As part of the Gothic Manchester Festival I held a wet plate spirit photography session during the MMU open day on Saturday.
We had great fun and a steady stream of participants. We were ready with spirits, ectoplasm and apparitions for those who wished to partake. As you’ll see some opted for a more traditional portrait where others fancied something a little different…
The first of the spirit plates… these were very popular.
One couples version of an American/Manchester Gothic, he didn’t think he’d get away with carrying a pitchfork through the city centre. This was twenty seconds standing…
Burke and Hare?
Someone even brought their own skull?
I was surprised no-one took me up on the ectoplasm, in a couple of days I’ll post a test plate from the night before. The white dots and “sparkles” resulted from only filtering the fresh developer once rather than several times, I was hoping for more random comets to appear.
Exposures were 10 seconds at f4. Apart from the standing couple which they posed for twenty seconds.
Thanks again to Steph for the huge helping hand, there was a lot of equipment for the day and she kept people entertained whilst my head was stuck in the darkbox…
Also thanks to Mark Osterman for his “secret” to making ghostly smoke. It really does work a treat.
These are really effective. However, I must point out, that I always take my skull, wherever I go.
I knew someone would pick up on that Charles. Although some people can be a little empty headed.