Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Photographing a group of people on large format wet plate needs a lot of power. Even with a relatively wide f/5.6 aperture, with an ISO of around 0.5 that still needs a lot of light. How much light? Well, around 7500 watt-seconds to be precise.
That’s how much power photographer Markus Hofstätter used for this group portrait of Austrian rock band The Black Proteus. Although, surely being photographed on wet plate makes them a metal band now?
From time to time, life rewards you with some crazy luck. Justin Whiting from Spalding, U.K. was extremely lucky to buy a 19-century photo on eBay, which turned out to be a rare portrait of Jesse James, an infamous American outlaw. Whiting bought the photo for only seven pounds (around $10), and as it turns out – it could actually be worth $2 million.
Combining levels of technology from vastly different times is often very fascinating. Sometimes it’s amusing, and occasionally it fails miserable. This time, failure is definitely not the word that springs to mind. For this particular merging of devices, photographer Giles Clement mounted a large format camera to a drone.
Why? To create the world’s first aerial tintype photographs, of course. Not content with simply making a photograph from the air, though, Giles and the team also produced the world’s first drone tintype selfie. Well, if one really wants to bring tintypes into the modern age, then I suppose one has to, really. It does look pretty awesome, though.
With film’s second demise looking more imminent with each Fuji announcement, wet plate photography gets more and more appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I primarily shoot digital, but I enjoy the process of creating analogue. It not because it “forces me to slow down” or anything arty. It’s just relaxing, especially developing it.
In this video, portrait photographer Victoria Will discusses her celebrity tintype portraits at the Sundance Film Festival. What began with Victoria having her own tintype portrait made turned into a great project with some fantastic photographs.
In the modern digital world, what is it that fascinates us about photography techniques that died out maybe a hundred years or more ago?
Whatever it is, you can satisfy your desires a little bit with this video featuring wet plate photographer David Rambow, who walks us through his thoughts and process when working in this medium.
Sean Hawkey is go-getter. The type of photographer so motivated by his convictions and interest, he doesn’t think twice about undertaking a new endeavor, a new adventure. Hawkey isn’t deterred by difficulty, he has the patience of a saint and those characteristics shine through in his photography. Hawkey has spent over a decade travelling among, photographing, and reporting on a number of different cultures; documenting human interest stories as a freelance journalist. Given the nature of his job, and all that it entails, it’s a given the photographer has seen his fair share of adversity. Being a travelling photojournalist is no career for the faint of heart, but Hawkey need not trouble himself with such things. When the trials of his chosen occupation rear their ugly heads, Hawkey coolly answers back, is that all you got?[Read More…]
The team from Tested, including Jamie and Adam of Mythbusters fame, all had their portraits taken by San Francisco based tinytpe photographer, Michael Shindler. Take a behind the scenes look at Jamie’s portrait session and recieive a bonus education on the entire tintype process from Shindler in this 6:30 minute episode of Tested.
According to Shindler, the ISO of his camera when shooting tintypes is about 0.5, about 7 full stops below ISO 100. With that information, you can probably imagine how much light you need to expose one of these portraits. Outdoors on a sunny day, Shindler says an exposure will take betwee 2-10 seconds. In the studio, you need to bring a lot of light to the plate (pun somewhat intended).[Read More…]
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page
