June 2, 2024. At the Bostick & Sullivan studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, watch as Chicago-based photographer Odeth Reinoso takes a wet plate collodion tintype portrait of her workshop instructor Rob Gibson with a Graflex 4x5 camera.
Bostick & Sullivan offers workshops in several alternative and antique photographic processes in beautiful and historic Santa Fe, New Mexico.
www.bostick-sullivan.com
We open with Odeth at the camera, and at the count of one, you can hear the shutter open. This is a long exposure at 35 seconds, so Rob has a "head stand" hiding behind him. This is a piece of equipment that looks like a heavy microphone stand that the model can brace the back of their head against, helping them stay perfectly still.
When the exposure is almost done, Odeth counts down, and the clunking sound of the shutter closing is heard. You can hear Rob's witty comments about how hard it is to stay steady, even with the head stand!
The camera follows Odeth into the darkroom to develop the plate. She removes the plate from the holder and places it in a darkroom tray. A small amount of an iron and white sugar based developer is poured over the plate quickly, and she agitates the solution back and forth. After a few seconds, the image starts to become visible. She stops the development with a cold tap water rinse when shadow details become visible. Odeth's typical development times are around 15 seconds.
After rinsing well, the plate is no longer light-sensitive, so the overhead lights are turned on as Odeth places the tintype into a tray of ammonium thiosulfate fixer.
As she agitates the fixer, unexposed and undeveloped silver compounds that appear as a white film over the plate are removed. This has the effect of dramatically revealing the portrait underneath. The fixer also protects the final image from oxidation and fading, making the photograph archival.
After the camera stops rolling, Odeth leaves the plate in the fixer for a total of five minutes and then washes it for 30 minutes in gently running tap water. After it has dried, she applies a varnish to the image to further protect the plate from oxidation and physical damage.
Camera: 1903 Graflex RB 4x5 single lens reflex with curtain shutter. 150mm Tessar lens with aperture set to f8. 1960 Samson geared head tripod.
Lighting: 3x 300-watt fluorescent heads for 900 watts total with 5500k color temperature. Soft box reflectors with front diffuser panel removed.
Chemistry: Bostick & Sullivan wetplate kit components. Old Workhorse collodion. 10% Silver Nitrate solution. B&S wetplate developer. Rapid Fixer. B&S Sandarac Varnish.