[LargeFormat] Re Dry Plate Photography and Soft Focus

[Les Newcomer]

I've got a c1900 Korona that when I use to shoot for the "old look" I
shot tri-X with a  heavy blue filter used for color separations  I think
it was a No47.  The filter factor was about 5 stops so I was in that f16
@ 1" in bright sun.

This was a few years a go and I could contact print them on Studio Proof
paper and gold tone them.

Chicago Albumen Works still sells a POP paper that works well.

While I'm not an expert on the spectral curve of 19th century plates,
from what I got out of my Professors at RIT and the Eastman House, they
were all very blue sensitive. I would think that once you've put this
heavy blue filter on any variances between tri-x or even Tmax and the
old stuff would be slight.

The part of the equation I have yet to solve is the paper. Without going
to POP and gold toning, I haven't found a paper with a white base and a
warm to red black.  I can either find blinding white and neutral to cold
black or ektalure which is a cream base.

Les
Stein wrote:
> 
> Dear Friends,
> 
>      I am the owner of the world's rattiest old Nagaoka 4 x 5 camera. It
> sits atop a home-made wooden tripod with wingnuts and bolts holding the legs
> together. For years I have used an oldish Schneider 150mm Symmar S and
> whatever I could find in the local shops for film to take vaguely old-timey
> pictures at historical encampments.
> 
>     Now I have acquired a Beck Symmetrical lens of about 8 inches focal
> length in a lovely brass barrel - it opens all the way up to a blazing f.8 -
> and it even has a lens cap. No shutter, of course.
> 
>      I want to move back to the era of dry plate photography but I wish to
> avoid coating glass plates or adapting my 24 double darkslide holders. I am
> looking to find a 4 x 5 film that will have the characteristics of the older
> dry plates. I need it to be orthochromatic and very slow. I hope eventually
> to be able to develop these films in a dark tent out on the campsite.
> 
>     Can anyone suggest a type of film and a supplier for this? Also any
> hints about development.
> 
>     Please note that I have read about the modern wet-plate work and do
> subscribe to the Collodion Journal. I understand the principals of the older
> silver plate and mercury processes too, but I do not want to venture into
> the dangers of one or the inconvenience of the other.
> 
>      The second enquiry concerns a Rodenstock Imagon lens that I have. It is
> 240mm focal length and opens up to about 5.6 - perhaps better. I find it a
> difficult device to understand as the diaphragm is unmarked and the stops
> seem to be additional attachments that push onto the front of the main lens.
> It has a Compur compound shutter marked in the older arithmetic speeds but
> is nevertheless synchronised and works in well with studio flash units.
> I am puzzled at the age that it might be - the compound shutter and all
> seems to be of a 20's or 30's vintage but is perfectly preserved. But the
> barrel of the lens is marked as a product of Western Germany - surely a
> postwar marking.
> 
>     I need someone who has used Imagons to give me some tips on its
> employment. I have effected some good glamour images so far with the WRN
>  World's Rattiest Nagaoka ) but I need a camera with a longer draw to get in
> close for portraits. Any ideas?
> 
>     Thanks in advance for the help.
> 
>     Uncle Dick
> 
>     PS: I am stuck at the end of the world so it's no good advising me to
> pop round to a New York dealer.
> 
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