The Science of Tintype Photography




Will and Norm get their portraits taken at Photobooth, a unique photo studio in San Francisco that shoots tintype photographs. Learn about the technical and chemical details behind this 1800s photography technique, and how it produces truly one-of-a-kind photographs.

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23 responses to “The Science of Tintype Photography”

  1. Ultra modern studio with the latest lighting system and using old fashioned tin plate.
    It's like using a steam engine as a power source for a mobile phone.
    Or using ultra modern tools to make a 17th century style cabinet, i prefer to keep everything authentic

  2. Can you tell the cameraman to stop crash-zooming and hold the camera more steady.
    That MTV style moving cam is so distracting. Just show us the things of a quiet subject calmly and don't try to make it more interesting by overly moving

  3. Although this was uploaded in 2012, he was then as now not anywhere near the only studio that does this. There are around a thousand serious wet plate photographers today. It is becoming my premier service in my photography business.
    It is the most rewarding process I have learned.
    I started in film in the 70s and moved to digital in the 21st century. As time passed I took and interest in wet plate and am now a collodion junkie.

  4. Good work! Thats a pity you finish your work with digital print. What about to go for a larger mormat and then do contact copy with Van Dyke or cyanotype process?:) That's what I plan to build in Czech rep.

  5. It's a shame they can't be drum scanned. I have an 8000dpi drum scanner and my b&w 4×5 negatives are the equivalent of 1gigapixel. Obviously, resolution isn't everything but it does help to resolve the fantastically smooth tonal transitions you get from 4×5. The tonal transitions and sharpness of wet plate is even better than negative in some ways.

  6. There is also a fully functional tintype studio in nyc. Its called the Penumbra foundation and they can shoot 4x5s up to an 11×14 I believe. Its really cool I would recommend everyone to check it out

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