wet plate
Victorian photography method
Wet plate refers to a photographic process from the mid-19th century in which a glass or metal plate is coated with light-sensitive chemicals and exposed while still wet.
The plate had to be prepared, exposed, and developed within minutes before drying, requiring photographers to carry portable darkrooms.
Wet plate photography produced remarkably sharp images and was the dominant method from the 1850s through the 1880s: Civil War portraits were made using the wet plate process.
Also called wet collodion.
- collodionNitrocellulose in solvent
- tintypePhotograph on metal sheet
- glass negativesImages on transparent plates
- emulsionBlended immiscible liquids
- silver nitrateAgNO₃ crystalline salt
glass · daguerreotype · ferrotype · ether · Civil War era · darkroom · nitrocellulose · Victorian era · exposure · developing · pour · photography · dip · coat · latent image · tripod · long exposure · chemical