.mhaustria.com

Wednesday, January 26th, 2022

Private Collodion Wet Plate Workshop

This year private wet plate workshops are popular. That’s the reason I show you the first one of 2022. It was great to work with Ronald https://www.instagram.com/mrronho/ the cool thing is, I got some great portraits as well. Thanks so much for coming to my studio!

List to all tools I use: list.mhaustria.com

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

Wet Plate Talk and on location shooting at Fomo Graz

Fomo Graz stands for Fotomonat Graz and translates to month of photography in Graz. The Fomo team invited me to do a talk and also shoot collodion wet plate portraits on location there. Thanks a lot for the invite it was such a great event and also thanks a lot to https://www.atelierjungwirth.com for letting me use your location to work on my portraits there. We had a blast, so many interested people during my talk. I really enjoyed explaining my favourite process to you guys. Also the wet plate portrait shoot was great, so many people wanted their portrait done. I think I shot 22 portraits on that day. Check out the video underneath for more impressions from this event. You an enjoy the video on a 4K screen with HDR support!

Check out these instagram pages from the people in the video: Fomo Graz , Ana, Luke, Julia

[Show as slideshow]

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.

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.

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, May 16th, 2019

Fernsehauftritt – VICTORIA – GEHEIMNISSE EINER JAHRHUNDERTQUEEN

Click or Scroll down for English Version
 
Ich habe letztes Jahr wieder mit meinem historischen Kameraequipment als Fotograf in einer Metafilmdokumentation mitgewirkt. Ihr könnt mich also am Samstag, dem 18. Mai, um 21:45 Uhr auf Arte sehen: 

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/077367-000-A/zwischen-lust-und-pflicht-queen-victoria/
und am Freitag, dem 24. Mai, 22:35 Uhr auf ORF 2
https://tv.orf.at/program/orf2/20190524/879369201/
 
Hier noch der Link zur Metafilmproduktion:
http://metafilm.at/film/victoria/

Es ist immer wieder schön mit dem tollen Team von Metafilm zusammenzuarbeiten.
 

Und weil wir schon bei der historischen Fotografie sind:
 
Nächste Workshops: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
 
Für individuelle Workshops kontaktiert mich hier http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
 

Wollt ihr selber eine Nassplatte samt Entstehung erleben – kontaktiert mich einfachhttp://wetplate.art
 

Wollt ihr immer auf Letztstand sein, tragt euch in meinen Newsletter einNewsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/

English Version

 
I again acted with my historic camera equipment in a tv documentary. You can watch this documentary on Saturday, 18th of May, um 21:45 on Arte:
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/077367-000-A/zwischen-lust-und-pflicht-queen-victoria/
and Friday, 24th of May, 22:35 on ORF 2
https://tv.orf.at/program/orf2/20190524/879369201/
 
The Link to the Metafilm production
http://metafilm.at/film/victoria/
It was always a pleasure to work with the great team of Metafilm 

 
Because of the historical photography topic:
 
Upcomming workshops: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
 
For individual workshops please contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/

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/
 

Thursday, February 25th, 2016

Nassplattenakt Eclipse

Scroll down for English Version
 
Wir hatten das große Glück für ein Shooting kurzfristig das Model Vanessa zu bekommen (Von www.model-kartei.de ). Vielen Dank für die Ausdauer und Geduld um ein weiteres Nassplattenshooting fertigzustellen.
Dieses Nassplattenunikat entstand mit Leidenschaft, Silber und Licht auf einer über 100 Jahre alten Kamera. Wollt Ihr selber so ein Kunstwerk? Informiert euch unter http://zeitreise.jetzt
 
Titel: eclipse
Model: Vanessa
Plattengröße: 30x40cm
Arbeitszeit: ca 4 Stunden (Inklusive Vorbereitungen)
Kamera: Unbekannter Tischler um 1900
Objektiv: Voigtlaender Heliar 480 mm F4.5 @ F9
Blitze: Hensel Expert Pro 2800 Watt/Sekunde
All diese Platten sind handgemacht (Beschichtung, montieren usw)
Um so ein Ergebnis zu erzielen, benötigt man viel Geduld und viel Übung.
 

 

 

 
Registriert euch für meinen Newsletter um immer die aktuellen Neuigkeiten zu bekommen: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/newsletter/

 
 
English Version:
Luckily we were able to have the model Vanessa (from www.model-kartei.de) for another wet plate shooting. Thanks a lot for your patience and stamina to make this piece of art happen.
This one of a kind tin type was made out of passion, silver and light with an over 100 year old camera.
Have a look at http://zeitreise.jetzt if you want to have done a tin tintype of you.
 
Title: eclipse
Model: Vanessa
Plate size: 30x40cm
Working time: about 4 hours (inclusive preparations)
Camera: Unknown carpenter from 1900
Lens: Voigtlaender Heliar 480 mm F4.5 @ F9
Strobes: Hensel Expert Pro 2800 Watt/Second
This plates are all handmade (pouring, coating, mounting and so on)
It needs a lot of practice and patience to make a photograph like that with that old technique.
 

 

 

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