I exchanged a Luther G a 20 year veteran of wet plate and a man who has helped me many times in this journey to make 35x35 ambrotypes. Here is a note that I wrote to him on facebook today. We were discussing black glass versus clear glass as a substrate for Ambrotypes.
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| Clear glass left, black right |
LT to GY
The two images should look identical and would look identical if the variables were not inconsistent. Exposure or and develop it. You can see more detail within the bark on one of them that had more development. It is hard to do proof of concept images with such extreme variables.
GY to LG
will try to do exact copies on the two glasses giving the same exposure and development (at least as close as I can manage) in the spring. The problem I have with black glass is the flat feel to it (collodion on top instead of bottom) and the look of the varnish on the plate (probably poor technique on my part). I have seen some beauty black glass plates before first hand (Kurt M work). Will keep playing with it. I have quite a bit of black glass to use up in 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 sizes. At present I prefer clear glass reversed by quite a big margin. I find them magical, special, like nothing I have done before in photography. I was worried that I had put the cart too far in front of the horse. The buying all this stuff and having all these wild over the top dreams without actually making plates was a fool errands, a huge mistake on my part. What If I did not like what I was striving to make?. Now that I have seen the small finished clear glass ambrotypes, I feel much better, I feel I have not made a mistake and am on the right track. Seeing the magic ambrotypes, holding them in my hand, has calmed me down. Like with all the photography when you see a finished work it excites you and pushes you forward to make more. I have so much more to learn and do but I I can see the finished larger images in my mind now, AND THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!. I just need to chase thes photographs down, continue the pursuit, work harder. Everything will be OK in the end. Thanks as always for your help. Could not do this without you and others keeping me grounded and focused.
