Dry Plate Get-Together

[dwross]

Greetings All,

Kirk Keyes and I are organizing the 1st Annual Oregon Dry Plate Party the weekend of August 9-10. Saturday will be in Portland and Sunday in Newport. We're still in the beginning stages of planning and we welcome all ideas to help make this fun and informative.

There will be more details by the first of July, but summer schedules fill up fast and I wanted to give as early a 'heads up' as possible.

Denise Ross

[Daniel Balfour]

Dry Plates? Refresh my aging memory...

[dwross]

There's nothing wrong with your memory :) . 'Dry' plates were old news when any of us were born. They are glass silver gelatin negatives, i.e. film on glass. The term came about to distinguish them from 'wet' plates - collodion negatives. Collodian negatives had to be made right on the spot and exposed while still wet. Photographers had to travel around with a darkroom, usually in a wagon. So, you can imagine what a great convenience it was to go out the door with a stack of coated plates and be able to bring them back to a nice, comfortable darkroom days later. It was so easy and convenient and technically superior (as in speed) to collodion that it had its distractors, very much like the opinions today of analog vs. digital. Then, as now, it was about the look you wanted. Collodian has a great look and is experiencing a very deserved revival. Just as, I hope, dry plate.

The reason to learn dry plate today is first because it's so cool. It has a very distinctive look. The emulsions (at least the ones I make) are not panchromatic and so have a different response to light than we are used to. And, they lack an 'antihalation' layer which means that some objects have nifty halos around them. The look (to my eye) is reminiscent of infrared film.

Here's some more information. http://www.thelightfarm.com/Map/GlassNegatives/MapTopic.htm

[dwross]

Dry Plate and Emulsion 101: (Most) Everything You Need to Know To Get Started
(But were afraid to ask).

Denise Ross and Kirk Keyes would like to announce that we are hosting a weekend mini-workshop on photographic emulsion making, with a focus on making dry plates. This mini-workshop is free, and is being held on Saturday, August 9th in Portland, OR, and on Sunday, August 10th in Newport, OR. As space is limited, please email or PM if you are interested or would like more info.

The following subjects will be covered:

Saturday, August 9th, Portland, OR. 10AM to 4PM

Discussion of emulsion making procedures and practices

Show and tell - Denise's hand-made emulsion portfolio with examples of many paper substrates. emulsion colors, and glass plate negatives. If anyone attending has worked with dry plate - at any stage - they are warmly invited to share their results.

Emulsion making techniques and tools - Demonstrations of techniques and tools used in making emulsions -emulsion preparation, washing emulsions, making glass plates, cutting plates, cleaning plates, papers for coating...

Lab gear - how to use some of the tools, like stir plates, temp controllers, digital thermometers, pH meters, digital scales, peristaltic pumps, gold coffee filters, syringes and adjustable pipettes and other volumetric devices.

Different ways to coat - puddle pushers, glass coating wells, doctor blades, and hand-held techniques...

Plate holders and view camera basics.

We'll have handouts with some formulas and information about making emulsions.

Sunday, August 10th, Newport, OR. Noon to 4PM

Sunday is the actual demonstration day where the tools and techniques discussed on Saturday are put to use.

There will be white light demos of emulsion making (as opposed to Saturday's verbal description, discussion, and darkroom walk through).

Hands-on practice with the different coating techniques.

We will have cookies and beverages on both days, but people should plan on brown-bagging it.

So in a sentence, Saturday has the focus of 'how do I get started?' while Sunday gives you the opportunity to get some hands-on experience so you can make emulsions yourself.

You can contact Denise at denise@dwrphotos.com or Kirk at kirk@keyesphoto.com with your reservation or questions.