The Wet Plate Process and other mid-19th century photographic advancements
The early 1840s were a time of explosive excitement throughout much of the west as the daguerreotype
and calotype processes took hold of the curiosity of the middle class.
Each process was unique with its own advantages and disadvantages
The daguerreotype resulted in a highly detailed, very delicate image on the surface of a silver
polished copper plate. While they were in high demand for portraits, their inability
to be reproduced was a drawback.
Calotypes had one clear advantage, they were reproducible making them attractive to the
masses. But the use of a paper negative in the calotype process resulted images that
lacked the fine details that you'd find in a daguerreotype images. And the process was
difficult to replicate, resulting in unpredictable end results.
In the 1850s, the new wet plate process surfaced. And supplanted both the daguerreotype and
calotype processes making them largely obsolete by the end of the decade.
But the wet plate process wasn't an entirely new process. In fact, it merged the most coveted
aspects of both early processes, resulting in a highly detailed photographic image on
paper that could be easily reproduced.
The wet plate process is tied to a few significant advances. The first was the replacement of
the paper negative utilized in the calotype process with a sheet of glass. The glass would
be coated with light sensitive chemicals and placed into a camera. The benefit of using
glass, rather than paper for the emulsion of a negative, is that the printed positive
image retained beautiful detail. Prints were being made at this time through a contact
process meaning the negative image would be laid directly on the printing material and
light would pass through the negative to produce the positive print via contact. When paper
is used for the negative, the light is blocked and details in the final positive print get
obscured. The use of glass creates a clear emulsion, allowing light to freely travel
through the negative during the printing process, retaining high details.
The drawback of course, is that glass is breakable. Glass negatives were precious and required
great care. This is compounded by the fact that larger images became desired for specific
types of pictures -- like landscapes. If a photographer's goal was to produce an image
that was 16x20" in size, then he or she would be working with 16x20" sheet of glass. Imagine
processing and printing those negatives in darkness, not to mention storing them.
The second significant advancement that spurred the wet plate process was the use of collodion
as the chemical of choice to sensitize that glass plate. You see photographer Michael
Gray here in this video produced by the British Library demonstrating this process. In 1849
Frederic Scott Archer discovered that collodion coated glass plates recorded highly detailed
latent images at a significantly reduced exposure time than the daguerreotype process.
But Archer's process had a drawback. In order for the latent image to be recorded successfully,
the glass plate needed to be placed inside a camera and exposed to light while it was
still damp -- hence the name "Wet Plate Process." This required a great deal of planning and
materials always had to be nearby. In fact, photographers who worked in the field were
required to take mobile dark rooms with them so they could prepare their plates in darkness
when they were ready to record a scene.
The third major advancement wrapped up within the success of the wet plate process had to
do with the paper on which images were printed. In 1850 Blanquart-Evrard devised a new type
of printing paper that coated with albumen. Albumen is a substance found in egg whites,
providing cheap and easily accessible materials.
However, the production of albumen coated paper was lengthy and a very involved process.
This hurdle was soon bypassed when the albumen paper industry emerged, capitalizing on high
demand and cheap labor.
In the coming decades, photography's popularity would soar and there would continue to be
experimentation with new processes. Three of them are the ambrotype the tintype, and
the carte de visite, all offering unique advantages to the photographer and patron to meet the
growing demand for the photographic image.
In the face of a growing photography industry, individual photographers continued to explore
the artistic merits of the latest processes. The warm tone and high gloss finish of albumen
prints created opportunities for artistic expression through a mechanically produced
image.
As well as increased opportunities to share naturalistic pictures of far away places with
people who would never have the opportunity to travel.
And despite the drawbacks of the processes, photography began to play an important role
in documenting new and unknown territories.
Many cultural values that are still very much a part of our lives today began to be constructed
through the taking and viewing of photographs in the mid 19th century, including the notion
of photographic truth.
Photographs were used by politicians to promote their agendas and increase the public's support
of their candidacies.
They carried images of war into one's personal experiences.
And played a significant role in shaping the way we feel about "others."