Photography

History

Digital Basics

101 Tips

My Camera

 

Tip of the Day

 

 

Home

 

 

 

The Collodion Process

 

 

 

The dilemma of detail versus reproducibility was resolved in 1851 by an Englishman, Frederick Scott Archer, who introduced the collodion process. This method, also known as the “wet plate” technique, involved coating a glass plate with silver iodide in suspension, exposing it while still wet, and developing it immediately. Once fixed and dried, the glass plate was covered with a thin, flexible film containing the negative image, the definition and detail of which approached that of the daguerreotype. As this process merged the advantages of both its predecessors, it was universally adopted within a very short time.

Sparrow's House, Ipswich" by Frederick Scott Archer, 1857

 


All images copyrighted © Allan & Pauline Wiltshire. Images contained in this site are for Internet viewing only. No reproduction of these images is permitted.