Another round of tests

Cool this morning, but the Sun was out, and how many more comfortable days will we have before Winter arrives.

Tested out the film plate adapters. So far they are working well, but I need to get accustomed to handling them within the confines of the dark box.

Below is a horrid looking plate. Ran into problems pouring both the collodion, and the developer. Rather then tossing it into the bin I used it for my next experiment.

If you look past the reflection you can make out a faint image of The Bridge.

My standard procedure after exposing the plate would be to bring it into the dark box, pour developer over it, and count slowly to twenty. At this point the plate is placed in a water bath to halt the development process. It is now safe to bring out of the dark box.

This is where the experiment begins. I had heard from a most reliable source that rather than proceeding to the next step of fixing the plate, this is where all the undeveloped silver is removed, and then the plate is washed in either running water, or several trays of water, that a thin solution of vegetable glycerin, cut 50/50 with distilled water, can be poured over the plate, then fixed, and washed at a later date, weeks, or months later!

The plate is now sitting on a shelf where it will remain for a few days, the I’ll wash of the glycerin, and fix the plate as I would normally do. Very excited to see how this turns out. I could allow me to haul around a fraction of the water that I normally would. 22lbs!

Will keep you posted on how it goes.