Wet-Collodion Process

This whole process was very time restrictive because the plate needed to be wet during the whole process and thusly the process had to all be done in the close proximity of a dark room. The photographer would set their camera up and focus on the ground glass in the camera to make sure everything was to their liking, then they would make their plates using the collodion process, the photographer would then take the plate in a negative holder to the camera and expose the negative. After the negative was exposed the development process would be carried out and the photographer would then have a negative. This negative could be used to make multiple prints which was a great benefit to everyone who used this process. Frederick Scott Archer could …show more content…
As for this process, the steps are largely the same as the wet-collodion process, although now there is the added step of a preservation solution that allows for the plate to be stored in a dark place for an extended period of time. The process still calls for the normal steps of the wet-collodion process to point, the gun-cotton solution is added to the glass plate then the plate is sensitized with the silver solution, after the plate is sensitized a new step is added, a solution of gelatine and citric acid is added onto the plate to preserve the plate for storage. This process can be divided into eight stages as described by Charles A. Long’s book “The Dry-Collodion …show more content…
The photographer Roger Fenton was one of the first war photographers. Fenton went and took photographs of the Crimean war, Fenton was commissioned by the government to go to the Crimea and take photographs of what was going on. The unpopularity of the war with the British public was something that the secretary of state for war wanted to improve, so he urged Fenton to go to Crimea and take photographs of how the war was progressing. Fenton took stylized photographs of the war that were less about what was really going on, he took photographs that consisted of portraits of the soldiers and generals, ships in the harbor and generally photographs that painted the war in a light that made the events seem better than the reality was. His most famous photograph was titled “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” and was taken in such a way that did not show the horrific aftermath of the battle that had taken place in this valley but showed a pictorial landscape with a smattering of cannonballs on the ground. The collodion process allowed the images to be printed and spread to the public of Britain and was used essentially as propaganda for the British