Jared Polin: Jared Polin froknowsphoto.com and this is a five-minute portrait shooting
like it’s 1850.
So, I’m here with Giles Clement who is a tintype photographer.
Giles, give me a little bit of background on tintype?
Giles Clement: Yes, so, tintype is one of the earliest methods of photography used around
the 1850’s and you’re essentially creating a silver image right on a piece of metal.
Jared Polin: So it’s very similar – we’ll it is also known as wet plate photography?
Giles Clement: Yup, wet plate, tintype, same thing.
Jared Polin: So, there’s a lot chemicals involved which we are going to show.
We’re going to show you guys the chemical process here, pouring it on the plates.
We’re going to get through all that, but talk about the camera that you have here,
what’s the lens, what’s the whole set up?
Giles Clement: Yeah, so this is a – it’s an 8 x 10 Calumet and her name is Ediodes,
I name all my cameras and this is a 500-mm f4.5 Goerz Dogmar lens that was originally
used during the First World War for reconnaissance of Zeppelins and repurposing it for portraits.
Jared Polin: So, you said 1914?
Giles Clement: 1914, yeah.
Jared Polin: So, they would literally fly these in Zeppelins and take pictures of whatever
they were taking pictures of?
Giles Clement: That’s what I’ve been told, I don’t know.
Jared Polin: You don’t even know but you believe it.
Giles Clement: Yeah I believe it.
It’s a good story too, so I’ll keep propagating.
Jared Polin: Everything’s a good story.
So, over here, we’ve got the little stool setup where I’ll be sitting but what in
the world is this for?
Giles Clement: So, this is basically a head brace.
So, in the old days, they used to take photos during daylight hours and you had to sit still
for 5 to 20 seconds for a long time.
I use strobes, so you don’t have to sit that still but with a 500 f4.5, I mean the
depth of field is literally like an eyelash so this is just to keep your head still so
you just have your head propped against there while shooting.
Jared Polin: Right.
So, I can see that and you were talking about the effective ISO, is what 0.75?
Giles Clement: 0.75, yes it’s super slow so I just need to use it, tunnellized to take
an image.
Jared Polin: Right, so really remember the old days, you would see the photos of people
and they would ghost, that’s because they’re doing those 5,10 to 20-second exposures because
the emulsion wasn’t incapable of capturing as much light as obviously we can do now or
you couldn’t put out a big flash unless you waited for a storm and then flew a kite
and got it electrified and then you would maybe have enough light to get the exposure
right, but in this case, because we’re pumping out a ton of wattage, we are able to get exposure
down to what?
Giles Clement: 500th of a second.
Jared Polin: Which is pretty darn fast so.
Giles Clement: Real quick.
Jared Polin: So, the next step we’re going to move to is we might as well get the plates
ready.
So were now over here in the dark room and Giles is going to walk us through the process
of getting the plates ready to be exposed.
What do we have?
Giles Clement: Yeah.
So essentially, we have a piece of aluminum with black enamel on the surface of it.
We’ve got alcohol.
I just cleaned the plate off of that, occasionally take a sit, and this is collodion, so it’s
gun kind of ether gel.
It’s got a couple of metal salts in it that when they mix with silver, it becomes light-sensitive.
So, I'm going to be pouring that on and then making the emulsion.
Jared Polin: So, this is – when you say ether, if we put it onto a paper towel and
held it over our face, somebody would pass out?
Giles Clement: Somebody would pass out.
Jared Polin: We have a reenactment of that later, maybe not.
So, is this any kind of special aluminum or where do you get this?
Giles Clement: No, really it isn’t.
Actually, I buy stuff is used for trophies, so the little plaques on trophies.
So it’s just aluminum with black enamel surface on it.
Jared Polin: Cool, all right.
Let’s see this process.
Giles Clement: Okay.
So, you peel this off.
Jared Polin: So, you have obviously a clean substance or as clean as it, it’s going
to be now before you put the alcohol on it.
Giles Clement: Yup, yup.
And let’s get a piece of paper towel.
Jared Polin: That’s grain alcohol like you said?
Giles Clement: Yup.
And actually, I used that to mix the collodion.
I mix that in there as well, so it thins down the collodion.
So I’m just going to clean that off real quick.
Jared Polin: Smells lovely.
Now you can just see it evaporate, it makes it nice and clean.
What would happen if it wasn’t clean?
Giles Clement: You just get a messed up image or a more messed up image, so the plates are
actually usually pretty clean, it just kind of an extra little security for me.
Jared Polin: Sure, but anyway, so there is that.
Giles Clement: Yeah, if you want to just handle that.
Jared Polin: Don’t drink the collodion.
Giles Clement: Don’t drink the collodion or sniff it too much.
So, I’m just going to pour this and work it over the surface.
Jared Polin: So, it’s kind of like a gelatin?
Giles Clement: Yup, it’s really, it’s cotton, mixed with nitric acid
Jared Polin: Oh, nitric acid, cotton.
Giles Clement: It’s like your t-shirt on a piece of metal.
Jared Polin: And you really – is there a science to this pour?
Giles Clement: Just a lot of practice, just a lot of messes, basically.
Jared Polin: Oh my God it smells like a doctor’s office.
Giles Clement: Right.
Jared Polin: Oh my God.
I’m not going to breathe right now.
Giles Clement: Don’t breathe, don’t breathe.
Jared Polin: I want to go to the side.
Giles Clement: Yeah, so this starts – it starts to set up.
It starts to become a little bit tacky.
Jared Polin: Like a gelatin type of thing?
Giles Clement: Yeah, yeah, and then I’ll take it in my dark tent here and put it in
tank and the silver nitrate suspended in water.
The silver reacts with the gel here and becomes light-sensitive.
Jared Polin: I got to whip.
Oh my God, I’m catching more and more.
Giles Clement: First time.
Jared Polin: I need to wear one of those respirators.
Giles Clement: Okay, so, I’m going to drop it in here now.
Jared Polin: All right, so he’s dropping it in there.
Talk about – it’s silver?
Giles Clement: Yup, silver nitrate.
Jared Polin: Silver nitrate, that’s going to get the – that’s actually what gets
exposed, am I correct?
Giles Clement: Yup.
Jared Polin: All right, so that’s in there.
What’s next?
Giles Clement: So now, I’m going to get you over here and get you in the posing stool.
We’ll get you all set up, get the focus right and we had to wait three minutes.
So, the plate is sensitized in the chemical reaction going on right now between the silver
and the collodion to make the emulsion.
So, I’ll just get you setup over here, once we do that, we’ll be ready and I’ll bring
the plate out, we can shoot.
Jared Polin: All right, so, let me get sat down.
Let’s put those prongs at the back of my head and then go through the process while
this plate is getting ready, so let’s go and do that.
What is the next step Giles?
Giles Clement: So I’m going to get you sat down, you’re already sat.
This is the head brace.
I’m going to have you look up towards the camera there and I’m going to run this little
brace into the back of your head.
Let’s just keep you real still because the depth of field is just zero.
Jared Polin: You’re not going to electrocute me?
Giles Clement: No, we hope not.
Jared Polin: This isn’t going to kill me like in Escape from LA…
Giles Clement: We hope not.
Jared Polin: …when you don’t want to be put in the island?
Giles Clement: I haven’t watched that.
Jared Polin: Well, it’s not very good.
Giles Clement: Okay.
But anyway, yeah, I’m just going to adjust the light.
This is a – I’m putting about 3000 watts out of this head.
So, that is my main light, so I’m just going to get that.
I’m busy looking into your eyes trying to get a nice catch light.
Jared Polin: So, what type of portrait – what kind of framing are you going to for?
Giles Clement: I’m going to be right there.
I’m going to keep it – I mean, usually I go a little bit tighter, but I got to get
your hair in there so I can go a little lighter with you, but it’s like right from the neck
up the top of your hair and then like that and.
Jared Polin: Tighter the better.
Giles Clement: Right, yup.
Jared Polin: So, I know from experience.
Do I have to keep my head here or can I talk to the camera?
Giles Clement: You can take to the camera…
Jared Polin: Sweet, sweet.
So, I’ve already sat once before when Giles came to town and then I used – he had a
4 x 5 and I sat in front of these 3000 watts seconds and it feels like the sun is exploding
in your face.
It puts out that’s much power.
Giles Clement: True.
Jared Polin: So, how many lights do we have here?
Giles Clement: We have just three lights.
We have one hair light, one main light and a background light.
The background is fairly dark so I’m just going to throw some extra light on the back
of that to bring it out.
Jared Polin: Will my hair – like will the light come through my hair at all, you think?
Giles Clement: I doubt it.
From that light, it will but from the back one, no.
And really, I should add another hair light but we’ll see how this goes.
Okay, so, I’m just going to asset you into focus, get you set up with that.
Jared Polin: So, basically, tell me what you see through one of these cameras because it
doesn’t have a prism?
Giles Clement: Yes, there’s no prism, so the entire image is upside down.
So, I’m looking at you inverted and backwards, so I’ve gotten used to basically dealing
with that and shooting upside down.
It’s kind of weird now if I go start using a camera that isn’t inverted.
It’s unexpected.
Jared Polin: So, your brain is thinking – it’s kind of like the eyes.
Giles Clement: Yeah.
Jared Polin: Our eyes, our eyes – I’m going to look over here.
Our eyes – our brain is what – it changes the vision from when it hits our optic nerve.
Everything is actually upside down and backwards but the brain switches it around, so when
he’s looking through this camera, I’m upside down and backwards.
Backwards.
Giles Clement: Backwards, Jared, all right.
Jared Polin: Do I need to seat upright or…
Giles Clement: No, that’s good – I mean I would just sit how you normally are.
Jared Polin: Like this?
Giles Clement: That’s pretty good.
I mean I’m just going like out to the very edge of your hair.
I might go a tiny bit closer but…
Jared Polin: I wouldn’t be upset if you cut some hair.
Giles Clement: Okay.
Jared Polin: Whatever you think the best.
Giles Clement: Yeah, no, no.
I want to get the hair though.
That’s why we’re here, right?
Jared Polin: Yeah.
so I know from the past, you’ve got the bellows extension factor.
How do you figure out the exposure for this?
Giles Clement: It’s trial and error and it just – you know, there’s no meter that
goes to 0.75, there’s no metering with the whole thing, so I just – it’s just experience
basically.
Jared Polin: So, it’s for shootings for a while.
Giles Clement: Yeah.
Jared Polin: So, like you messed it up before, now you figured out what you need to do.
Giles Clement: Yeah.
Jared Polin: Very cool.
All right, so are we ready to shoot or…
Giles Clement: We are, yeah.
So, I’m just have to go back in the dark tent here and pull the plate out of the silver
and load it up into a film holder and once I do that, it’s in this light-sensitive
box that I can then drop down the back of the camera and take the image on that.
Jared Polin: And then were good to go?
Giles Clement: Yup.
Jared Polin: All right, let’s get it loaded up and get ready to shoot.
Giles Clement: Okay.
Jared Polin: All right, so, Giles is in here in the dark room.
How does the dark room look?
Giles Clement: Dark.
Jared Polin: It looks dark.
So, tell us what you’re doing in there.
Giles Clement: Okay, so I am – the plate has been seating in the silver for three minutes,
so its sensitized.
so, I’m going to pull it out, so it comes out of the silver like that.
You can see it’s kind of changed colors, turtle yellowish, that’s the silver-seating
on the surface there, its reactive with the collodion, so it turn to light-sensitive.
So I basically have a piece of for lack of a better word, film right there.
So, I got that out.
I’m just going to wipe off the back with a paper towel here and then I’m going to
load it in this dark holder.
It might be a little hard to see because it’s pretty dark back here but I’m going to load
it up into this 8 x 10 holder that will allow me to take the plate without getting exposed
to light out to the camera.
Jared Polin: Film holders are extremely important for this.
Obviously, you need to get from a dark room into the camera and the way you do that is
by using a film holder so that it doesn’t get exposed to any light.
In the meantime, when you go from dark to light to dark.
So, you’re ready to go?
Giles Clement: Yup I’m ready.
Jared Polin: All right.
Giles Clement: Cool.
So, I got the plate here, I got – the plate is inside the holder now.
So, I’m just going to have you sit down there and we’ll get you all set up.
So, yeah, if you can get your head up against there and it’s not really a support, it’s
just kind of a brace.
Jared Polin: Just to let me know, so this is good?
Giles Clement: Yup. and just look straight here…Right, that looks good.
Jared Polin: How much time do you have to shoot the photo?
Giles Clement: I’ve got about 10 minutes to work with the plate or it’s until the
plate dries out so basically it’s very environmentally, you know, it depends on the environment but
it’s super-hot and a lot shorter but yeah that looks good.
So, I’m just going to go under here.
I’m going to focus on you and do the final check on composition and everything like that.
So your head is up against the brace there?
Jared Polin: Yup.
Giles Clement: Okay.
All right, that looks great.
So I’m just focusing basically like right on one of your eyelashes and that’s pretty
much my depth of field, it’s an eyelash.
So we’re ready to go.
I’m going to load up the plate in the back of the camera.
So I see that you also have a hat up top.
So the hat is my shutter, so I’m basically – I’m going to put this on and if you
hold real still, just keep looking at the center lens.
I’m going to put that on and then right before I take the picture, I’m going to
take this off and then hit the flash, okay, so, the plate doesn’t get expose to all
the extraneous light, but you’re ready to go?
Jared Polin: Yes sir.
Giles Clement: Okay.
So, does the dark side uncover that and here we go.
Right, one, two, three.
Jared Polin: Wow.
Giles Clement: And that was the image.
Jared Polin: That’s like fire man.
Do I have a sunburn?
Do I look like I picked up some color from that thing?
So being the hat is acting like a shutter, it really – because it’s not super sensitive
to light, all these extra light really doesn’t rush in there and damage it.
Giles Clement: No, I mean if I were to do an exposure here with no flash, it would be
probably 20 seconds or something like that.
It will be really a lot of exposure.
Jared Polin: I would love to try that sometime.
Giles Clement: Yeah.
But yeah, that instant, you know, the hat you know, I could leave out for a few seconds.
It will be fine.
Jared Polin: All right, so the next step is what?
Giles Clement: So, I’m going to take it back to the dark tent and pour developer over,
which is iron sulfate developer that I pour on.
That develops the image then I rinse that off.
It’s like a stop bath and then we’ll bring it out and fix it.
You can watch the image come to life.
Jared Polin: Awesome.
So, let’s see it.
So we’ve taken the photo.
Giles is now in the dark room that we’ve made her in my loft.
And Giles, what’s the process you’re going through in there?
Giles Clement: Okay, so I’m opening the dark slide off the film holder and I’m going
to pull the plate out so that’s now exposed and it looks exactly the same right now.
Jared Polin: And you don’t see – right now, it’s a latent image, correct?
Giles Clement: Yeah, latent image.
So you just see.
It looks the same as when I went in, it’s just white and then the next step is we’re
going to take this bottle here which is the developer.
It’s iron sulfate, vinegar, and a little bit of alcohol.
I’m going to pour that on a plate like this.
Jared Polin: Nobody is smoking, right?
Giles Clement: Nobody smoking.
Jared Polin: We don’t want anything going up in flames.
Giles Clement: And you should – if everything went right, you should start seeing Jared’s
eyes, so you can see him right there come out.
It’s just starting to show up.
It usually takes about 15 seconds for this to develop.
You see a bit of his face there.
Jared Polin: So I do have a quick question.
Giles Clement: Yeah, yeah.
Jared Polin: Will it develop to a certain point that you have to stop it to fix it?
Giles Clement: Yup.
Jared Polin: It will keep developing if we don’t stop it?
Giles Clement: Yup.
So, I’m actually – I just started stopping it just now.
So, I’m basically looking for the darkest thing just to start to appear, so that was
like the edge of your hair, so I’m just watching for that and as soon as I see that,
I stop the developing.
Jared Polin: That’s cool.
I mean that’s something you’ll get used to.
If you’re ever in a dark room, you’ll know that it will keep developing until you
put it into a stop bath.
Giles Clement: Yup.
So, I’m just getting all this off, just basically washing all the developer off the
image and that just takes a sec and there is that.
So, now the image is not light-sensitive so I can take it out and we’re going to do
the fixing stuff.
Jared Polin: All right cool.
So Giles is going to come out and we’ll get it into the fixer.
Okay, so, now we’re going to put the plate into fixer.
Giles Clement: So, this is a fixer bath, so it’s just washing off all the silver that
wasn’t hit by light and it leaves everything that was.
Jared Polin: It’s kind of like a solarized image and what’s the fixer doing here?
Giles Clement: So, it’s washing off the silver particles that weren’t hit by the
light
Jared Polin: Wow!
And look how it pops out.
That was really cool.
So, you don’t need to agitate like we use to in the dark room, you just let it go?
Giles Clement: No, with the – so when I pour it over, it’s sort of like – I mean,
it’s agitating it but then, yeah, you can just leave it in here.
It sits here for like two minutes, three minutes, something like that and you basically, I’m
looking for this line of silver waiting for that to go away and then it’s usually finished.
Jared Polin: So I mean it can stay in the fixer for almost an infinite amount of time,
correct?
Giles Clement: It really shouldn’t because the fixer will actually start burning the
image because the image is made out of gel which is quite delicate, so it will start
burning into that and eventually destroy the image.
So, it gets a little – like I guess darker and darker as it sits in here, so eventually
it will just disappear altogether.
Jared Polin: So, when it’s done here, you’re going to a water wash?
Giles Clement: Yup.
So I wash them for about an hour that washes and make sure all the fixers off of it so
the – you know, so for archival purposes, it’s going to last a long time, and really
these images are incredibly archival.
It is just silver on metal, so they’ll last for a hundred – I mean if you look at an
antique shop, you find a tintype there.
I’m doing the same thing.
So, in 200 years, your photo should look the same.
Speaker I hope that I still have hair.
Giles Clement: Hopefully, yeah
Jared Polin: I don’t want to look like you.
Giles Clement: No, you don’t.
This is very cold in the winter.
Jared Polin: All right, so this is going to – we’re going to a water wash next and
then we’re just going to wrap it up?
Giles Clement: Yeah.
So, the image is basically done.
I do the water wash.
I will scan them, so I have a digital copy of it.
It makes a really nice, huge – I mean it’s an 8 x 10 file, so you get a massive file
out of it, and then the last step that I do is I will varnish them, so, I put shellac
on the surface of that and that’s just protects the silver, because the silver, if you left
it out in the air, overtime, it would tarnish.
It would turn brown and eventually, the image would be gone.
So just – yeah, I finish them up.
It usually takes a couple of hours to finish the image up and that’s it.
Jared Polin: All right, cool, let’s get them into the water wash.
So Giles, that was very, very interesting.
Are you happy with the results?
Giles Clement: Yeah, I am.
No, I think you look really good.
Jared Polin: Thank you.
I’m trying with the hair and everything.
Giles Clement: It’s working.
What you’re doing is working.
Jared Polin: I have to say.
It’s so different sitting in front of the camera like this for a portrait because you
know that you’ve got one chance to get it right.
if you don’t, it’s another 10-minute process to get everything plus it’s costing you
some money because you waste the plates, you waste the chemicals, but it was definitely
an experience and it’s pretty amazing to watch the image come to life in the fixer.
Giles Clement: Yeah.
No, thanks for having me.
I hope you like the image as much as I do.
Jared Polin: Oh, I loved it.
I loved the big image and it’s just really, really cool and thanks for coming to the five-minute
portrait.
Giles Clement: You’re welcome, thank you Jared for sure.
Jared Polin: All right.
So, that is a five-minute portrait like it was 1850.
I think it went pretty well.
I hope you guys enjoy it and you can download the full res file over on the site.
So there you have it.
Jared Polin, froknowsphoto.com.
See you!
So, hope you guys liked that five minute portrait.
Well, I got to sit down with Giles for roll talk and you can click up on the screen right
now to hear our interview and all the other good stuff and find out where you can get
more information on Giles so he can shoot you.