I’d made some inserts for the Hunter Penrose so it’ll take a 12×15 plate, then made an insert to fit inside that one for whole plate, then it clicked that my old wooden whole plate camera insert for quarter plate will fit inside that one….. Like those Russian Doll things.
So just to see how the Penrose plate holder handles (with both hands by the way cos its huge) I shot a couple of quick quarter plates. Yes I know its a bit daft using a process camera that shoots almost 17×19 inch plates to shoot small quarter plates but hey… why he heck not.
Thats all very well but what was of real interest today was the effect of really old Quickclear collodion.
Take a look at this first plate of John. Six seconds at F4 from that Ross Epidiascope lens. No head brace.
See that swirling upper right…. Heres a crop. Never seen that before.
After adding about 50ml of IDA/Ether heres another test plate…. swirls are gone.
The contrast on these plates is amazing but its very fragile, the very first plate (not shown) I just brushed a finger across it and the collodion came straight off, its very very fragile.
Maybe its time to get a fresh batch to add to this one…
And some intensive silver maintenance is still needed.