Dryplate Tintype Developer

[kevin klein]

Hollo everyone, I'm new here and see alot of interesting things. I do wetplate work but ocasionaly dabble in the dryplate. I was wondering if anyone knows a formula for dryplate tintype Developer that is out there. I know I can buy some from Rockland but I like the do it your self way.
Thank you.

Kevin

[htmlguru4242]

You mean like an old Iron Sulphate or Pyro developer?


The good 'ol Silver Sunbeam (http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/...am/chap16.html) gives some formulas from the era. Never used them, but they worked for the people "back in the day"

What do you use for shooting dryplates? Do you make your plates or buy them from somewhere?

[kevin klein]

The dryplate tins I have used in the past are the ROCKLAND products. Oyhrewise I use collodion for tins. But what Im looking for is a formula used for developing the dry gelatin tins like that of Rockland. They have an MSDS display on thier site for their products and it does show the composition of the tintype developer. It is basicaly dectol with Ammonium Thiocyonate.
I tried to make my own but it had a tendancy to turn black in short order and the results were not that good, maybe the emulsion or something was bad.
Other dryplate techniques I used with great success are the dry collodion plates for negatives wich are slower than wetplate but still give good negatives.

[AsaWhite]

Today I mixed a stock solution (for 1 litre) made of this. 145g Dektol powder, 50g Sodium Sulfate anhydrous, and 30g Ammonium Thiocyanate. Mixed as a working solution 1:1 may be a bit strong for some. Although it produced an OK image, it was really fast acting. Tomorrow I'll try 1 part stock to 2 parts water,

[kevin klein]

I would like to see your results. I have been fooling around with this off and on for the past 5 or six years, and have not gotten anything as good as the old Rockland stuff, wich these days does not seem to be as good as it used to be.

[musila]

I made a homemade developer for developing liquid light tins, kind of following Rockland's developer. I mixed 2 fl oz. stock dektol, with 1 tsp of 10% potassium bromide and 40mls of bad fix. The fix was Sprint's ammonium thiosulphate's fix, expired due to silver saturation, and probably diluted 1 to 9. I took it from the university darkroom. Instead of putting the plate in a tray of developers, I would pour it over the plate, which helped avoid frilling. I'd use a tray to catch the developer that fell off, and pour it over again, developing until the white gel cleared to black.

I'd recommend only using this in a well ventilated area because it does release an intense gas, I used it immediately after mixing and 24 hours after mixing, both worked, and both emitted the gas.

[AsaWhite]

I tried the mix with spent fixer and was disappointed with the nasty gas. The reason I am using the sodium sulfate anhydrous is that I saw it on the MSDS for the bulk developer at one time in the past listed as powder #2, . Soon I'll be posting more photos in the gallery (processed with my above developer mix). So far I have been subbing my plates with polyurethane varnish and have had not too much problem with emulsion lifting (If the emulsion is thoroughly dried).Weather permitting, I'll be able to take a few shots this week. By the way, I am not trying to use this as a monobath developer. I develop until I can see some of the image start to clear, then I go to Kodak Fix until cleared.

[AsaWhite]

Way too much Sodium Sulfate in the brew- not sure if it helps out the Dektol w/ Ammonium Thiocyanate- Think I'll drop it altogether and try again. Seems to produce too much fog- even in areas totally unexposed.

[musila]

I tried replacing the ammonium fix with hypo, I did the math to equal the thiosulfates out (granted the hypo wasn't exhausted) but the fix wasn't fast enough to stop the Dektol in time, so I got a negative image on the plate. Thou, the thin areas where toned a varying green to orange color. I think I'm going to an iron sulphate developer next, because I never cared for the green-yellow hue I got with the Dektol/ammonium developer.

Oh, and a correction to my previous post, I used 4oz stock dektol, not 2oz.

[Mark Osterman]

I know this thread is about developers for dry plate tintypes, but if you are currently using ready made gelatin emulsion, you can save mountains of money by making you own gelatin based silver bromide emulsion I describe in Christopher James' Book on Alternative Photographic Processes. We will also be teaching a workshop in gelatin emulsion making in 2013. Check out the George Eastman House workshop page from time to time to see new listings.

http://www.eastmanhouse.org/events/e...hoto-workshops