Tolstoy on Humanity

 Leo Tolstoy viewed being human not as a biological given, but as an active moral and spiritual achievement. In works like A Confession, he argued that the sole meaning of life is to serve humanity and that empathy—feeling the pain of others—is the exact measure of our humanity.

More Contrast in Wet Plate

From AI:

To achieve more contrasty results with your wet plate collodion developer, increase the ratio of acetic acid (the restrainer) to ferrous sulfate or slightly decrease your exposure while extending development. A highly concentrated or "hot" developer applied with aggressive agitation will also boost highlight contrast. 

Specific techniques and formulation adjustments you can use to tailor your wet plate contrast include:

1. Adjust Your Developer Formula

Increase Acetic Acid: The acid acts as a restrainer. Increasing the amount of 28% or glacial acetic acid in your ferrous sulfate developer holds back shadow details and creates punchier contrast.
Reduce Water: Using less distilled water creates a more concentrated (stronger) developer. 
Standard Old Workhorse Recipe (High Contrast):
• 30 to 45 grams Ferrous Sulfate
• 30 to 45 ml Glacial Acetic Acid (or 45 to 60 ml of 28% Acetic Acid)
• 30 to 45 ml Ethanol or 190-proof Grain Alcohol
• 500 ml Distilled Water 

2. Exposure and Development Tweaks (Push/Pull)

Underexpose and Overdevelop: To get brilliant, "dead" whites and deep shadows, slightly underexpose your plate and leave it in the developer longer.
Use a Metronome: Development time is your primary contrast control. Longer development times (e.g., pushing to 18–25 seconds) will aggressively build up highlight densities. [1]

3. Add a Restrainer (Sugar)

Lea's Sugar Formula: Adding sugar (or honey/sucrose) to your developer acts as a powerful restrainer. This allows you to develop the plate for longer periods without the background fogging, resulting in richer, more separated tones. 

4. Collodion and Bath Conditions

Aged Collodion: Older collodion that has turned red/amber is generally less sensitive to light. If you use standard exposure times with old collodion, the plate will naturally become underexposed, resulting in a more contrasty image.
Silver Bath: A slightly more acidic silver nitrate bath (lowered pH) yields cleaner, more contrast-rich plates (less prone to chemical fog). 

Lunch Time Day 2

Lunchtime. Corn Beef sandwiches, pickles and salt and vinegar chips. The view! Priceless!!

Making Ambrotypes Day 2

Day 2 of Ambrotype making, will stay here in Jasper for an extra night and have a day 3 of shooting tomorrow. 

This area was swept by fire in August 2024. 

14x14 inch clear glass ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Canada

Making Ambrotypes Day 1

Making Ambrotypes. Will try my first diptych!

Portraits

Portraiture is more than making people look pretty. At least it should be!

Francis Bacon WORK

 

Mystery Man

The latest Japanese Ambrotype buy. My collection of these type Ambrotypes is about 6 or 7 now. I find these little beauties fascinating. Who was he, what happened to him. What kind of life did this little old man have? Did he have a family? What was his story?

The Ambrotype probably dates to 1870-1890. Meaning the man has been dead for 100 years plus but amazingly still lives inside the glass. You got to love the beauty and lifespan of wet plate collodion photography.

 

Weet Plate Talk

 

Making Ambrotypes

 

VIDEOS: 2 More 11x14 Ambrotype Portraits

Finished up a few more 11x14 Ambros. I do not think the one of mom really works but it has some potential, so I placed it with tape against a black substrate. I will play with the idea.

Note* I have also started writing titles on the back of the taped plates.

VIDEOS: 3 New Ambrotypes

Three more 14x14 inch Ambrotypes.

Lisa #2 and #3, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada July 2026

Taken with 8000w flash setup and 360mm Schneider Xenar and Chamonix 14x14 Camera.

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Northland’s Coliseum before demolition, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, July 2026

Lisa #2

Lisa #4

Northland's Coliseum

VIDEO: Lisa Portrait #1

This shot is from the recent trip. Looking to figure out the best combo of lens, exposure, composition and sharpness. 

Trying to find that look u see in my mind. Getting closer.

Will post a variant tomorrow.

Lisa 63, 11x14 Ambrotype on clear glass, AMBROTOS KANATA, July 2026, Gull Lake, Alberta Canada

24x24 Portrait? Ambrotype

Will do some testing with the 24x25 inch Ambrotypes, with the current set up. I do not believe I can shoot these, but will try. Figure out what I got with the camera and the vintage brass lens.

Chamonix 24x24 with a Voigtlander 655mm F6

Various Ambrotypes

Some Ambros from the last bit...

These images do not have thee proper black substrate backing yet. Will work on that soon. They are just sitting on a black garbage can.

Mom at 90

Northland's Coliseum

Lisa

Trying Ambro Head Portraits AGAIN! Testing

Will try again to capture the type of wet plate collodion image I see in my mind on 11x14, 14x14 inch glass tonight. Hope these tests work!

I am pulling out all the guns tonight. 8000 watts of flash power over 7 flashes. 800w (ring flash)+ 1600w + 1600 w + 1000w + 1000w + 1000w + 1000w.

Will give the Schneider Xenar 360mm f4.5 lens a go.

Chamonix 14x14 camera.

Portrait in the bath with floating collodion pieces

Ambrotypes of the High Level Bridge

 

Monet and Me, The Rocks at Belle-lle

One of the problems with wet plate, or at least a difficulty, is the length of exposure needed. Because of the long exposures, there is often blurring in the moving areas of the shot. I want to photograph the oceans of Canada, but how to do that? Will everything not be a blur of motion? Indistinct, confusing, mushy? Then I thought what if I photographed rock formations within the ocean, the ocean can move all it wants, but the rocks will remain solid and sharp in the Ambrotype. I thought, would that not make a beautiful looking Ambrotype? A feeling of both motion and strength. I could even try it as a diptych or triptych.

Then yesterday I came across this painting by Claude Monet.

The Rocks at Belle-lle by Claude Monet

Mom Shoot!

11x14 and 14x14 Ambrotype portraits of mom today, aged 90.

 

Will try 2 at a time, with an elevator trip and walk down to the darkroom trailer. Hope the plates do not dry out.

Will sync 2 1600w flashes (my last test used 1) along with the 800w ring. Total 4000w.

 

Note* The mom shoot was basically a failure. First 2 images were under exposed, later the flashed created multiple esposures, that were different looking but for the most part failures. A good learning experience, it was difficult to get back and forth from the cameras to darkroom as she lives on the 7th floor of her building.

 

 I will try again.

 

Update* I need to do more testing, I can brink in 4000 watts of more power flash, with the Speedotron heads I got from the the same seller a while back. I can use the same 1600x2 white lighting heads plus the 800w ring flash, and add up to 4-1000w Speedotron heads. 

 

The flash is going to have one hell of a kick thou for the subject, and draw a ton of power, 6000w to 8000w. 

 

Cutting More Glass

 

Cutting the farm glass up, at least a bit of it. I have so much glass now, I am a bit overwhelmed. I will use most of it eventually. Today cutting to sizes 14x14 inch and 11x14 inch 3mm and 4mm.

When I make mistakes I can recover some of the plates with uneven cuts, using a used ceramic saw I picked up. Not as pretty as a clean cut but usable!

 

Note* I feel down that most of the sheets I brought in were tempered glass, so useless to the project. I did get some small pieces that I was able to cut today, but all the tempered glass was a waste of time, and effort, plus diesel to go pick it up. 

 

 Cut sheets of 14x14 and 11x14 inch glass. I placed many in the holders to make sure they fit.

Ceramic saw for roughly fixing my glass cutting errors

My cutting table, got off market place cheap

Some marked refrigerator glass, that I will try to paint black for use as background substrate for the plates.

Fuck Tempered Glass

Turns out about 3/4 maybe more of the glass I got last night is tempered! Which means it cannot be cut, which means I cannot use it to make ambrotypes.

FUCK!! A lot of work for nothing. Live and learn! 

I knew tempered glass was no good for me and I have been asking people on marketplace if their glass was tempered or not. I just was shitty at identifying it. There is usually a white label, sometimes very hard to read on the corner of the glass. I did not know that until today.

I need to be smarter and not waste energy and resources on things like this!

Note* I will likely throw away this useless tempered glass at a big bin event.

Note** Tempered glass is made by heating the glass, it becomes about 5 times stronger than normal glass. It shatters into 1 thousand pieces when broken

More FREE Glass in the House!

 

FREE glass for Ambrotypes. Second time in a month I was able to score some. Mostly 4mm, some 3mm. I will cut into 14x14 inch plates, some larger some smaller.

 

Not as much glass as last time but still probably $ 800-1000 CAD or so worth. If not too scratched, it’s a go!!!!

 

Thank you Doug and Emily

 

Loaded on the truck!