Wet Plate is fun but oh so difficult!! Luckily I have online friends that help me get past my mistakes and ignorance. The latest question below:
Wet Plate Development Question: THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
Clear Glass Ambrotype, being made.
So last week when I was in Banff park I was photographing snow for first time. The scene is this: High mountains at altitude (Columbia Ice Fields) covered in snow, maybe 80-90% of the mountain. The shot is a vertical (8x10 and 16x20), in the foreground you have dirt and rocks leading up to the mountain.
I had fogging issues on the plate, especially the mountain areas. I have been advised by you kind folks that it was probably an overexposure problem related to excessive blue light on the snow (possibly as much as 4 stops over exposed). I still have the 16x20 plate, will try to post it later. My memory of that plate is that the foreground looked OK exposure wise but the mountains were a mess of fog and mush.
My question is this. If the mountains are badly over exposed and the foreground near properly exposed. HOW DO I HANDLE SUCH A SCENE WITH WET PLATE? I tried doing some dodging over the lens with a card (half assed!) while exposing but that did not work.
I was wondering about development. In Mark Os wet plate book he says this in the development section.
"...water should be gently poured upon the surface to remove the developer. Selected areas of the plate can be left to develop longer than others by avoiding those places when the first applying the wash water."
Is this the best way to proceed? Expose for the mountains, then develop (over develop) for the shadowed foreground rock areas in the composition?
I was also wondering if you develop the plate as normal after exposing for the mountains, then wash to stop development, then add a second developer to the rock, dirt foreground areas. Is this possible? Or is adding more developer going to create a big mess on the plate. Developer application and amount being so finicky for the process.
Better to extend developer in the foreground underexposed areas? Add a second developer? Possible? How would you proceed making the photo?
I will probably try both ways, but need your expert advice people, thank you for any help. Hoping to have a better idea how to handle this when I return in June (probably less snow then).
In the color photo you can see the ground and the mountain I was shooting to the right of the image, around the trailer.
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| Columbia Icefields, Banff National Park, Canada 2022 |
