DIGITAL SPEED CHALLENGE #524 - Your image on tintype

Digital Speed Challenge #524 - Your image on tintype

I am primarily a wet plate collodion photographer. Many think a large format camera is required to make tintypes but that is no longer the case. I specialize in making tintypes from digital or film inter-positives.

Wet Plate collodion is a 19th Century photographic process in which a metal or glass plate is coated with collodion (ether, gun cotton, bromides & iodides), submerged in silver nitrate (to make it light sensitive), exposed in a field camera and immediately developed (ferrous sulphate) and fixed (ammonium thiosulphate or potassium cyanide) to form a direct positive image. The process is named “wet plate” because the plate must remain wet throughout the process in order to remain light sensitive, allowing only about ten minutes for the entire process. Once the plates are fixed, they are washed and set on a rack to dry. The final step is a thin coat of varnish (gum sandarac) to protect the fragile emulsion. Wet plate collodion is UV light dependent and indoor exposures require alternate UV sources such as strong fluorescent lighting. Light meters do not work for the process. Exposures are determined by experience and the age of the chemicals. Exposures are very slow and can be several seconds long in bright sunlight. Wet plate collodion is only sensitive to blue light rendering warm colors dark and cold colors light.

This challenge is to submit a photo you think would look good as a tintype. The image can be color or b&w. The final image on the plate will be monochrome. Subject is up to you. PLEASE DO NOT APPLY FILTERS TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A TINTYPE. The process itself takes care of that. The winner will get their image made into a tintype on aluminum (4X4, 4X5, 4X6) by me free of charge. You will hold all copyrights over your image.
Tintypes are one of the most archival forms of photography. I expect your tintype to last hundreds of years.

You can see my tintype work on my website:
www.josephbrunjes.com

This challenge begins when posted and will end at 5PM EDST, Friday Nov 9, 2018. The winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

CHALLENGE RULES:
1. Camera: Any DIGITAL CAMERA is allowed, (not just DSLR)
2. Time: Any on-topic photo taken at any time is eligible. Photos that have won other competitions should NOT be entered.
3. Size: See standard P.O.T.N. Image Posting Rules.
4. Post Processing: Do whatever you like and the host will decide if it works.
5. Posting: ONE PHOTO per photographer in each challenge.
6. Details: Show camera model & lens used. Post brief EXIF data including ISO, shutter speed and aperture used.
7. Commenting: Please, NO COMMENTING DURING CHALLENGE feel free to comment in this thread after a winner is declared.
8. Content: Keep it clean, and both Family and Work safe.
9. Have questions? PM me.
10. Have FUN!

* THE WINNER ALWAYS SETS THE THEME FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE, POSTS IT AND JUDGES IT - BE PREPARED!
* A new challenge should be posted ASAP after you have been declared the winner.

Any hints on what image qualities make the best tintype images? I have lots of photos that I think might be good but I don't know what to look for in an image that would convert well.

Basically nothing with really hard contrast. Tintypes have a narrow dynamic range and not a lot of shadow detail. I will tweak you image when I convert it to a transparency so don't feel you can't submit a photo with contrast. Portraits, still life, landscapes... it all can look great on tintype. Tintypes historically have very little depth of field because the lenses were shot wide open. Images were made of static scenes where the subject(s) didn't move.
Exposure times even in bright sunlight can be 1-4 seconds.

It may help to understand why I make tintype prints. Here are a few reasons:

1. Subject is somewhere when I can't get my large format camera and darkroom tent. (wet plate requires all processing to be done on site.)
2. Subject is moving or needs faster shutter speeds.
3. Composition requires an unusual plate size (6x9, 8x12, 5x10, etc)
4. Composition needs more depth of field.
5. I want text in the image to be readable. (direct positives off a large format camera are upside down and backwards.)
6. I want to control the color rendition on the plate. Tintypes are orthochromatic and only see blue light. Red objects will look black and skies have no details. When I print from a black and white transparency, I can basically make the plate panchromatic.(seeing all light)

Basically, you can put any image on a tintype. I was just curious what other might come up with.
I have been shooting sailing (which would normally be an impossible subject for tintypes) for a few years and making plates from digital inter-positives.
Here are a few examples to get the creative juices flowing and give you an idea how your digital images might look:

Monument Valley -- SX50

my favourite vocal artist

Canon EOS 60D, 1/100, f4.0

Kay

The Vendor

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/yd4s​Ff

Last call. This comp ends tomorrow at 5pm EDT.

Ok. This challenge is closed. Results tomorrow. My well pump went out yesterday and I have spent most of the day getting that sorted out.

First of all, thanks for indulging my strange challenge and sorry for the delay.

Here are the results:

OldCrow- Beautiful scene. Wonderful color. Good choice to show more foreground rather than blank sky. Clouds would have really made this pop.

scriveyn- Nice black and white portrait. You have captured an expressive moment which is not easy to do. There is quite a lot of negative space on the right and the mic stand is a little distracting. A tighter portrait crop without the mic stand would be a more compelling portrait.

teekay- cute portrait and good b&w conversion. The left hand is a bit awkward.

M_Six - A very strong portrait and appropriate subject for a historical tintype. Very good use of the surroundings to frame the subject. Like the subtle color. Unfortunately, the addition of grain to the image would make a weird tintype. Tintypes are grainless by nature.

darkslinger - nice portrait of the dog. good b&w conversion. The bright white corner leads my eyes to his/her face. Looks like there are some crumbs on the bottom right?

And the winner is:
darkslinger - Send me a pm and we can get the ball rolling on your tintype.

Honorable mention to M_Six who I have also offered to make a plate for if he can find his original file without the added grain.

I will post photos of the plate(s) once they are made so you can see them.
Thanks to all who entered.

Joseph

Good contributions everyone & congrats to darkslinger!

Thanks Joseph, I'm looking forward to see what you make of the two images you have chosen.

My portrait is one of a pair: one "introvert", the subject facing into the frame (I purposely added more negative space in post) and one "visionary" facing out of the frame. You can see both in this post.

I'll give eliminating the mike stand a try. Funny I never thought of that

Congratulations darkslinger and M_Six.

Congratulations to the winners of this rather strange challenge!

That's awesome Joby! This picture means a lot to me and I've been thinking about getting it printed for some time. I think that this will be a much more special treatment. I'll PM you shortly.

I'll have a new challenge up soon, unfortunately I won't have any prizes except bragging rights.