What am I doing wrong?

[Dafna Gazit]

Hello experts and enthusiasts!

 

Attached is my recent daguerreotype(self-portrait). It was taken with a 210 mm lens, f5.6

and a 30 minutes exposure.

I am practicing the Becquerel process and I have a few questions:

 

1.Why did it come out so pale? I don’t think it is under-exposed. The shirt should be black though it has whitish fog over it.

 

2.During the gilding the plate started to peel in certain areas. Why??

 

3.There are “wavy marks” all over the plate (especially on the left side). How do these marks occur, and how can I prevent them?

 

4.After the hypo solution the plate had a yellowish tint. Is this normal? (I am using fresh hypo solution and the plate was at least 15 minutes in it.

 

Answers, suggestions and ideas will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[greg7mdp]

Hi Dafna,

The peeling off is because the plate got too hot while gilding. Heat much more gently. Look at a previous discussion where Photolytic recommended the use of an IR thermometer to watch the temperature while gilding (excellent advice). Don’t guild for more than 3 or 4 minutes.

The wavy marks may have the same cause. Also filter your gilding solution with a coffee filter before usage.

15 minutes seems much too long in the fixer. Just watch for the plate clearing and leave it a little bit longer to be sure.

I don’t think you are underexposed either, but maybe enveloped in a gilding cloud of whiteness

Keep at it and good luck, you are on the right path!

greg

[newone2010]

I have the same problems-wavy marks during gilding.

If I keep heating,the wave marks will disappear sometimes.If I heat the plates quickly up to around 60 degree,There is less wave marks.I don’t know why.I do not have this problems before.

I failed in gilding(very good dags before gilding) at least 8 plates last two weeks.

[newone2010]

Hi dafna?

About the wave marks?I think found the reason of that.What kind of water you use for gilding?

I changed my water,this problems did not appear again.

hope this can help you.

li

[photolytic]

Hi Li,

I assume you always used distilled water and switched sources.

Perhaps we all need to distill our own water.

I once saw Irving Pobboravsky using water he distilled himself.

Deionized water is ok too but you need to test the conductivity.

We used double (twice) deionized water for critcal work in our lab.

Let some of the water dry on a glass plate and see if it leaves a residue.

Good luck, John

[photolytic]

Hi Li,

I assume you always used distilled water and switched sources.

Perhaps we all need to distill our own water.

I once saw Irving Pobboravsky using water he distilled himself.

Deionized water is ok too but you need to test the conductivity.

We used double (twice) deionized water for critcal work in our lab.

Let some of the water dry on a glass plate and see if it leaves a residue.

Good luck, John

[newone2010]

Hi John,

I can not get destilled water here.I just use bottled water which called as “pure water” from super markets.It works fine.

The wave marks which appeared during gilding.I think it beacause of the water which the seller said it was “destilled water”.I think he is not honest.I heared from others of that the water was just boiled,it was not destilled.He is a unscrupulous merchant.In this contury,we must always keep be vigilant to buy anything.People work hard but earn little.Someones try to reduce theire products’ quality to reduce their costing.As you know,I have difficult in try to find a good plater before.I have been cheated many times.

I will buy a machine for destilling water,but before that,I have so many things to do and buy.

good luck with you all.

Li

[Dafna Gazit]

Hi Li

I’m using distilled water that I bought. Thanks for the advice, next time I will check again before I buy them.

Thanks evryone for your advice.

[jgmotamedi]

Have you looked in a pharmacy? Often sterile distilled water is sold for various medical purposes. Not cheap, but better than ruining a gram of gold chloride.

I found a used lab-grade water still for $200 locally, and new 1 gallon distillers seem to run about the same. These won’t be sterile (not necessary for our purposes) or 99.99% pure, but what I get out of my machine seems to be good enough. Considering the price of gold chloride, I think it a good investment.

[RonF]

One thing that took me some time to figure out when I started becquerel is that it is much easier to prevent heat buildup when your development allows the plate to stand vertically rather than horizontally (at least with my setup). I thought that perhaps this may help as heat buildup could be a source of fogging.

[Author]

Posts