Daguerreotype
What is a Daguerreotype?
A Daguerreotype is a photograph taken by a early photo process using a iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor. By treating the mettle plate with fumes and making it light-sensitive you could put the plate in a camera and expose it. Then by using the mercury vapor the image will appear.
This is a picture of a Daguerreotype.^ ^ this is the camera they used to take the photos
The Daguerreotype was invented by a man named Louis Daguerre and was introduced in 1839. By 1860 new, less expensive ways to produce more easily viewed images had almost completely took out the Daguerreotype. In the past few decades the Daguerreotype has been making a small-scale comeback by photographers interested in using early photographic processes.
The steps to making a daguerreotype goes as follows...
- 1. Polishing
- 2. Sensitization
- 3. Exposure
- 4. Development
- 5. Fixing
1. To get a better image quality the silver side of the plate had to be polished to a almost perfect mirror finish. The silver had to be free of all tarnish and other contamination when it was sensitized. This meant that the photographer had to do the final portion of polishing not to long before use. The polishing was usually done with a buff covered with hide or velvet.
2. In the dark or using a safelight the silver side was exposed to halogen, iodine, bromine, or chlorine fumes. A final re-fuming with iodine fumes was typical to do.
3. The plate was then carried in a light-tight container to the camera. You would place the plate in the camera and remove the cap/lens to start the exposure. Depending on the fumes used and the lens intensity of light it could take from a few seconds to many minutes. When the exposure is finished the plate was removed and put in the container again.
4. The image would appear after around 7 minutes of exposure to fumes from heated mercury in a special developing box. The fact about the toxic state of the mercury was known of but not taken seriously in the 19th century. Later a safer method of development was made for the daguerreotype.
5. After development the light sensitivity of the plate was taken away by using a mild solution of sodium thiosulfate. Gliding also known as Gold Toning was another process that soon became stranded procedure. To give the steely gray image a slightly warmer tone and physically reinforce the powder-like silver particles of which it was composed, a gold chloride solution was pooled onto the surface and the plate was briefly heated over a flame, then drained, rinsed and dried.
*This is a link to a video on the making of a daguerreotype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0SJny1Wq8c
*Funny song of Daguerreotypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqC6n2jwu4
If the links don't work just copy and paste it in google.
*Funny song of Daguerreotypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqC6n2jwu4
If the links don't work just copy and paste it in google.
