3 Days of instruction by James Weber.
There are no class dates available at this time.
I’ll cover the chemistry involved in shooting wet plate. We’ll mix up the chemistry needed for the class so that you get a complete understanding of what you’ll need to do on your own.
Buying chemistry kits that are premixed can be very costly, so this will be important. Also in DAY 1, we’ll go over a little history of wet plate. We’ll cover how to convert cameras and various backs to using wet plate.
We’ll cover how to flow a plate(practice makes perfect) and introduce you to the whole process of shooting, developing, fixing, and washing the plate.
After that, we'll get into practicing and shooting. I'll cover development techniques to get a variety of looks.
Off to the right is a fun little video I did when I was mixing chemistry one day.
Studio Shooting Day. There are many lighting options that we’ll go over from use of strobe, to DIY neck braces, to continuous lighting and what each method brings to the table. The goal today is to shoot more, with an emphasis on getting good pours and developments.
We’ll experiment with different light sources and make you familiar with the options that can be had in the studio. Stop motion is possible with strobe, but softness can be had with continuous light. Many options abound.
Contingent on the weather, we’ll take a trip in my RV to a nearby location where we’ll do wet plate on location. Figuring out development times in the open air with only the sun as your light source is today’s objective.
Shooting around the location with a variety of cameras is the order of the day. We’ll have a dark box and a dark tent to use for our darkroom spaces. As a treat, I’ll be setting up the 10′x10′ dark tent camera with the 48″ Perkin Elmer Aerial Lens to do the day’s Mammoth Plates. See Below.
This is a Time Lapse video of the tent camera being set up on location.
Over the course of the workshop, my goal is to touch on many things that modern collodion shooters face today.When I first started, there were not many people shooting strobe. I’ve been successfully using Profoto Strobes in much of my work. It’s another option for you as a modern collodion practitioner.
I’ll show you the options of what is available and then let you choose the course of your own creative vision.
You can call James @ 917-882-3724 if you have any questions about the class.