Why Wet Plate Photography

[johnastovall]

As the world rapidly enters into digital image capturing and processing, we are furthering ourselves from traditional photographic technique. And it seems we are missing the elementary link between photography and art. Therefore I rather choose to slow down, to let this method of fast and furi...ous image processing to still itself. I wanted to do something that digital processing cannot. I would like to find another method and attitude for photo processing, which is simple yet meticulous, to return to the elegant elements of photographic art. Now I have made my choice; I have chosen Wet-Plate Photography.

10-2007 Ho Man Kei

[TXFZ1]

I always think it's funny when people say they get a large format to slow down and then they figure out they need to go practice setting it up quickly. I wasn't there but I imagine there was some fast and furious movements when Adams took Moonrise over Hernandez.

David

[Flea77]

I can't speak for others but for me it is not about slowing me down physically, it is about the mental slow down. Having a large format camera (or shooting film period to some degree) makes me consider all the variables slowly and carefully before I trip a single frame. Of course one CAN do this with digital (although I have never actually witnessed anyone doing it) the use of a large format camera makes it a forced reality.

Allan

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by Flea77

I can't speak for others but for me it is not about slowing me down physically, it is about the mental slow down. Having a large format camera (or shooting film period to some degree) makes me consider all the variables slowly and carefully before I trip a single frame. Of course one CAN do this with digital (although I have never actually witnessed anyone doing it) the use of a large format camera makes it a forced reality.

Allan

I think you would see it with digital shooters who use large format scanning backs.

[KJ Smith]

Originally Posted by TXFZ1

I always think it's funny when people say they get a large format to slow down and then they figure out they need to go practice setting it up quickly. I wasn't there but I imagine there was some fast and furious movements when Adams took Moonrise over Hernandez.

David

Years of experience by a Master photographer.


It's not so much the slowing down. It is a slower process.

You have more choices and more variables to consider.

However, you don't necessarily make those decisions on every shot. Some shots are straight forward shots. Not much movement or work to them.

In the case of Moonrise. He got off one frame. We do not know what He may of come up with if he had more time. We do know he wasn't totally satisfied with the negative. At some point he risked ruining it by putting an intensifier on portions of the sky.

[wclavey]

I'm sure that each person experiences it all differently, so your experiences may be different from mine...

I shot Mamiya TLRs, and only Mamiya TLRs for years. In many ways, they are much like a view camera... lenses on lens boards, need to cock the shutter (I could not afford the c330...), no metering built in, too big to use for a long time without a tripod, etc. They definitely fostered a measure twice - cut once approach to shooting. When I decided to try 4x5 6 years ago, I figured that it was going to be very much like shooting the TLRs - - that they would have been good practice for 4x5.

What I actually discovered, though, was that the rise, fall & tilt of the 4x5 camera actually reduced the amount of time it took me to make a shot. Yes, it gave you many more "things" that had to be done, but what it eliminated was the continuous moving about to find a composition that had the fewest problems because of the inability to manage perspective effectively with the TLRs - - remember, I mostly shoot architectural topics, preferably decaying ones... the metering, lens selection, exposure setting, etc. was pretty much the same, but the 4x5 movements meant that I could pick a view of the subject that I liked and use the facilities of the camera to make the final adjustments rather than framing it up, not liking some aspect, moving it all somewhere else, framing it up again, etc. I found it easier, in that regard... we won't talk about moving from a square to a rectangle... my rectangular compositions leave a lot to be desired.

Unfortunately, the darkroom part of the process has been anything but successful and that is a topic for another post at some other time.

[TXFZ1]

Yeah, I understand the process bit. It's just funny to me, expecially if I'm chasing light or a storm cloud. My process is to think what movements I want before unpacking but I'm using practiced movements to unpack, my mantra is to go slow to go fast...i.e. use methodical practiced movements instead of just rushing around as time is of essence here to get to the focus/composition/film/aperature setting and before loading the film, I have to stop and think...is this shot film worthy. Yes, I've repacked especially after seeing the groundglass and lots of "wished I didn't load film shots". Now, add the "gotta go make a wet plate" stage.

David