Tag Archives: glass plate

the stone kids

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Giass was king of the photographic base materials for decades covering wet plate, dry plate, and into the film era. Glass was an ideal medium for photography. It was transparent, flat,  grain free – if carefully made – and … Continue reading →

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not all bees buzz …

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. My good friend, George Dunbar, sent over this century plus photo with the following words, “This image was published in How Firm a Foundation: A History of the Township of Cramahe and the Village of Colborne in Cramahe’s Digital … Continue reading →

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landscapes, streetscapes, and history

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The old landscapes and streetscapes bring visions of history that no one can see in any other way. Years ago, at one of our fairs, I bought some glass plates from Marlene Cook.  Most of the exposed plates came … Continue reading →

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a Jolly Irishman makes photography colourful

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. One of the goals of photography was to let light create natural colour. All the methods possible were recorded by the Frenchman, Louis Ducos du Hauron and based on the experiments of James Clerk Maxwell. Of course today with … Continue reading →

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when wet-plate was king

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Of the two earliest photographic processes, most photographers chose to use the Daguerreotype. It was free (outside England), had the best resolution by far, and had good contrast. But it was limited to one plate unless the plate was … Continue reading →

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all sizes great and small

Posted on December 30, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. From the beginning of analogue (a sensitive coating and emulsion) most cameras were the size of their negative (or in some cases the positive) as prints (if needed) were contact printed. Glass Plate and film sizes varied to match the … Continue reading →

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taking its measure

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. While browsing for photo history material, George Dunbar spotted this May 1948 ad for a GE PR-1 selenium exposure meter and shared it with us. To separate the GE meter from others, it was advertised as having a ‘memory’ … Continue reading →

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the sky is falling …

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. … or so said Chicken Little in the Children’s fable (I learnt the English version … ). For many years film and glass plates were basically insensitive to blue light (orthochromatic) so clouds and sky exposed for the landscape … Continue reading →

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what goes around …

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. … comes around. Or so the old saying goes. And to prove a point, the November, 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics carried this article about an unnamed American ‘inventor’ who came up with the idea of a circular film, … Continue reading →

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lens board connects to the lens mount

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. For most of the 1800s and early 1900s, cameras had a focussing means situated between the lens board and the media making the media-to-lens distance relatively unimportant. However; when camera bodies became rigid and the focussing means moved to … Continue reading →

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