Learning Wet Plate Collodion with Allan Barnes
Allan visited The Weston Collective and put on a Wet Plate Collodion demonstration for our lucky members! He has period correct large format cameras that he uses during the process. He has lenses from the 1800s! Allan is such a nice and charismatic individual which made the event that much more fun. He is a wonderful instructor and always takes the time to answer any and all questions. We are super excited for June when he will be teaching a workshop here at The Collective!
Learning About the Equipment
Allan spent the time talking to our members about all the equipment that he uses when processing Wet Plate Collodion. He chooses to have all old school materials, the same styles that photographers back in the day would be using when this style was popular. He talked us through all the steps and was very attentive to all of our questions!
What Goes On in the Dark?
We then moved into the darkroom where he laid out all the necessary Wet Plate Collodion chemistry needed to make these beautiful prints. We set up in The Weston Collective’s Community Darkroom for the demonstration. It was really cool to see how he coated the plates to be exposed!
Setting up the Tintype
Gina Weston graciously donated her portrait for the demonstration. Allan carefully set up the scene taking the sun into consideration and made an exposure. The exposure lasted about 5 seconds and the results were spot on! We were able to go back into the darkroom and see the development process which was way cool! After Gina’s portrait, Zach and Jalena decided to pose for a classic shot. It is amazing how this process transports you back into the 1800s. During the workshop you will be able to make these prints yourself!
The Final Results
We were amazed with this process and the results we got. How cool are these images?! For all we know these were taken in the 1800’s. Can you spot the sign that we are in fact in the 21st century in the image with Zach and Jalena? Comment below if you see it!