Tintypes may not be as common as they once were, but the art form certainly isn’t dead. It’s a very precise process that needs either a lot of light all at once or a long exposure time to get it right. The folks at Tested took Mythbusters’ Jamie Hyneman to get his tintype portrait taken by Michael Shindler, a San Francisco-based tintype photographer and one of the best-known in the field.
The video’s a great look at the process involved in creating a tintype. Given the nature of the medium, the plate has an ISO rating of less than 1, typically around .5, which is a little crazy to think about given some of the ISO ranges of recent cameras.
Making a tintype is a highly technical process that necessitates a great deal of patience from both the subject and the photographer, and the result is worth the wait. Taking on such a technically complex art form is a commitment that not everyone can make. Those that do are creating something great for the rest of us.
For more about the process, you can check out wartime tintypes from Afghanistan, our interview with Adrian Whipp and our interview with Giles Clement.
The video’s below after the break.