[daniel]

Hello Guys,

I used the home depot MAPP/pro gas torch. Its the yellow bottle. The Becquerel plates react even more dramatically but there is no mercury involved. The Gilding or gold must be the key and making the brightening possible. I attached images of a crappy b-type plate. T The first image is of the heat treated plate.

Mike- I use the 16 gauge copper for my plates and take a little longer to heat. The clad plate that I treated was very sensitive to the heating and reacted quickly and requires less time and more care. I successfully treated a clad plate but only with a slight increase in brightness.

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[daniel]

I am stuck with the white wall scenario but luckily the rest of the exhibit can be dimmed down. It seems the worst way to view a daguerreotype is in sterile, static, gallery setting. I think I may include a small statement describing intimate nature of the medium and the optimal way to view and enjoy a daguerreotype. thanks very much Rob for the response. I am a big fan!

Dan

Seattle

[daniel]

I have a friend moving to New York late this month. I can ask if he doesn’t mind transporting a few grams of fairly stable, fully charged silica. You will have to pick it up from him if he agrees to truck it out there. Let me know if you are interested and I will arrange it. This can serve as a plan “B” but he leaves next Sunday.

Dan

[daniel]

1/4 plate- 8 inch Dallmeyer at f2.9 and 450watts of cfl lamps

 

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[daniel]

Here a shot form last night using the one light consisting of 1 300watt 6500k bulb and two 5000k bulbs and a reflector.

this is a 1/4 plate-lens was the dallmeyer pentac at 2.9 for 9 seconds

 

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[daniel]

If you do not use the micro finishing sheets then you have to apply considerable pressure to the plate to get it polished enough. When I took the Robinson workshop at the GEH I skipped the initial step of sanding first and managed to get a really nicely polished plate with just the random orbital. Any imperfections shouldn’t be a problem as long as the plate has a good overall initial polish. The hand buff will tell you if you need more time on the random orbital……

[daniel]

Thanks Irv! I will take that compliment 🙂

I just spent half the day with Ken Nelson on Sunday getting priceless information on fuming plates by inspection. It was great day!

Anyway- Bakody, here is a link to the fixture I am using.

 

http://www.interfitphotographic.com/Lighitng/Product%20Pages/Monstar.php

 

here is the light. It is huge and gets a bit hotter than the 150watt light . I have seen them go for cheaper on ebay. expect to pay around $100 or less.

 

http://www.lightbulbsurplus.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=622_7_80_123&products_id=250

 

I managed to tweek the light to take one of the 300watt lights so I have two 150w and the one 300wat lamps. The 300 watt lamps are much larger and heavier but considerably brighter and it will take some fussing to get three of those big lamps in there. I have considered making my own light bank consisting of 3 300w 6400k lamps and 150w 5000k lamps in one fixture. Mogul base sockets are easy and cheap to get but I have not had the time to hash it out just yet.

 

Here is the wet plate process explained by the talented Alexey Alexeev and there is an image of his light fixture and set up. I don not see why this same set up would not work for daguerreotypes.

 

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/wetplate/wet-plate-collodion-process-ambrotypes

 

I am very comfortable working with these types of lights and hope to apply what I have learned with wet plate to my daguerreotype work. Continuous CFL lighting is much cheaper than strobes and way cooler and than metal halide or other HID lamps.

 

[daniel]

Any grow shop will sell mogul base 300 watt 6400k CFL lights. They are easy enough to get online and on ebay for cheaper. If you get three or four of those and you will be in business. I have a monstar3 fixture that uses 3 mogul based cfl lights at 150watts each rated at 5000k. I recently bought and added one of the 300 watt lights and it is way bigger than the other lights and puts out a much brighter blue light than the other two. I have been shooting collodion for over 2 years now using these lights and they work great for me. Living in Seattle, the winters are long and the summers are short so I shoot indoors for the most part. I am new to making daguerreotypes and have much to learn but I think the lights will also work for daguerreotypes. I have polishing issues and there is the simple matter of getting the right amount of iodine and bromine on the plate so the fact that I was able to get a portrait using an 16 inch lens at f4 made me pretty happy. The image attached is a 1/4 plate and was exposed for 20 seconds using the fixture described with two 150w and one 300w cfls and a reflector.

 

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[daniel]

just completed this one today- Whole Plate Daguerreotype-

Dallmeyer 3A , 1minute exposure using 1 450watt cfl with a softbox and a mole richardson solar spot. Plate buffed with random orbital only with rouge and then lamp black on medium speed. Iodine at 7 minutes to sepia/rose color, bromine at 2 minutes and then back over the iodine for 4 minutes. My boxes do not fume a whole plate very well and there was a definite hotspot over the first iodine but is not that obvious in the final image. This was scanned using the insert for the mercury pot to leave an airspace on the scanner bed. Looks like the glass was not very clean

 

 

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[daniel]

First attempt with bromine in the mix. Plate was fumed over the iodine to a rose color. The bromine was 20 seconds and was established by doing a quadrant test. I think the bromine ratio is too high but I will do other test plates soon. I used two 450 CFL light fixtures with softboxes and the plate was exposed at using a 150mm wide open at f3.5 for 90 seconds. This was developed at 168 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes. This plate was dropped right after the hand buff and it landed on concrete jelly side down 🙁

I re-buffed it and decided to keep the plate for testing purposes. It has some pits and flaws but I managed to squeak out an image.

 

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[daniel]

I just started with mercury development and came across a Bacharach MV2 mercury sniffer (now obsolete) on ebay. There are a few on there now ranging from $50 to $600. It was dirt cheap and was advertised in working condition so i bought it. When it arrived I charged the battery and tested it in the fume hood with a small amount of mercury and it reacted to the mercury fumes then zeroed out as I moved to fresh air. It has a built in mercury filter to zero the insrtument when in contaminated air too. It is very simple to use, just turn it on and zero the meter in clear air and then it is ready to use. It has proven to be very useful and I have tested my venting and fume hood to check for any signs of mercury leaking into my workspace. I also found out the even after I swab out the inside of the mercury pot with some alcohol and cotton balls after it has cooled and the mercury cup was removed, the inside walls of the pot were generating enough mercury vapor to warrant an airtight container when not in use. The pot is an original 8 x 10 Century darkroom pot and it has a stainless steel removable cup with a lid. The cup holding the mercury has a gasket and forms and airtight container with the lid and does not leak any vapor. I would highly recommend buying one but it may be a gamble on whether or not you get a working unit. Just ask if it powers up and it has any paperwork with it. Mine looks like new and it came with a certificate of calibration from a few years ago. There is also a newer type of mercury detector but it is a bit more expensive.

[daniel]

I have a question for Mike- I took the your workshop at GEH early last year and you recommended the using the 6-16 mesh silica gel. I was wondering why you settled on the the 6-16 mesh size as opposed to any other size. Would it be OK to use a any other mesh size and if so what are the alternative mesh sizes that might still work. Also, is the indicating type of silica not suitable for charging with bromine. I finally have some bromine on the way so I would like to get some silica before it arrives in a month or so.

Thanks,

Dan

[daniel]

Sold

[daniel]

Thanks very much! I the baby arrives in late February and I very excited. I plan on starting up with the mercury after the baby arrives but I am going to fiddle with becquerel until then to get my polishing in good order. I estimate the package at like 25-30#. I can ship it ups ground and it will be right around $30-35 bucks to San Diego. If that works for you can you then we proceed off the forum. let me know

Dan

[daniel]

here is another picture with plate holder closed

 

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[daniel]

I just scored this fume hood on craigslist. It is 48inches wide, has a built in drain and made stainless steel. It came with an 8 inch pbm pabst inline centrifugal fan with a plastic impellar rated at 530 cfm. Would the the fan be OK to use for venting out mercury and halogen fumes? The motor is pretty well sealed and the lead wire looks to be very well insulated from the air being sucked out. any advice would be very appreciated.

thanks all,

Dan in Seattle

 

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[daniel]

I played the drums for years and I made this head brace from a cymbal stand and a “T” shaped strong tie from the home depot. works well without a sandbag but the added weight certainly helps.

The picture is by Alan Berner of the Seattle Times

 

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[daniel]

wow- that pot looks amazing.

The cap to my mercury cup also has an o-ring and I have tested it with water to see if it leaks. The inside of the pot is actually very smooth but the corners are sharp but I shouldn’t have any problems getting cotton balls to conform to the corners. The cup at the bottom does protrude a

little into the pot so we will see how that all works out. I hoped to just put mercury into the cup once and leaving it there. I have yet to use it and it will probably be another couple of months until I order some of those clad plates from you and developing the first daguerreotype- By the way, it was a pleasure taking that workshop at the Eastman House.

Thanks, Dan

[daniel]

Here is a whole plate pot that was made by my friend Rusty in Seattle. It cost $500 bucks to fabricate. The mercury cup is a cast iron pipe cap welded to the base that has a screw on lid when not in use. The wooden seat and plate holder with a double darkslide was made by me using walnut picture molding. Rusty is ready and willing to make more.

 

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[daniel]

Hello there,

My name is Daniel Carrillo and I have been messing around with wet plate for a little over a year now. I am getting ready to dive into Albumen printing and in the next year or so, I would like to build up some equipment so I create some Daguerreotypes. I am also a Intaglio printmaker and you can see my work at

http://www.daniel-carrillo.com/blog/

or on flickr at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaporstew/

I feel that my background in printmaking and wet plate has driven me in this direction and I would love nothing more than to create Daguerreotypes of my own.

Wish me Luck,

Dan

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