Last Updated on 03/19/2018 by Mark Beckenbach
When you hear about a crazy project with a wet plate camera, Markus Hofstaetter is most definitely involved.
Portrait and wedding photographer Markus Hoffstaetter is at it again with his mind-boggling wet plate photography. Previously, he did an amazing steampunk-themed photoshoot where he made double exposures with a 91-year-old box-form SLR wet plate camera. Now, he’s back with another project perfect for springtime: macro photography using two wet plate cameras!
Sounds like something you can’t quite wrap your heads around? Thankfully, Markus was ready as ever to document his entire process for all of us to watch and read. The idea came to him when he noticed some snowdrops blooming in his garden. Like most photographers he immediately thought how nice it would be to take macro shots of the flower. Unlike most, however, he has some pretty interesting photography equipment to play around with. We’ll let you watch how it went first with the video below.
There you have it, another cool photography project from our go-to wet plate guy. The idea to put together two wet plate cameras and extend the ground glass for as far as he needed to was pretty impressive, don’t you think? The old Emil Busch Petzval lens he used to shoot at f/10 also ensured that he had a narrow depth of field and dreamy bokeh for an eye-catching macro shot.
Setting his tiny snowdrop against some crumpled aluminum foil was also a great idea to catch some of the light for the bokeh. Another thing he mentioned was that he needed to fire a 7,000 watt flash twice to illuminate the subject. This is because the farther the lens is from the plate, the more light you need. Also, the plate’s ISO is around 0.5. So yes, that much light!
As you can see, the result is really beautiful and worth the effort. We tip our hats to Markus for another successful crazy wet plate project!
Don’t forget to check out Markus Hofstaetter’s blog and YouTube channel to learn more about his wet plate photography projects.
All images used with permission and pitched to the Phoblographer.