Archive for the 'tintype' Category
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
Wednesday, August 4th, 2021
Shooting Wet Plate Portraits with an affordable Large Format Bokeh Monster
I should stop calling these “Short Projects” short projects. It didn’t take that long, but still longer as expected.
After I bought it at the Camera Obscura Festival
But I still think if you are looking for a affordable large format wet plate camera, you should have a look at the Mentor camera brand. Most of them are build like a tank (Remember, I got another Mentor too, where I did double exposures with: https://youtu.be/y0ccDnXw9xE) and easy to repair. The cool thing of this camera is the curtain shutter and strobe connector. It has also all movements you can imagine, great for architecture, product (or food) photography.
For the wet plate process, you want to look for a fast lens, but these are mostly pretty expensive. Thats why projection lenses are a good options, but most of them are triplet designs – but there are others too, like the Leitz Hektor 200mm F 2.5 that covers 13x18cm plates in portrait distance easily and has 4 glass elements instead of the classic triplets. be aware that the depth of field is razor thin on that lens. I have a second one for sale here http://gear.mhaustria.com with other camera gear I only use very rarely. So I would be happy if this finds someone who uses it again. I just collected to much gear….
In the video, I show you how I repair all the little blemishes of the camera and add two Lenses to it. I even build two lens plateadapters. One to mount lenses from my Century camera to the Mentor and one to mount Linhof Lenses to the Century camera. Check my Thingverse too, I will post some of them there if I am happy with them. . The more I get comfortable with my 3D printer the more I use it, that reflects also in this project. Even some prints take pretty long (my longest one was 16 hours), it saves me lots of time, because I can do different things in-between. And some of the designs would have been much harder to create with traditional wood/metal working.
I really like how the camera, lens plates and wet plate holder turned out. This will be used on many during my workshops (for English ones contact me here)in the future And I am also very happy that Tanja of https://www.unikat.pictures/ helped me out to model for me. Thanks a lot!
If you liked this kind of projects and want to support my upcoming ones, you ca do that here
Get yourself a beautiful print here: http://prints.mhaustria.com
Get cool analog shirts here shirts.mhaustria.com
Wednesday, April 28th, 2021
Is the wet plate collodion process dangerous?
Not a question that is easy answered, but I try to do my best in my latest video. Depending what chemicals you use, there is much more you have to take care of. I will do sometimes a second video with more info. Before you start with this process inform yourself with a good book or a workshop from a person who knows about the danger of the chemicals.
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/
Or book other ones here http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Wednesday, March 24th, 2021
Inspired – Jennifer
I know Jennifer now for many years. She was the legal guardian of her brothers since a very young age. As long as I know her, she always was a a very happy and positive person. 12 years later, they are all successful in their jobs and grew to wonderful human beings. That’s why she is so inspiring to me. When I remember myself in her age, I was just a jung man who wanted to have fun and not much responsibilities. But she even enjoyed it to be there for her younger brothers from the beginning.
I wanted to capture her happiness in one portrait. With the wet collodion process, that is not an easy task, so I had to be a bit sneaky during the shoot. I pre focused and put the plate holder into the camera. Turned the strobe power up to prepare myself for a short exposure and had a normal conversation with her to “prepare” her for the portrait, but I didn’t tell her that I will do a quick exposure by hand as soon as she smiled. So we had our conversation and as always Jennifer was in a great mood and so I rushed the lens cap off and fired the strobe without telling her whats going on. And with that I go the expression everybody sees so often on her.
This is just the beginning of the project. You can find already much more amazing people on inspired.mhaustria.com
get cool analog shirts here shirts.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/
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
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: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
Rose – a wet plate fine art print
Fine Art Prints: http://shop.mhaustria.com
Shirts: http://shirts.mhaustria.com
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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/
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: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Wednesday, February 10th, 2021
My New 150kg Studio Stand that is from 1957 – Cambo AST
My new (ok, its 70 years old) Cambo AST Studio stand is pretty cool and will make my wet plate work much easier. Watch the whole journey in my latest video. Thanks to Dani, Fritz and Erich for helping! Without you guys I couldn’t have done it!
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/
Art: http://shop.mhaustria.com
Shirts: http://shirt.mhaustria.com
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: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
From Wet Plate to 3D Print – Touchable Bokeh part II (in color)
This time I did a full explanation of my whole process from a wet plate to a finished Lithophane 3D Print. I thought great 3D prints need a different approach, therefore I went outside and looked for subjects with lots of “texture”. At the end I came up with an overgrown “Nature’s Victory” branch and the skeletons of Japanese Lanterns that are a symbol for “Death Within Life”. You can can find the 3D and finer art prints in my shop: shop.mhaustria.com – you can also support me as a patron here patreon.mhaustria.com and get more inside infos about my project and also support for your wet plate process.
For the Lithophanes I went to the http://itslitho.com website. Sliced the Sprint in Ideamaker and used a Filament from https://www.extrudr.com/. As said in the video, I am not sponsored by anyone, I just want you guys to know what worked well for me.
The main differences in the slicer settings are, that I did not use any infill and filled everything up with shells. Outer shell speed is 20 and I used a brim with 20 loop lines. If you use Ideamaker, you can download the Profile here (it is for an Artillery Sidewinder X1 in combination with the bio fusion filament from Extrudr)
I didn’t show it in the video, but I did the scanning before varnishing the plates. I thought it might confuse people, if interrupt the analog process with the scanning.
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: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Wednesday, November 11th, 2020
Connected – a 5 minute wet plate exposure with 7000 km distance between us
click or scroll down for the English version
English version
Connected – a wet plate art project about the bonds of friendship
with Shane Balkowitsch
This is not about a technical perfect wet plate. This is about building connections from thousand miles away. Overcoming obstacles and being there for each other.
This 5-minute exposure captured more than just an image, it’s a short movie where the plate captured our thoughts and movements. Thanks to Shane Balkowitsch to be a part of it.
We couldn’t do a lot of things because of the pandemic, but I won’t let this get me down.
I also didn’t want to wait for some things I wanted to do. That’s when I came up with the idea to do things differently. With that I finally could meet Shane in a more direct way and we also were able to shoot a wet plate together. For me it was important to show, that there are always ways to do something. The only limits we have are in our head. At this point I want to say thanks to Pro-Digital in Vienna who lent me this wonderful Dedolight light head with the projection kit. This is an amazing tool! Without that it would have been much tougher to make this happen.
Darken my studio
First I had to darken my studio, because the tiniest lightleak would be visible in a 5 minute exposure.
I have blinds, but they were not enough. With a 5 minute exposure a tiny light leak could make problems, thats why I covered my windows behind the blinds with cardboard.
Background
I wanted to have Shane’s background in my studio. That’s wehre things got a tricky.
As you saw, I used the projector on a gray wall to not overexpose the background and Shane.
During the test shots I thought for a moment I could use the projector light on me too, because on a digital image I looked as bright as shane. But the wet plate process fairy was against me – The uv light just sees it differently.
So I knew I needed an additional light source to get the exposure right.
I have a Hensel spot adapter for a strobe and tried this one first. But with the modeling light the light was to uneven (it’s a 20 years old strobe), it just works with the strobe.
Then I tried it with the light blaster. This is a projector for speedlites where you can mount lenses on it to project images on as a background. But here I had the same problem, as soon as I used a flashlight, the light was to uneven.
Then I remembered a workshop where the guy there used a dedolight and that’s when I called Pro Digital and asked them if I can have one. Some days later I went to their shop and Andreas explained all the possibilities I have with the light and showed my also the projection kit. From there I knew this is the right tool. Good to have local shops like that!
As soon as I got home, I made myself a gobo that looks like me. A gobo is a Graphical Optical Blackout.
I printed it and then I used a cutter to cut it out.
And with that I could make a projection on myself that does not brighten up the Shane and his background.
Exposure
5 Minutes is very long for a portrait. And yet it was as short as I could get it.
I used my Century 8×10 camera with my Dallmeyer 2b Petzval lens – it’s a F3 lens by the way.
I could only shoot 13x18cm plates, because the camera would have been in the way of the projector for 8×10 plates (I had to go closer).
Using a longer lens would also have been an Issue, because then I would have an aperture of F4.5 or even F6. With that the exposure times would have been twice or four times as long.
Aa you could see in the videos, I set the timer on my watch and released the lens cap with a string that I squeezed between the lens cap and the camera. An then it was only us two and 5 minutes in front of the camera.
Manny of you have seen the apron I am using but only a view know that this apron is from my grandfather who used to have a shoemaker shop in this house. Thats the reason I like to wear it, because it is part of our family.
It was such a great experience and so much fun. I will for sure do it sometimes again. Maybe some people even want to do a portrait like that. It’s a great way to get memories during that time where we have to be at home
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: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Tuesday, October 13th, 2020
Family and Architecture Wet Plates on location
click or scroll down for the English version
Diesmal wurde ich beauftragt Architekturaufnahmen auf Nassplatte von einem historischen Haus zu machen. Zusätzlich waren auch Familienaufnahmen gefragt. Mit der Hilfe von Alois Stingl gibt es dazu auch ein Making-Of video. Vielen Dank dafür! Natürlich hatten wir auch viel Spaß dabei!
Nächste Nassplattenworkshops: 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
Wollt ihr immer auf Letztstand sein, benutzt einfach meinen Newsletter ein Newsletter: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
English version
For this assignment I was creating architecture wet plates of a historic house. Additionally I did also a family portrait. With the help of Alois Stingl I can show you a Bits video – thanks a lot for that! And of course we had a lot of fun too!
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: http://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/