Painting and Polishing
Household chores have taken the bear’s share of the weekend so far although Sarah and I did sneak out to a movie yesterday. The hallway I painted looks pretty nice but it didn’t get me any closer to taking my first daguerreotype! In spare moments I have been checking out various daguerreotype web resources.
I did put in a bid on a Goerz Robertson 360mm F8 Lens but I didn’t win it. It went for about $125 more than I figured I could afford. I will probably keep trying though. I have seen lenses very occasionally sell on eBay for well below their worth. It is probably just as well I didn’t win as I don’t yet really know what I am doing in the world of lenses. I realized after I placed my bid that while the focal length of that lens is probably good, the f8 is probably too slow for daguerreotypes, particularly if I start with the Becquerel process. In Jonathan Danforth’s helpful exposure guide for the Becquerel process he complains that his “crappy camera lens has a maximum aperture of f/6.3“. Looking at the exposure guide I can understand why he’s complaining- even on a sunny day you are looking at very long exposure times with an f-stop of 6.3. I will continue with my study of how to make a lens.
So what’s with the Polishing part of the post title? One of the web resources I was looking at while waiting for paint to dry yesterday is Caswell’s Introduction to Buffing and Polishing. This is a great resource for anyone needing to learn about buffing and polishing from the ground up. Caswell is a supplier of plating and polishing supplies. When I finally get to making daguerreotype plates this information is going to be very useful.
Daguerreotype Process | andy | May 26, 2008
Glad we could sneak in a movie :)
Start with a old film 35mm SLR, it is easiest and can have f1.8 super fast lenses. A bonus is the plates are small and easier to polish. You just attach the sensitized plate to the spring loaded part of the back that pushes the film flush to the body of the camera using doubled up masking tape in a roll. You have to do it a few times in the light to get the idea but it works really well. A bonus is that it is a good use for that old film camera collecting dust!
This is a great idea. I am working on getting an old view camera up to speed, but that will take quite a while. I have several 35mm cameras gathering dust that would be perfect, including a Pentax with an f 1.7 50mm lens. It also is making sense to me to use tiny plates for my early attempts. It sounds like this is a big time-saver early on as far as polishing and re-takes is concerned. (From what sounds like – after reading info from other practitioners – might be a long sucession of failed images)