When shooting wet plates, you deal with a very light-insensitive process (about ISO 0.5). So most wet plate artists want to get their hand on a fast lens. Wolfgang, a former participant of my wet plate workshop got his hand on a very fast lens and sent it over to me. For the first time, you can get the plates from this project on eBay, starting from 1 Euro.
Wolfgang, an Austrian based photographer who made this video possible – thanks a lot!
This Delta HD-6C ML lens is pretty huge and was used in vintage HD protectors many years ago. If you want to know more about this kind of lenses, check this blog post.
Here you can see how big this monster is compared to a 35mm film canister. At the bottom you can see my self designed lens mount that I printed. A “very professional” :) solution.
A professional lens mount needs a “professional” lens support. For that I used plate holders and other stuff that was laying around in my studio. I looks a little bit like a Frankenstein monster build. But it grew on my and I like it that way.
The dreamy outcome with this wonderful bokeh makes it to my new Bokeh Monster! See the full transformation in my video above.
The yellow part of the flower absorbs a lot of UV light and thats the reason it appears dark when I exposed the plate normally. Thats why I did this series of 4 different exposures. I think every single one of them has something special in it. Just for fun, I created a digital HDR image out of them.
Silver and light. Four exposures that are very different.
My digital HDR conversion of the tintypes. Next time I will try a combination of glass and metal.
I love this one a lot and will have a hard time to let it go on Ebay.
If you hold this 18x24cm tintype in your hand, you can see the sling of all the little silver particles. This plate of this series will go to one of my Patreon supporters. Join here, if you want to be part of the raffle as well, join my supporters here.
This lens has a razor sharp depth of field and therefore it’s not easy to handle. But if you get it under your control, you can archive unique and very dreamy results. I look forward to using it again.
About the Author
Markus Hofstätter is a professional portrait, events and sports photographer based in Austria. He has a passion for analogue and wet plate photography. He loves travelling to visit new places and meeting new people. You can find out more about him on his website or blog, follow his work on Instagram or Facebook or reach out to him through Twitter. You’ll find his prints here, some awesome merch here, and you can support him on Buy Me a Coffee and Patreon. This article was also published here and shared with permission.
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