Becquerel Dag Trials and Tribulations

[yowyip]

Hi There,

Below are my first (failed) attempts at making a Becquerel. I was hoping I could get some help diagnosing the problems with them in order to know what went wrong before I proceed further.

The first had some residue left behind from the polishing I think.

-What also might have been a problem is that we used Methyl Hydrate as a substitute for Mineral Spirits.

-Additionally there is some fogging that was probably caused during the development process as the plates got hot with the work lights we were using. What are the benefits/ differences of using sunlight to tungsten light for developing?

-As a newbie it is also hard for me to tell whether these plates are underexposed or overexposed, the fogging doesn’t help with this either.

-the first plate has developed some brownish spots, is this tarnish, or a sign of something else?

I will be posting my new plates and results as they come in the next couple of weeks. My mission is to create a successful Becquerel Daguerreotype in the next 2 weeks.

Thanks for any help with this,

Julia

[phuphuphnik]

Give the plates a good rinse with denatured alcohol before the final buff, that’ll go a long way towards getting the other stuff off. What colour are you sensitizing to? I like the second yellow myself. You are getting an image, so that is something!

The sun will give you faster results, but it can get just as hot as a lamp. I use a 500 watt light 10 inches above the plate with a squirrel cage fan blowing directly on the amberlith. It takes between 45 minutes and 6 hours to bring the image out for me. If you are guilding the image I would stop doing it at this point, it will serve no use until you get better images.

These look like they might of cooked, so your too hoe theory is valid.

Keep up the good work! you are almost there and the next 5 or so trys you’ll have it. One more bit of advice, if you don’t mind is only change one thing at a time. If you think it is the Methyl Hydrate, then change that and leave everything else alone, if you think it is the heat then cool the plate better. If you change more than one thing, you may not know which it was that was fouling the plate. This process takes longer, but you’ll learn more. (this is from the American Handbook of the Daguerreotype)

[yowyip]

Thanks phuphuphnik!

OK, this is my first Dag I have done all by myself, without assistance, pretty good I think. But a couple of questions:

-I only did a minute and a half exposure in bright sun, it looks underexposed, correct?

-There’s still a bit of a milky haze, I developed the becquerel in bright sun for 2 hours exactly with 2 fans, so hopefully heat is not an issue. Could I have also over-developed it?

-I counted 45 seconds of fix time, though this seems kind of hard to decide…

Tomorrow I will try the exact same image at a similar time of day and sun, but a bit longer of exposure time… say 2 minutes, 15 seconds? (45 seconds longer) or should I do a smaller increment?

Thanks!

[phuphuphnik]

Looks good. What is the f of your lens? I have discovered that iodised to the second yellow, f/5.6 at 1 minute in full sun is a good starting place. Fix until the plate is clear, could take a couple minutes. Are you developing in the sun, or under a lamp?

you’re almost there!

chriso

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