Tinotype?

[Tammie]

Well I heard quite alot about this lately and was wondering. What is it and how do you do it?

[CobyPhoto]

If you are referring to Tintype (also known as ferrotype) it is a process from the mid-late 1800's that utilized a metal base to produce the photo. I do not know of anyone producing tintype materials now, unless it is someone doing it in their own darkroom. I am sure you can find alot of info on the web by searching tintype or ferrotype.

CJ

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

DAGUERREOTYPE? http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/index.html
This was a positive image on a metal support.

The Daguerreotype was the first successful photographic process, the discovery being announced on 7 January 1839. The process consisted of

exposing copper plates to iodine, the fumes forming light-sensitive silver iodide. The plate would have to be used within an hour.
exposing to light - between 10 and 20 minutes, depending upon the light available.
developing the plate over mercury heated to 75 degrees Centigrade. This caused the mercury to amalgamate with the silver.
fixing the image in a warm solution of common salt (later sodium sulphite was used.)
rinsing the plate in hot distilled water.
Daguerre's choice of chemicals was such that the action of light left a milky white image or mercury amalgam.

His first plates were 8 1/2" by 6 1/2"; it is interestting to note that this still remains the standard "whole-plate" today.

The quality of the photographs was stunning. However, the process had its weaknesses:

the pictures could not be reproduced and were therefore unique;
the surfaces were extremely delicate, which is why they are often found housed under glass in a case;
the image was reversed laterally, the sitter seeing himself as he did when looking at a mirror. (Sometimes the camera lens was equipped with a mirror to correct this);
the chemicals used (bromine and chlorine fumes and hot mercury) were highly toxic;
the images were difficult to view from certain angles.
Many of the daguerreotypes that remain are noticeable for their detail, and this caused quite a sensation at the time. Indeed, the Spectator (2 February 1839) called daguerreotypes the "self operating process of Fine Art." The reaction in America was also one of amazement. The Journal "The Knickerbocker" for December that year quoted:

We have seen the views taken in Paris by the 'Daguerreotype,' and have no hesitation in avowing, that they are the most remarkable objects of curiosity and admiration, in the arts, that we ever beheld. Their exquisite perfection almost transcends the bounds of sober belief.

Carl Dauthendey, a photographer who became the first professional daguerreotype photographer in St. Petersburg, makes an interesting comment on the way Daguerreotypes were viewed:

"People were afraid at first to look for any length of time at the pictures he produced. They were embarrassed by the clarity of these figures and believed that the little, tiny faces of the people in the pictures could see out at them, so amazing did the unaccustomed detail and the unaccustomed truth to nature of the first daguerreotypes appear to everyone"

Sometimes the details might reveal something that the photographer had not intended. Fox Talbot, Daguerre's rival, observed:

"It frequently happens, moreover - and this is one of the charms of photography - that the operator himself discovers on examination, perhaps long afterwards, that he has depicted many things that he had no notion of at the time. Sometimes inscriptions and dates are found upon the buildings, or printed placards most irrelevant, are discovered upon their walls: sometimes a distant dial-plate is seen, and upon it - unconsciously recorded - the hour of the day at which the view was taken."

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

I believe there is a guy at the Cowgirls Museum in Ft Worth who has a show right now who is doing these still. Not sure at what size the images are.
here is a society associated with the process
http://www.daguerre.org/

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

http://www.robbkendrick.com/

[Gambit]

I have a tintype of me, my wife, and a couple friends that was made at Silver Dollar City (amusement park) near Branson, MO several years ago. So you might find someone in a specialized historical venue (such as DEM suggested) to make one or demonstrate how it's done.

[huttophoto]

http://www.tystintypes.com
Ty is scheduled to attend a number of reenactment events over the next few months.