Tintype and collodion animations

I just fulfilled one thing on my bucket list: to have a tintype portrait done. This rare opportunity occurred at the Penumbra Foundation in New York City. It included a lesson and being able to watch and photograph the whole process in the darkroom, most of which happens luckily under normal or orange light. Here are two gif animations from that magical evening.

Click on image to enlarge

The development process and almost-final tintype (still wet and before varnishing).

Tintypes are a misnomer: They are not -- and probably never were -- printed on tin, but on other more readily available metals like iron, or now aluminum. 

They are made by the wet plate collodion process, which produces a direct positive image: No negative involved!

This is a collodion positive on glass, also called an ambrotype (though technically incorrect). The silver has adhered where the subject was light. When backlit, it appears as an negative. But when viewed with reflective light, by placing black velvet behind it, the image appears positive! Just like a tintype, whose metal plate is black! Pretty cool eh?

Ambrotypes were popular in the US from the early 1850s through the 1880s.

For a good article on collodion positives, see https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/find-out-when-a-photo-was-taken-identify-collodion-positive-ambrotype/

For a broad guide to historic & alternative processes, see the book

Jill Enfield's Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes:

Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques

For info on the tintype studio at Penumbra Foundation in New York City: http://www.penumbrafoundation.org/tintype-faq/

All photos and gif animations © 2017 Marilyn Stern / All Rights Reserved 

Please use only with written permission.