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Hack Chat Transcript, Part 2

A event log for Alternative Photography Hack Chat

Silver isn't silicon

dan-maloneyDan Maloney 10/02/2019 at 20:020 Comments

Kelly Heaton12:43 PM

Very cool!

Pierre-Loup M.12:44 PM
I use a press camera bought on ebay for almost nothing... yet very handy !

Pierre-Loup M.12:44 PM
It's a Busch Pressman 4x5".


https://hackaday.io/project/166590-polaroid-sx70-600-back

HACKADAY

Polaroid SX70 / 600 back

This a system is based on a Busch Pressman 3x4" press camera. The original standard back for film holder has been removed, and replaced by a falt base. The instant back has been made from a malfunctioning SX70 instant camera, which only the ejection system has been kept.

Read this on Hackaday

anfractuosity12:45 PM
cheers

Pierre-Loup M.12:46 PM
And I use an enlarger lens on it, without shutter. Wet plate is quite a slow process, with pauses over a second under sunlight.

Pierre-Loup M.12:46 PM
Thank you @Dan Maloney !

anfractuosity12:46 PM
ah, so becaue you use an enlarger lens, it's a fixed aperture, or..?

Pierre-Loup M.12:47 PM
Some other "cameras" I made : https://www.flickr.com/photos/troisieme_type/albums/72157625115758010

Pierre-Loup M.12:47 PM
No, is has aperture blades like any other lens. But no clicks on stops.

anfractuosity12:48 PM
ah, gotcha

Pierre-Loup M.12:48 PM
And it's a rather crispy lens, which gives something I like : the look of an old process, but with a definition far superior than ols photography. :)

Pierre-Loup M.12:48 PM
*old

Kelly Heaton12:49 PM
when you buy your plates, are they just ordinary glass?

Pierre-Loup M.12:49 PM
And of course, the reason why a large format camera is used is that the camera has to be the size of the image we want.

Pierre-Loup M.12:50 PM
Yes, you can do wet plate on ordinary glass.

Pierre-Loup M.12:50 PM
But two other supports are mainly used : aluminium with black coat, and acrylic.

Kelly Heaton12:51 PM
Basically, a material that is non-conductive and won't react with the chemicals..?

Pierre-Loup M.12:51 PM
Both have a better sticking of the collodion coat, and both provide the black background, so you don't have to paint or mount the plate to view it positive.

Pierre-Loup M.12:51 PM
Yes, exaclty.

Pierre-Loup M.12:52 PM
Actualy aluminium reacts with chemicals. The silver bath has to be maintained more often.

Kelly Heaton12:52 PM
what is the largest plate that you (or someone else) have created?

Pierre-Loup M.12:53 PM
Some people like making things big !

Kelly Heaton12:53 PM
And how do you deal with the left-over / spent chemicals? How do you safely store and dispose of them?

Pierre-Loup M.12:53 PM
The largest silver tank I've made was for 50x60cm plates...

Pierre-Loup M.12:53 PM
This must be a joy to look at !

anfractuosity12:54 PM
i like the look of this camera you've made - https://www.flickr.com/photos/troisieme_type/5888618550/in/album-72157625115758010/ i would like to make something like that some time that uses 120 film, for something like ~6x17 images maybe

Pierre-Loup M.12:54 PM
(I've just that we are talking about wet plate, but maybe you don't know what it looks like...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/troisieme_type/

Pierre-Loup M.12:55 PM
I personnaly stay low on the size. I like to have to be close to look at the details. So no more than 13x18cm for me.

Kelly Heaton12:55 PM
@Pierre-Loup M. unfortunately, I have to run... I'll look at the transcript. Thanks so much for this info!

Joaquín de Prada12:55 PM
They look amazing... it has that american civil war look

Pierre-Loup M.12:56 PM
Ian Ruther has turned a truck into a lab AND a camera.

Pierre-Loup M.12:56 PM

https://www.ianruhter.com/chotto-motto

IAN RUHTER

The Lake Prints

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Read this on Ian Ruhter

Transcript will be posted on the event page: https://hackaday.io/event/166697-alternative-photography-hack-chat

Pierre-Loup M.12:57 PM
Yes, the civil war was mainly shoot with wet plate !

Pierre-Loup M.12:57 PM
So you can imagine that phoographers had their camera, but also their lab, their chemicals with them, for each and every picture they made...

Pierre-Loup M.12:57 PM
Another time...

Pierre-Loup M.12:58 PM
@anfractuosity This one uses 120 film.

anfractuosity12:58 PM
yeah, i meant 6x17, using 120

Joaquín de Prada12:59 PM
I guess nothing was standard, until Kodak, every photographer had his own tricks

Pierre-Loup M.12:59 PM
It's made with a medium format back from a russian camera (copy of hasselblad 500), a shutter from a press camera, and the lenses are olypus OM.

So we're getting to the end of the hour, and if Pierre-Loup needs to get back to work, we'll have to let him. Feel free to stay on and answer more questions if you want, though - we'll always welcome that.

I'll just say thanks to Pierre-Loup now for coming along and letting us know about how he makes those amazing photographs. I really learned a lot!

Thanks everyone for coming along too. And don't forget that next week we'll have playback designer Seth Molson here to talk about Designing Sci-Fi for TV and movies.


https://hackaday.io/event/166733-designing-sci-fi-hack-chat

HACKADAY

Designing Sci-Fi Hack Chat

Seth Molson joins us for the Hack Chat on Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at noon PDT. Time zones got you down? Here's a handy time converter! We all know the feeling of watching a movie set in a galaxy far, far away and seeing something that makes us say, "That's not realistic at all!"

Read this on Hackaday

Thanks all!

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