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Photographer Converts Instax Camera to Shoot Tiny Wet Plate Photos

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Italian photographer Ursula Ferrara‘s Lomography Lomo’Instant Wide camera is a bit different than others you’ll find. Instead of shooting Instax Wide instant photos, it’s used for capturing tiny wet plate collodion photos.

Ferrara started out by taking the shell of an empty Instax Wide cartridge and combining it with the metal shell of a light switch using some brads.

For plates, she poured collodion on black plastic cards — any flat plastic card will work, from fancy business cards to hotel card keys.

After pouring the collodion and then sensitizing the plate in a silver bath in the darkroom, Ferrara places the plate into the holder and loads up the camera.

Then you simply take a photo and develop it in the darkroom before fixing the plate.

What you get are beautiful wallet-sized tintypes.

Ferrera says these photos are her modern-day take on cabinet cards, the style of portrait photo that was popular after 1870.

Old 1800s tintype (left), a new wet plate photo on a plastic card (center), and a plastic card (right).

Here’s a 3-minute video that shows Ferrera’s process:

You can find more of Ferrera’s work on her website.


Failed Experiment: Shooting Wet Plate with a Mamiya 645 and Polaroid Film Back

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Photographer Markus Hofstätter is known for pushing the art of wet plate photography in new and exciting ways, but… of course… it doesn’t always work out. That’s what happened in this video, where Hofstätter tries (and fails) to shoot wet plate photography with autofocus by putting a plate inside a Mamiya 645 AF AFD Polaroid Film Back.

This isn’t the first time Markus has shot hand-held wet plate photography, but it is his first attempt at autofocus wet plate photography.

Typically, Markus shoots his wet plate portraits using large format field cameras that are definitely not “hand-holdable” and do not come with any sort of autofocus system. So in order to capture a wet plate photo with autofocus, Markus loaded a plate into his Mamiya 645 AF AFD Polaroid Film Back HP402, slapped the back onto his Mamiya 645 AFDII medium format camera, and set about capturing studio portraits of his model Jasmin.

Here’s what that setup looked like:

Unfortunately, that’s where everything kind of went off the rails. “So… the results are kind of over-exposed images that are not sharp […] not even sharp at all,” he explains, laughing, in the video.

After making a few measurements, he figured out why. The HP402 Polaroid Film Back was actually holding the film plane (or wet plate, in this case) 1.2mm further away than it was supposed to be. And since Markus was shooting at f/1.9. f/2.8 and f/3.5, there simply wasn’t enough depth of field to overcome this misalignment.

You can see the results for yourself below:

Markus is still not 100% sure why things worked out this way, but he’s trying to puzzle it out and is asking for help from anyone who can explain what he’s doing wrong. In the meantime, he’ll try to figure it out himself, and plans to come back soon with a “fix” and his first proper autofocus wet plate photo shoot very soon.


Image credits: All photos by Markus Hofstätter and used with permission.

Duo Shoots a Wet Plate Photo Together Despite a 7000km Separation

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With the current state of affairs, photographers have been coming up with unique ways to exercise their craft remotely. Photographer Markus Hofstaetter decided he wanted to make a portrait with a friend and came up with a way to do it despite the vast distance between them.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hofstaetter has been unable to travel to see friends, let alone take photos with them. Still, he did not want to simply do nothing.

“We couldn’t do a lot of things because of the pandemic, but I won’t let this get me down,” he writes in his blog about the project. “I also didn’t want to wait for some things I wanted to do. That’s when I came up with the idea to do things differently.”

Hofstaetter decided he wanted to stand side-by-side with his friend Shane Balkowitsch despite their physical distance. To do so, he came up with a rather innovative way that involves a projector, a Dedolight with a gobo cutout, his camera, and a darkened room.

“For me, it was important to show, that there are always ways to do something,” Hofstaetter says.

Hofstaetter played around with the idea of making a projection of his friend standing next to him in the studio and decided to see how that would work. As you might imagine, given the vast difference in light, the exposure didn’t quite turn out right.

“I knew I needed an additional light source to get the exposure right.”

To get around this, Hofstaetter created a man-shaped gobo that he placed in front of a Dedolight, a brand of constant light devices that are usually employed to create spotlights for different lighting effects in cinema.

By firing the Dedolight beam formed into the shape of a man on top of himself, Hofstaetter was able to balance the exposure of his own section of the photo with that of his friend that was being projected onto the background.

Hofstaetter chose to shoot this project with a 8×10 Century Field Camera with Dallmeyer 2B lens.

“I could only shoot 13x18cm plates, because the camera would have been in the way of the projector for 8×10 plates,” he explains. “Using a longer lens would also have been an issue because then I would have an aperture of f/4.5 or even f/6. With that, the exposure times would have been twice or four times as long.”

Given that he was already looking at a five-minute exposure, that wasn’t a compromise Hofstaetter believed would be in the best interest of capturing a good image.

“As you could see in the video, I set the timer on my watch and released the lens cap with a string that I squeezed between the lens cap and the camera,” he explains. “And then it was only us two and 5 minutes in front of the camera.”

Hofstaetter says that this project was not only challenging, but a lot of fun for him and his friend.

“It was such a great experience and so much fun. I will for sure do it sometimes again. Maybe some people even want to do a portrait like that. It’s a great way to get memories during that time where we have to be at home.”

You can visit Hofstaetter’s blog here to get a full explanation of the project and see additional images. For more from Hofstaetter, you can subscribe to his YouTube Channel.


Image credits: Markus Hofstaetter and used with permission.

Wet Plate Collodion Portraits of Frontline Medical Workers

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It hasn’t been easy being a portrait photographer during a pandemic. I opened my tintype portrait studio in February of 2020 with visions of goofy vintage photo remakes and smiling families gracing my lens. By the end of March, it was only still lifes full of skulls and dead flowers, dark and stale tones oddly appropriate for the time.

Eager for something with a pulse, I asked my wife to come pose for me. We would attempt to find some way of dealing with the horrid stories she was recently bringing home from work. Not a lot of people were staying home at the time, but health care workers certainly weren’t. My wife is a nurse and has been on a COVID 19 unit since March. I admired her for lacing up her scrubs and heading into a space ripe with a strange new disease every evening.

The portraits I took that day shocked us for their honesty of the moment. A hesitant determination in the eyes. A strength and grit to the pose. The chemicals and my technique were off that day but it only added to a look from a different time, a different world. And we were living in it.

Alyssa Retterbush, wife to the author.

After that session, I continued to hear terrifying stories from close friends in the medical field–flight nurses and ICU doctors, paramedics and firefighters–each telling stories that weren’t broadcast by any media outlets. They were accounts lost to censorship, only to be found in the cruel memories from the few people in the hospital room, the nurses, doctors, and clean-up crew.

In an attempt to make sense of it all, I took to the ancient craft of the wet plate collodion process and my 5×7 Kodak 2D. Part photographer, part rapt listener, I made more than 120 tintypes in seven weeks. The culmination of a series I have since titled “Resilience”. A fitting name, I hope, for a group of people choosing to risk their own lives to help others if at times only to facilitate a more peaceful departure.

Melissa Rodriguez. “The biggest frustration with COVID is nobody understands how evil it can be.”

Nine months have passed since I created these tintypes and the faces speak louder now than ever before. They have to. With news of vaccines on the horizon, hope is certainly here but our collective patience is running thin. While fatigue has set in for the public, it is the medical worker’s fatigue that we should remain concerned about.

Catching up with one of the faces of “Resilience,” ICU RN Melissa Rodriguez said:

We have risen to the challenge, but it has shown significant flaws in the healthcare system and it is the healthcare workers that are suffering in that process. Some days we come in anxious, stressed, and work so hard. Every day for the last three months somebody mentions getting help, some sort of counseling, and even harming themselves. Lots of staff have quit our unit. I don’t know anyone that hasn’t thought about leaving. Everybody has cried with a patient, cried at home and there is worry for this winter.

Melissa, who has lasting symptoms from her own battle with COVID-19, recently enrolled in school for counseling for this upcoming year. She says there are good days too when everyone is working together, supporting each other. But the difference this year is before going into work she has to mentally prepare, find a good head space just to survive. “Otherwise it will crush you”

Melissa Rodriguez. “One of the things I find myself doing now is just hold my hands on the chest or head of a patient on a ventilator. Unconscious, alone, unable to breathe, it’s a terrible place to be.”

A lot has changed since March of 2020. Treatment of the virus has drastically improved. We know how to protect ourselves. The long road of resilience, however, has not been without some major bumps in the road. For medical and first responder staff, the suffocating PPE will continue to be a reality, as they don face shields, masks, and hazmat suits daily to adhere to strict protocols and measures taken for the best care possible.

This photo series reminds us that progress in fighting this disease is not carried on the backs of bureaucrats but rests instead on the strength and courage of the individuals on the front lines of this pandemic. “Resilience” is a reminder that they have been giving their best effort for nine months straight now, so perhaps we owe them ours as well.

You can see the entire “Resilience” series on my website and Instagram.


About the author: Eric Retterbush is a beauty hunter. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Retterbush loves creating and exploring with the visual arts in many mediums and most recently began creating tintypes using the wet plate collodion process. Since beginning this intriguing adventure, Eric has learned how to understand light, chemistry, and the subjects he photographs. Every aspect of the process brings enlightenment and joy to Eric and he is often found tinkering with the technical aspects of the art form and begging people to sit for just one more frame. He currently resides in the high desert of Flagstaff, Arizona. You can find more of his work on his website and Instagram.

Photographer 3D Prints Wet Plate Photos to Create ‘Touchable Bokeh’

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Photographer Markus Hofstätter had been designing parts for his cameras and 3D printing them at home when the idea to try something new struck him: 3D printing photographs. After a lot of trial and error, he successfully found a way to translate wet plate photos into 3D printed pieces.

Hofstätter says that when he thought about using his 3D printer for making photos, the idea came to him because the process shared similarities with the wet plate collodion process.

“The wet plate collodion process is kind of, maybe, 3D printing. You know, the light and the developer manifests the silver on the plate in layers, and afterward, the silver that is not exposed to light is washed away with a fixer. So if you have ever seen a resin printer working, it’s similar,” he says.

Every part of the image that would be dark is printed thicker, and likewise, any lighter are of the image is printed thinner. When showed without a backlight, the print doesn’t look like much. However, when held up to the light, a photograph appears.

Hofstätter said this again reminded him of the wet plate collodion process because the same general principles apply to an ambrotype.

Beyond just being able to feel the subject and the edges of the 3D printed image, Hofstätter says that when he holds the photos, he can even feel the bokeh.

“Have you ever experienced bokeh with your fingers?” he asks.

Creating these prints is a long process. Each one takes about 17 hours to print because he has to print it very slowly in order to get the level of detail he has achieved.

“These beautiful prints (lithophane) took a pretty long time to finish. My printer was working on them for 17 hours per print to make them as beautiful as possible,” he writes on his blog. “And that does not include all the fails, the search for the right filament and to find the right settings. But I am so happy that it worked out.”

You can see several different angles of some of his prints on his blog, where Hofstätter also shows what the prints look like both with and without backlighting.

Hofstätter doesn’t reveal the exact process he uses to create the prints as he is selling them on his Ebay store. Still, what he has done here is extremely unusual and unique, and it’s hard not to be impressed with how he has taken photography into another dimension.

For more from Hofstätter, visit his blog or subscribe to his YouTube Channel.


Image credits: Photos by Markus Hofstätter and used with permission.

A Photographer’s Dream: The 145-Year-Old Dallmeyer 3B Petzval Lens

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Photographer Markus Hofstaetter has been looking for what he calls his “dream lens” for some time, visiting flea markets and using his contacts to try and locate the Dallmeyer 3B Petzval lens, circa 1876. Thanks to one of his friends, he finally found one in shockingly-good condition.

“This is a very early copy of a 3B lens,” Hofstaetter says. “Because John H. Dallmeyer founded his company in 1860 in London and he produced his very first portrait lens in 1866.”

The Dallmeyer 3B is a 290mm f/3 Petzal-lens, which makes it one of the fastest lenses at the time for 8×10 cameras.

“Petzval-designed lenses were invented very close to my hometown in Vienna by Joseph Max Petzval in 1840,” Hofstaetter continues.

Petzval lenses are special because they were the first optic that featured mathematically calculated precision objects in the history of photography. Additionally, Petzval’s lenses were faster than previous lenses and were 22 times better at gathering light than Daguerre’s daguerreotype camera lenses from the early 1800s. Petzval was also the first to calculate the composition of lenses based on optical laws, where previously they had been ground down and polished based on experience.

The main downside to the Petzval style lenses was that the sharpness falloff from the center to the edge was abrupt and strong.

Hofstaetter says that he feels honored to have the chance to work with this lens at all, given its history and age. To honor the lens, he decided to take two portraits with it and the people he chose to feature were of inspirational importance to him: Michael White and Manuel Soultan.

Michael White is a former Producer, Director, and Author whose historical documentary Azorian The Raising of the K-129 has received international praise and has been shown by Networks in the US, Europe, Australasia, Asia.

Manuel Soultan is a tattoo artist who Hofstaetter says makes his two-dimensional art look like vivid three-dimensional photographs.

These two portraits are part of a series that Hofstaetter is working on called Inspired, and it will focus on those that inspire him and shot with a lens that he feels is an inspiration in itself.

For more from Markus Hofstaetter and this project, make sure to read his blog. You can also subscribe to him on YouTube. Hofstaetter also has a few clever t-shirt designs you can see here.


Image credits: Photos by Markus Hofstaetter and used with permission.

This Wet Plate Photo Took the Collaboration of 90 People to Produce

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For the past five years, I have organized an annual photographic Tableaux Vivant based on classic paintings. I have included anywhere from 15, or in the instance of my 2021 construction, No Vaccine for Death, 90 collaborators.

Ideas come from everywhere. Occasionally we self-generate. More often they are thrust upon us. Photographic history is certainly replete with expansive portraits. Utilizing a digital camera, group portraits can be captured quickly, in rapid succession, and at a moment’s notice.

My portraiture, however, vastly differs from the work of contemporary photographers as I turn the clock back with the use of Frederick Scott Archer’s 1851 medium of wet plate collodion, and it is thought that less than 1,000 photographers practice this archaic form of analog photography in present day. I am very proud to be one of them.

In the wet plate process, liquid collodion is poured over a piece of polished black glass, sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate, exposed in the camera, and then developed immediately (under safe light conditions), usually within minutes, as to not allow the collodion to dry on the plate and the image lost.

For location work, I have built a portable darkroom that is easily transported. All development must be done instantly and on-site. For the techies, I use an Italian Alessandro Gibellini 8×10-inch bellows studio camera mounted with a Carl Zeiss Tessar 300mm f/4.5 lens with a manual lens cap as my shutter. No Vaccine for Death was shot outside under the open haze of a Bismarck, North Dakota sky (artfully and unfortunately provided by the California wildfires) with a one-second exposure at f/11.

No Vaccine for Death is the fifth largest production that my friend, collaborator, project director, and St. Mary’s College (of Bismarck) film professor Marek Dojs and I have worked on together. Each time we start a new project, it seems we get more ambitious and attempt to push the envelope of what is, or seems to be, possible. Two years ago, our project was going to be something completely different. We had a painting of saints descending from, and people ascending to, heaven. The image personified the conflict between the ideas of good and evil.

When COVID hit, we knew we had to confront the pandemic.

With the onset of the pandemic, life, as we well know it, changed in a heartbeat.

“In regards to the theme — one thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about is how afraid of death our society has become. The idea that we will live forever, and that pain and suffering should be avoided at all costs, has created a lot of problems in our time. The pandemic brings the possibility of death closer to us, but death is the real pandemic — and there will be no vaccine for that — we will all die. No Vaccine for Death might be an interesting title,” Markek said at the time.

At that point, No Vaccine for Death was born. In a meeting several days later, Marek and I discussed The Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel’s 1562 masterpiece which hangs in Madrid’s Museo del Prado. Inspired by the unstoppable onslaught of Europe’s Black Plague which killed over 25 million people (nearly a third of Europe at the time, and which lingered on for hundreds of years longer), our wet plate shoot could not have come at a more poignant time in modern history. The world had just started to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Triumph of Death | Pieter Bruegel| 1562 – 1563. Oil on panel

Marek and I thought that if we could immortalize this scene through our own visual vocabulary, we could possibly put COVID behind us. Marek, cognizant of our inevitable death, felt that if people focused so much time and energy on things that are not important, we would lose track of our time here on Earth.  He wanted to stress the fact that there is no vaccine for mortality. In so doing, we attempted to pay homage to Bruegel’s original image.

With the concept firmly in hand, our efforts turned towards the logistics of production. Needing an open and accessible location, my first call was to Monsignor Shea, the President of the University of Mary here in my hometown of Bismarck, North Dakota. On the college grounds is the sacred Marian Grotto which formed the basis for the scene. The stone arch of the grotto was a close match to the stonework in our inspirational painting from 459 years ago.

I then enlisted the aid of Michael Stevenson and Michele Renner Oster, directors of the local (Shakespearean) theatre companies for the creation of costumes. Forty backup and support personnel, including make-up artists, hairstylists, carpenters, dressers, and armorers were pressed into action. Dozens of skeleton costumes were purchased, altered, and fitted for the various volunteers. As a matter of fact, once the call for actors went out on social media, over 100 respondents ranging from local university students to photographers from San Diego, St. Louis, and Cleveland, Ohio, asked to be part of, then joined, the collaboration.

Finally, the morning of July 21 arrived. I had barely slept. At 6:00 am, I was on-site with a flatbed pick-up truck arranging camera angles and laying out the relative positions of each of the participants. By 8:00 am, the temperature had hit 80 degrees (on its way to 100 a couple of hours later).

The intrepid actors were in full-length Renaissance costumes and ready to be placed. I estimated it would take at least eight collodion plates to get the perfect shot. Each plate would take a minimum of 30 minutes to expose, develop, and evaluate, let alone allowing the actors time to stretch, move around, grab a bottle of water, and then reset.

As it is often said, a wet plate is not taken, it is given to you. I was prepared to work until I had a satisfactory image. Fortunately, my crew was likewise committed.

I mounted the truck, double-checked the exposure, and left to coat the first plate with collodion. Marek, bull horn in hand, directed the actors to their positions.

The first plate was over-exposed.

Nailing down a precise exposure on a first attempt using natural light is always a challenge. Reset, I took another plate which I judged as adequate. It’s now an hour later and the sun has really begun to take its toll. A third plate was exposed, we were beginning to see our vision for the shot unfold. As everyone gathered around to see the results once it was washed, a cheer went up with the general agreement we were close.

We took a short break and went for our fourth and final plate of the day. All the elements we were trying to incorporate and capture became visible. We had our one plate, the plate that would represent our 18 months of planning. The final plate is being donated to the State Historical Society of North Dakota with a list of all of the collaborators that were involved.

We had something to show for our moment in the sun. A pure silver-on-glass image when properly curated will exist for hundreds if not thousands of years after we are all gone. One second of our lives immortalized as a reminder to others of our time together.

Pizza served. Champagne uncorked. Camaraderie exchanged. Congratulations were shared by all.

We were asked by the local media if this is the largest “live” wet plate collaboration of all time? To that, we had no answer or concern. We just wanted to come together for no other reason than to create as a group. The history and significance of our time together will be left up to others to determine.

No Vaccine For Death | Shane Balkowitsch

I want to thank each and every person that contributed to this fabulous adventure. I am so blessed to be on this creative path with all of you. 


Editor’s note: A full list of all those involved in this production as well as a great deal more behind-the-scenes images can be viewed on Shane Balkowitsch’s website.


Image credits: Behind the scenes photos by Chad Nodland.


About the author: Shane Balkowitsch is a self-taught photographer from Bismarck, North Dakota that specializes in wet plate collodion photography. He believes this process is magical because the end result is tangible and precious. His extensive work in the medium can be seen on his website. The documentary Balkowitsch details his growth from a quirky businessman in his 40s who was looking for a creative outlet and stumbled upon an archaic form of photography that changed his life’s path. Eight years later, his Native American wet plate photos are being archived around the globe, and his recent portrait session with Greta Thunberg at Standing Rock Indian Reservation has been seen by millions and is in the vaults of the Library of Congress.

Wet Plate Portraits With an Affordable Large Format ‘Bokeh Monster’

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Well-known wet plate photographer Markus Hofstätter recently purchased an old wet-plate camera, repaired it to a working condition, and added two lenses to it with the help of his 3D printer.

An Austrian-based photographer and educator, Hofstätter likes to bring the old and new together. In his photography, he specializes in collodion wet-plate, which means that he’s regularly working with decades-old equipment that may require certain parts restored. He recently purchased a Mentor wet-plate camera at the Camera Obscura Festival auction and had to spend some time repairing it to bring it back to life, similarly how he repaired a damaged Linhof tripod a short while ago.

In his latest YouTube video, Hofstätter shows that it is possible to restore damaged equipment back to full working order, even though at first glance old cameras like these could be overlooked and forgotten. First, he had to fix the slide lock before he made repairs to the wobbly plate holder — which could otherwise lead to light leaks — and the cable release. Although the bellows — which is the accordion-like, pleated expandable part of a camera — wasn’t broken, it made a cracking noise so Hofstätter decided to rip it apart and glue it all together himself.

The damaged cable release

To be able to shoot a wet plate with this camera, Hofstätter had to modify the plate holder and was on the lookout for a suitable lens. He eventually found a fast Leitz Hektor 200mm f/2.5 lens and, using his 3D printer, Hofstätter made a compatible lens port. After four days of printing, he had to add final touches and his new wet-plate set up was ready for a portrait shoot in the garden.

The reason why Hofstätter is attracted to wet-plate collodion photography is that the shooter gets instant results, similar to polaroids, which makes it a great process for impatient analog photographers. Also, every single plate is one of a kind, which makes the results unique and the look cannot be easily reproduced digitally. Because of this excitement, Hofstätter tells PetaPixel that he remembers the plates he has taken for a very long time compared to the more fast-paced digital shooting.

As an experienced wet-plate shooter himself, Hofstätter recommends attending a workshop to learn about the process, including the danger of the chemicals, the equipment, and the history of this type of photography. Even better if support is provided after the workshop to ensure safe wet-plate practice. He also recommends two books: “Chemical Pictures: Making Ambrotypes Tintypes Negatives and Prints” by Quinn Jacobson or “Das Kollodium” (German language) by Peter Michels.

For those looking to buy a camera of this kind, he explains that a lot of wooden cameras were made by unknown carpenters, which although isn’t a bad thing, it can mean that the buyer forgets to check if the camera comes with fitting plate holders, which is necessary otherwise the chances of getting a suitable holder are very low. When it comes to lenses, small scratches are nothing to worry about but it is recommended to see the equipment in person or it can also be bought from a trusted source, like Wet Plate Dreams, which provides accurate descriptions for buyers.

However, even if buying from a reliable source, there are additional tasks to undertake, such as modifying the plate holder for the wet plate process, as presented in his video above.

More of Hofstätter’s work, including wet plate portraits, can be found on his websiteblog, and Instagram page, while his videos can be viewed on his YouTube channel.


Image credits: All images by Markus Hofstätter and used with permission.


How to Turn an Ice Fishing Tent into a Large Mobile Darkroom

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Although large-format photography may be an intricate and slow process often shot in a studio, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be taken outdoors with a little ingenuity. Photographer Markus Hofstätter has shared how he modified an ice fishing tent to create the ultimate mobile darkroom so he can shoot and process his work anywhere.

As an experienced collodion wet-plate photographer and educator, Hofstätter has previously shared his best tips and experiences in this type of art where the old practices and equipment meet new technology and methods. He has created tutorials, such as how he repaired a broken Linhof tripod he came in possession of and damaged cameras that simply needed a touch of DIY and 3D printing technology to get them back to full working order, as well as a step-by-step on how to make a ground glass focusing screen at home, among other resources.

In his latest video, Hofstätter revisits mobile darkroom modification — following a previous video from 2019 where he reviewed the dark tent he used at the time — to make it both light tight and easy to set up whilst on location, especially if he is shooting by himself.

Using a portable Eskimo Quickfish tent, which he first tried at the Camera Obscura Festival, Hofstätter realized the tent would give him the exact space he needs for darkroom work both by himself and when working with others and would serve as an upgrade to his current solution.

He purchased a refurbished Eskimo Quickfish tent and set out on a mission to find the best option to modify it for his darkroom needs, taking into account other photographers’ suggestions and advice. First, he used a black screenprinting paint mixed with a cold fixer and used it to paint all over any holes and seams inside the tent. The next step was to fix the existing zipper so it would not let any light in. Hofstätter solution involves a permanent cover for the zipper that is similar to the one found on a pair of jeans.

Designing a cover for the zipper

To deal with the tent’s windows, Hofstätter combined red gelatin filters and Velcro which he is able to stack on top of each other in cases where he is in particularly bright locations. To completely black out the tent, he used sheets of pond liner that could also be attached over the windows with Velcro.

Hofstätter also used that same pond liner to cover the floor inside the tent to protect it from any possible chemical spills and to block any humidity that could come up from the ground.

The finished setup uses the modified tent along with other internal additions like a power bank, red light LED, portable table, water canister with a tap, and the appropriate cases to safely transport chemicals. Despite all this, Hofstätter maintains that the setup is still easy to assemble and can be done alone. He says that it is a great solution for photographers who want to travel with ease while still being able to effectively work in the darkroom.

In the video above, Hofstätter shares in detail what kind of equipment he uses inside the tent and why with the hope that others will find it a useful resource to start with. As always, his goal is to share his knowledge and help photographers find the most cost-effective and ergonomic solution to pursue large-format photography.

More of Hofstätter’s work can be found on his website, including his blog articles, as well as on his Instagram and YouTube channel.


Image credits: All images by Markus Hofstätter and used with permission.

Combining a 170-Year Old Wet Plate Process with Food Photography

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Photographer Markus Hofstätter — known for his collodion wet-plate photography expertise — decided to try something different and used the 170-year old shooting process to capture incredibly detailed high-end food photos.

Hofstätter, based in Austria, has photographed it all — from portraits to wildlife — but hadn’t experimented with food until an unexpected connection was made. While in the process of purchasing a Cambo AST studio stand, Hofstätter learned the seller was well-known food photographer and columnist Hans Gerlach.

After months of planning and discussing, both decided to collaborate on a high-end food photography shoot using the wet collodion process. Hofstätter and Gerlach had to carefully plan what dishes to photograph and what colors the dishes should contain because this type of photographic process only sees blue light — this means that red color turns black and blue turns white.

Hofstätter writes in his blog that the collaborative project was even more enjoyable because of Gerlach’s extensive food preparation and presentation experience which combined well with Hofstätter’s own expertise in the wet plate collodion process.

The shoot took place in Hofstätter’s studio where he used a 13 x 18 centimeter Mentor camera with a 250mm Zeiss Tessar lens. While Hofstätter set up the equipment and made it’s secure enough for top-down photography, Gerlach prepared the dishes in the kitchen. Both worked tirelessly throughout the first day and photographed numerous dishes but realized that the silver nitrate bath had turned bad which caused some plates to come out less than ideal. Once the problem was corrected, they could return to shooting and producing successful wet plate images.

This is not the simplest type of photography and other issues were caused by Hofstätter’s modified wet plate holder which didn’t stay in place and caused some plates to become scratched.

“This is something every wet plate artist has to face from time to time,” says Hofstätter.

However, most plates turned out exactly how they imagined it — full of detail and texture that would look great as large prints.

Shot with Dallmeyer 2b Petzval lens

Hofstätter also shot some plates with a 150-year old Dallmeyer 2b Petzval lens which created a swirly bokeh. Even though the lens produced a strong out-of-focus area, what was in focus — such as the texture of the bread and the onion pieces — show great detail when closely inspected.

More of Hofstätter’s work can be found on his website, Instagram, and his blog, including a list of what tools he uses for his wet-plate photography. Hofstätter’s prints from the shoot can be viewed on ArtPal.


Image credits: All images by Markus Hofstätter and used with permission.

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