@derangedvisionsWet plate photography, or the "collodion process", is an early type of photography process that was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gray. These types of photographs have a very cool distinct look to them.
They were made on plates and the whole process from coating to developing of the image had to be done within 10 mins so that the plate would remain wet the whole time from the chemicals. It was a pretty extensive process that required a "mobile darkroom" that went with the photographer.
Luckily we have cool tricks in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop that we can use to recreate the look of this cool type of photography. For these images, I edited the photos in an older style look, with some blown out highlights and higher clarity and contrast. Then when I export the image out of Lightroom, I brought it into Photoshop and put an overlay texture image over the photo and changed the blend type to overlay. After that, I adjusted the opacity of the texture image for a look that I felt was good.
@derangedvisionsI used these images from a Civil War reenactment because I felt that the subject matter was perfect for this type of photography development style.
@derangedvisionsI hope that you liked the look of these images. I tried to make them look as authentic as possible to the real thing. If you ever have the chance to get a real wet plate photo taken, I would suggest you try it out. Not only do they look cool, but it is always cool to have a photo you can hold and these types of photos are great conversation pieces because they look so cool.
