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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Features

A 6000W Light Meets Harley Davidson and a 12 × 16 inch Wet Plate

Chris Gampat
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05/24/2017
3 Mins read
G5B1924-Edit

This is a syndicated blog post from Markus Hofstätter. It is being republished with permission. Also be sure to check out our previous interview with him.

As always, everything starts small:

As I walked for lunch I met Leo and he talked with me about my tintype photography. He told me about his new Harley Davidson and that he wanted me to take his photo with the Harley. Of course, I should use my 100 year old Camera and capture the light on a collodion wet plate. I just thought cool, let’s do it.

Some weeks later, I got a call from the Austrian television broadcaster ORF. I was very happy to learn, that they wanted to do a documentary about my work. As you can imagine, it wasn’t too hard for me to choose for a subject to be photographed.

I asked Leo if he is in – he said yes, so let’s do it.

Shooting Day

I prepared all the chemicals shortly before the shooting and tested everything. To get a very short exposure time, I planned to use my Hensel Tria 6000 generator with the strobe head.
On the shooting day it started raining in the morning. Leo arrived way before the ORF Team so we made fun of it that we would shoot during the rain- what actually would not be possible because of my 100 year old camera and the strobe. Scheduled start was 1pm and believe it or not, it stopped raining at noon. Wet Plate shooting here we come.

The Shooting

After we reviewed everything we positioned the Harley and I put my camera and the strobe into place. Because both are pretty heavy you need a certain amount of energy to move that stuff. After that, I instructed Leo where he should stand and how he should position his hands (no creepy hands in that pose please). Now I took the first digital picture to see how everything looks like.

After that, I did the first exposure test with a 4×5 Inch plate. I used the same camera for that. The plate was a little too bright for my taste. So I changed the aperture from 5 to about 7. Now I started to pour the big plate. This time I was a little more excited than normally. This is the third time I was filmed professionally during that whole process, but to make a 12×16 Inch wet plate is no piece of cake and not now an easy routine. Anyway, I was very happy with the poured plate and put it afterward in the silver bath for 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, I rushed back to Leo and checked the focus on the camera. Back again in the darkroom, I put the plate out of the bath, cleaned it and put it afterward in the wooden light sealed plate holder. Rushing with the holder back to Leo and my 100-year-old camera. Exchanged the ground glass with the plate holder I was ready to shoot. Lens cap of the lens – releasing 6000W during the day onto the Harley and Leo and after under a second, the lens cap was back in place again. Rushing again back into the dark room where the next challenge was waiting for me. Pouring the developer. Because I used a different technique it was much easier than I expected it to be. Slowly the Image started to appear and I saw that it looks good. A final wash before I could fix the plate and then I was on the way into daylight where everybody was waiting for the fixing process.

After I put the plate into the fixing tray the magic started to happen. It always seems that the image disappears but in the very same moment it appears again from kind of negative to a positive and it looked awesome. Everybody was excited and happy and I was proud and happy to about my work.

As soon as I know broadcast times or I have an online link, I let you know here on the blog.

If you guys want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website https://zeitreise.jetzt
I do workshops too so you can build your own tintype.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/

Used Hardware:

Hensel Tria 6000 Generator
EH Pro 6000 stribe head
Hensel Grand 90
the result:

Hensel Tria 6000 generator images Leo Markus Hofstätter Photography wet plate
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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