{"id":30959,"date":"2025-03-08T01:03:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T05:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=30959"},"modified":"2025-03-06T18:32:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T22:32:49","slug":"an-ambrotype-self-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/an-ambrotype-self-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"an ambrotype self portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Stan White – self portrait c1996<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. Over the years, photographic processes continuously evolved. For example, some effort was made to deliver less expensive cased images (Daguerreotype look-a-likes). One solution was to take a negative using the then new wet-plate technology<\/a> and treat it to reverse the tonal range, bleaching the black areas white and using a black background in the case to simulate the blacks in the clear areas of the ‘negative’.<\/p>\n

More recently [mid 1990s] courses and workshops demonstrated the old technique to a new contingent of photographers. Stan White had a column in the journal called simply “Stan White’s Corner”. For issue 22-1 Stan wrote of his experiences with a workshop across the lake at GEH.<\/p>\n

The self portrait at left comes with this paragraph: Note <\/i>th<\/i><\/span>e <\/i><\/span>rubber <\/i>glove; <\/i><\/span>the photograph\u00a0<\/i>was <\/i>tak<\/i><\/span>en<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/span>during a processing <\/i>session. <\/i><\/span>Th<\/i><\/span>e\u00a0<\/i><\/span>blue-only <\/i>sensitive e<\/i><\/span>mul<\/i><\/span>sion<\/i><\/span>s <\/i><\/span>were tricky on\u00a0<\/i>even <\/i>the <\/i><\/span>m<\/i><\/span>ost <\/i>perfect <\/i><\/span>comp<\/i>l<\/i><\/span>exion<\/i>. <\/i><\/span>The <\/i><\/span>writer\u00a0<\/i>finds this <\/i>picture <\/i>m<\/i><\/span>ost useful<\/i><\/span>\u00a0w<\/i><\/span>h<\/i><\/span>e<\/i><\/span>n <\/i><\/span>applying for a senior-citizen discount, not too many <\/i>people <\/i>will <\/i><\/span>argue <\/i>yo<\/i><\/span>ur <\/i><\/span>age when <\/i>your\u00a0<\/i><\/span>photograph is an a<\/i>mbrotype.<\/i><\/p>\n

Stan begins this column, “I <\/span>am now back from my <\/span>second one-day workshop sponsored by <\/span>Eastman\u00a0House, <\/span>the <\/span>first being the <\/span>Daguerreotype\u00a0Workshop <\/span>the subsequent results <\/span>from\u00a0which were featured in <\/span>a previous issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This l<\/span>atest <\/span>offering was on wet-plate\u00a0collodion – <\/span>ambrotypes, tintypes <\/span>and other\u00a0wet-plate <\/span>app<\/span>lications. The <\/span>work <\/span>of <\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>principal instructors Mark Osterman<\/span>, <\/span>and\u00a0his wife France <\/span>Scully Osterman [June 1998 speakers at the PHSC], was\u00a0<\/span>superb <\/span>and <\/span>show<\/span>ed a wide <\/span>range <\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>ambrotypes and tintypes, treated <\/span>in <\/span>a\u00a0va<\/span>riet<\/span>y <\/span>of <\/span>di<\/span>fferent ways, as <\/span>well as <\/span>wet-plate <\/span>nega<\/span>tives <\/span>printed on <\/span>modern papers.<\/span><\/p>\n

“One 8 <\/span>x 10 inch contact print of <\/span>a full-length portrait printed on modern Ilford\u00a0<\/span>double-matt paper had a <\/span>tonal <\/span>range the\u00a0lik<\/span>e <\/span>of <\/span>which I <\/span>have never seen bettered.\u00a0Th<\/span>ere <\/span>is a tolerance to the\u00a0<\/span>combination <\/span>of <\/span>pl<\/span>a<\/span>tes of <\/span>purblind sensitivity coupled to <\/span>simple Petzv<\/span>al\u00a0<\/span>glasses – <\/span>for neither takes advantage of\u00a0<\/span>the <\/span>ot<\/span>her‘<\/span>s s<\/span>hortcomings and <\/span>the result is\u00a0<\/span>pleasingly familiar to the eye <\/span>like <\/span>the\u00a0s<\/span>imple ta<\/span>ste <\/span>of <\/span>honest bread and cheese.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Modernity has paid a <\/span>heavy price <\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>quality, for the <\/span>convenience of <\/span>all-encompass<\/span>in<\/span>g <\/span>photographic utility. …”<\/p>\n

The column is available on the members-only DVD as the issue 22-1 pdf file. Instructions on joining\/renewing are shown above (MEMBERSHIP) and to the Right depending on the choice of payment type (Cheque, Credit Card, PayPal Account, etc.). Any questions, email Lilianne at member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. Over the years, photographic processes continuously evolved. For example, some effort was made to deliver less expensive cased images (Daguerreotype look-a-likes). One solution was to take a negative using the then new wet-plate technology and treat it to reverse … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[169,613,585,182],"class_list":["post-30959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-ambrotype","tag-photo","tag-portrait","tag-wet-plate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30959"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30966,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30959\/revisions\/30966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}