Collodion poured onto Vellum paper, for enlarging

Big breakthrough yesterday — we successfully poured collodion onto very thin, very transparent Vellum paper, and the image stuck. Today, more testing, and then to either contact print it in a contact frame, or else look for an 8×10 enlarger! But the texture of the vellum showing through the image is beautiful. But even weirder — the paper negative itself is something to behold — all curled up, and thin, and curled, and crackly, like some document from the 1800′s that was found in a family Bible or something. More to come… Fun. The whole process has this “Shroud of Turin” feel to it.

Update: We photographed my friend Diana today, to see what a face would feel like with the vellum. They’re hanging to dry now. Very exciting to see the texture of the image.

Resulting copy, inverted, of the paper negative, and toned.

One of the Diana negatives from today, hanging in the basement to dry. Collodion on vellum paper, to be enlarged later.

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Collodion negative, on vellum paper, hanging overnight from drying. Paper was mounted onto clear glass, and then inserted into Jody Ake’s 8×10 film holder for wet plate. Amazingly, it all worked on the first try. More testing today. Imagine a 40″x60″ print, enlarged, through the vellum texture.

Here’s the image, rephotographed, hanging taped to a CStand, and inverted. This was just a thrown-together image with one light, just to see if if the collodion would bond to the paper. But so far, pretty encouraging!