[greg7mdp]

I would suggest you contact Jerry Spagnoli, he is a master of the art.

gregory

[greg7mdp]

It is much easier to scan the plate before it is sealed behind glass. You can just put the bare plate on the glass (it won’t damage the image), or use a small spacer to leave a little air space between the plate and the scanner glass to avoid Newton rings.

greg

[greg7mdp]

As far as I know, the solution of gold chloride doesn’t degrade with time, as long as it isn’t mixed with the thiosulfate solution.

[greg7mdp]

Hi Li,

You are experiencing the difficulty of the daguerreotype process. Many things can go wrong, and often will. But when the planets align and all goes well, you are holding a miracle in your hands. That makes all these efforts worthwhile.

About the gilding stain. It is hard to tell from your scan, but if you see a cloudy white stain that seems to partially block the image, then yes this is a classic gilding issue. This normally happens when gilding for too long, or when the gilding solution is too acidic. Try adding some dilute NaOH (sodium hydroxyde).

Still it is easy to see your daily progress. If you continue at this rate and don’t get discouraged, I am sure you will keep getting better and soon make very nice dags.

All the best,

greg

[greg7mdp]

It is very hard to know when to stop gilding. You always hope the plate will improve, which it does… until it gets worse and it is too late.

When I have a good plate, I stop gilding at 3 minutes, and I don’t heat the plate like crazy. After about 1min to 90s, I start seeing a few bubbles caused by the heating. That should give you an idea. That’s for a whole plate, so for a 4×5 I would stop sooner, around 2 minutes).

I would advise you to use a gilding stand (because your plates are not silvered in the back), and also to heat more gently and stop gilding sooner.

greg

[greg7mdp]

Hi Li,

you are right, your plates are getting better and better, and I am not saying that only because your model is getting more and more undressed 🙂

 

Good job!

 

greg

 

[greg7mdp]

My gilding stand. Definitely not pretty but was cheap and it works.

 

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[greg7mdp]

Is the back of your plate silvered too, or is the copper visible? If the copper is visible, it will be a problem when you gild by submerging the plate, as it forms a battery and the copper migrates to the silver side, darkening the edges. Maybe that’s what is happening to you. I made myself a gilding stand with copper piping.

Your first proportions are correct, with the 1:1 mix. If you want to reduce gilding just reduce heat and gild for a shorter time.

greg

[greg7mdp]

Li, the small white spots are because you left the plate too long in the mercury. I’m pretty sure of that. The shiny silvery spots maybe have the same cause, but I don’t know for sure as I have seen them very seldom?

95% alcohol for rinsing is fine. Even 65% alcohol would be fine. And use a blow drier (normally used for hair), starting at a corner of the plate, to gently push/evaporate the alcohol or water.

greg

[greg7mdp]

The small white spots are mercury frosting, caused by too long a time in the mercury box. Look at the plate before developing and these spots should not be there.

When rinsing the plate with water, make sure to use distilled water. After gilding I rinse with alcohol.

I think you are on the right track… keep trying.

greg

[greg7mdp]

I don’t see why the plate size would matter very much. I would have the plate between 2 and 5 inches away from the iodine. David Burder described making a very large daguerreotype in http://www.cdags.org/wp-content/uploads/PhotCanV29-4Burder-2%20fi%5B1%5D.pdf. It is definitely is a significant undertaking. Good luck to you!

greg

[greg7mdp]

I do plan on going, and will enjoy seeing you guys there!

Gregory Popovitch

[greg7mdp]

I wipe the plate very thoroughly with cotton and denatured alcohol. If you look at other postings on this web site, you’ll see that other dag practitioners use different techniques. In particular Mike Robinson posted a very detailed description of his polishing technique.

greg

[greg7mdp]

Hi,

In my experience, I think the best time of the mercury is as long as possible, but not long enough so that mercury frosting occurs in the shadows. So that means that, as long as you don’t get a lot of tiny white spots in the dark areas of the plate, you can leave longer in the mercury. So it is quite possible that you need to leave longer in Hg. When I take the plate out I do see a clear image under the red light, which becomes clearer when fixing.

Don’t get discouraged. When I started it took me a long time to get barely visible images. You are on the right path. You really need to get a dag to see what they look like, I think you have wrong expectations.

[greg7mdp]

Hi newone,

Your picture doesn’t look very much like a dag. I think you need to know what a dag looks like, so you know when you are on the correct path. I would suggest you buy a cheap dag on ebay for $20 to $40, it should give you a good idea.

I think your fixing solution is pretty strong, and should dissolve the undeveloped silver halides in less than one minute. The fog is probably caused by your process (maybe too long mercury development). I normally use 3 minutes at 80 celsius, but the time will depend on the mercury pot.

It almost looks to me that the silver layer is peeling off the plate. That has happened to me when I was gilding for too long. The look of your image definitely makes me think of over-gilding. Do the spots appear when gilding?

greg

[greg7mdp]

leftover rouge? Wipe plates with cotton + alcohol well after polishing.

[greg7mdp]

Wow, that’s quite interesting and indeed a fantastic result. Thanks for sharing! Now someone just has to rig a system with motors to move the dag at defined intervals, and set the camera on a time-lapse setting, so that it can be done without user assistance.

[greg7mdp]

Hi, I’ll take it. I can send payment via Paypal if you’d like. Please email me at greg7mdp@gmail.com.

Thanks,

greg

[greg7mdp]

Easy! Just find someone who has to have them! Hehehe…

Seriously, you can do one or more of the following:

– get a table to show them during the trade fair

– register your room for the room hopping (at the Dag. Soc. registration table) and show them to visitors

– put them for sale at the consignment auction on Saturday evening

But most Daguerreian Society members are interested in vintage dags. The market for modern ones is quite modest.

Good luck,

gregory

[greg7mdp]

You don’t need very much, 100 grams of iodine would last you some time.

[greg7mdp]

Brass is fine too. I believe Theiss make dag plates using brass as a base. Actually I think brass might be better because it is harder.

[greg7mdp]

I am definitely interested in participating to the exhibit if selected. Thanks for arranging it Mike.

Gregory Popovitch

[greg7mdp]

Hi Jesse,

I’m interested in buying the fuming boxes, if you can ship them to Michigan. I already am making mercury dags, but I could use better fuming boxes. Please let me know.

Thanks!

Gregory (greg@gpy.com)

[greg7mdp]

OK, I see the mercury frosting now. You’re probably right that you over-developped a little bit. I can’t say why the image is weak.

greg

[greg7mdp]

Hi Jason,

Both bromine and development look good to me. I think the main thing to focus on is the polishing, and the results should be outstanding.

gregory

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