- Joined
- Dec 11, 2010
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- 46
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The subject of trying an albumen on glass process arose in the (there was a url link here which no longer exists) thread, but wasn't really proper to it. Rather than allow the original thread to drift further off topic, and possibly cause the process aspect to be missed in searches by subject line, I have started this thread. The plan is for it to serve as a place for documenting my attempts to come up with an albumen on glass process, and for others to comment, discuss, and advise, as things proceed.
My eventual aim, should a viable process be forthcoming, is to make 10x8 glass negatives, using a home-made camera. This size was chosen because it's large enough to make good-sized contact prints, and because 10x8 glass is fairly cheap and readily available in the form of photo clip-frames. While the primary intention is to make negatives, I would also like to try making positives (an albumen-based Ambrotype, in other words).
For the purpose of developing the process, I'll be using smaller clip-frame glass (6x4"), mainly because I already have a makeshift camera to suit this size. The smaller plates are also easier to handle. I believe that a process developed on the smaller plates should be transferrable to the larger ones in terms of chemistry, timings, and the like. Clearly, the physical aspects of handling the plates, quantities of fluids, size of dishes, etc, would need to be scaled up, or methods used that work for both sizes.
Using albumen appeals to me in a few ways. Mainly, it has the potential to be a fairly simple process, insofar as it has the convenience of being dry plate, and avoids the complexities involved with gelatin. The historical literature on albumen plates often mentions the lack of sensitivty (which led to the popularity of wet collodion). While this may be seen as a disadvantage, my subjects of interest are landscapes and architecture rather than portraiture, so relatively high speed isn't a particular requirement. Indeed, the famous Daguerrotype of the street scene devoid of people other than the shoe-shiner and client has a particular appeal, so long exposures of at least several minutes is something I specifically desire. Finally, there is an element of challenge in this because albumen on glass was a short-lived process, having been quickly replaced by wet collodion in the mid 19th century. It would seem that there has been little work done with it since then, so I'm curious to see whether a modern version can be developed. It's almost as if it's a forgotten process which only really got dropped because of the long exposure times.
When albumen on glass was current, several methods were documented. However, there is little in the way of comparison between them, or examples of results from particular methods. Since my knowledge of chemistry and the technicalities of historic photographic processes is rather poor, I'm not in a position to choose any particular method as a starting point. There is also the consideration that some methods used chemicals that would now be considered dangerous, or are very hard for an amateur to obtain. Moreover, some elements of the methods may be simply unnecessary. For instance, a given worker may have used a particular step because it was known to work, but if another worker didn't use that step, or replaced it with another, then there may scope to simplify the process, or at least choose what to do.
Given these, my choice is to proceed from more general principles, using chemicals that one can be happy with in the modern era, working at home. I think the main thing that can be drawn from the variety of historical methods is that they all work (or are claimed to in the literature), which implies that there is no one method that defines 'albumen on glass'. If anything, it could be argued that the process never reached maturity because of it being replaced by wet collodion relatively soon after its introduction. Since the various historical methods are all fundamentally a mixture of a binder and a halogen which is then sensitised, it seems reasonable to suppose that other methods might also work. In short, my initial assumption is that, as long as I start from sensible basics, I should get images; and if I refine the method as needed, I should get better images. The specifics of the method that I end up with are, of course, unknown at present, as is whether that method will bear any similarity to an historical method. If it doesn't, then I will have come up with my own method. If it does, then I will be in a position to relate that method to real images.
My eventual aim, should a viable process be forthcoming, is to make 10x8 glass negatives, using a home-made camera. This size was chosen because it's large enough to make good-sized contact prints, and because 10x8 glass is fairly cheap and readily available in the form of photo clip-frames. While the primary intention is to make negatives, I would also like to try making positives (an albumen-based Ambrotype, in other words).
For the purpose of developing the process, I'll be using smaller clip-frame glass (6x4"), mainly because I already have a makeshift camera to suit this size. The smaller plates are also easier to handle. I believe that a process developed on the smaller plates should be transferrable to the larger ones in terms of chemistry, timings, and the like. Clearly, the physical aspects of handling the plates, quantities of fluids, size of dishes, etc, would need to be scaled up, or methods used that work for both sizes.
Using albumen appeals to me in a few ways. Mainly, it has the potential to be a fairly simple process, insofar as it has the convenience of being dry plate, and avoids the complexities involved with gelatin. The historical literature on albumen plates often mentions the lack of sensitivty (which led to the popularity of wet collodion). While this may be seen as a disadvantage, my subjects of interest are landscapes and architecture rather than portraiture, so relatively high speed isn't a particular requirement. Indeed, the famous Daguerrotype of the street scene devoid of people other than the shoe-shiner and client has a particular appeal, so long exposures of at least several minutes is something I specifically desire. Finally, there is an element of challenge in this because albumen on glass was a short-lived process, having been quickly replaced by wet collodion in the mid 19th century. It would seem that there has been little work done with it since then, so I'm curious to see whether a modern version can be developed. It's almost as if it's a forgotten process which only really got dropped because of the long exposure times.
When albumen on glass was current, several methods were documented. However, there is little in the way of comparison between them, or examples of results from particular methods. Since my knowledge of chemistry and the technicalities of historic photographic processes is rather poor, I'm not in a position to choose any particular method as a starting point. There is also the consideration that some methods used chemicals that would now be considered dangerous, or are very hard for an amateur to obtain. Moreover, some elements of the methods may be simply unnecessary. For instance, a given worker may have used a particular step because it was known to work, but if another worker didn't use that step, or replaced it with another, then there may scope to simplify the process, or at least choose what to do.
Given these, my choice is to proceed from more general principles, using chemicals that one can be happy with in the modern era, working at home. I think the main thing that can be drawn from the variety of historical methods is that they all work (or are claimed to in the literature), which implies that there is no one method that defines 'albumen on glass'. If anything, it could be argued that the process never reached maturity because of it being replaced by wet collodion relatively soon after its introduction. Since the various historical methods are all fundamentally a mixture of a binder and a halogen which is then sensitised, it seems reasonable to suppose that other methods might also work. In short, my initial assumption is that, as long as I start from sensible basics, I should get images; and if I refine the method as needed, I should get better images. The specifics of the method that I end up with are, of course, unknown at present, as is whether that method will bear any similarity to an historical method. If it doesn't, then I will have come up with my own method. If it does, then I will be in a position to relate that method to real images.
