Cleaning and Albumenizing Glass Plates Today for Collodion Dry Plate Negatives

I try to make this blog a natural and organic extension of my creative journey. This approach gives you greater insight into the work and tasks that go into making the collodion negatives and platinum-toned Kallitype contact prints for my Pictorial Whispers memorial project and my collodion negatives and platinum-palladium prints for my America’s Grist Mills project.

Yesterday, I went out scouting for new trees and compositions for my Pictorial Whispers project, and today, I started preparing some new plates to make collodion dry plate negatives.

In the first step, I cut the glass if needed and file the edges to remove sharp edges. This helps keep the collodion on the plate and avoid cuts from sharp edges.

After the plate is cut to the correct size and the edges are filed, I start cleaning them. Cleanliness is critical in the wet plate collodion workflow. I clean my plates with a three-part solution consisting of calcium carbonate, Everclear alcohol, and distilled water. I mix and store all three parts in a condiment bottle with a squeeze top.

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To clean the plate, I squeeze a small puddle of the cleaning solution in the middle and gently rub it in with a lint-free cotton wipe.

All of these supplies are listed on my main supplies page if you need the links.

As you can see from the photo below, the cleaning solution dries quickly and forms a thin glaze over the plate.

Next, I grab a clean cotton cleaning pad and buff off the glaze. Within a few seconds, I have a chemically clean plate that will perfectly hold the collodion emulsion.

Next, I take my albumen solution and filter it before use. The solution is very easy to make. It is one large egg white in one liter of distilled water with 2 drops of household ammonia.

I mix this solution in a large bowl until it resembles lemon meringue pie. Once the frothy peaks are nice and tall, I cover the bowl with plastic wrap, let it sit for a while, and move on to another task in the darkroom. Then, after a little while, I remove the frothy material off the top of the solution and filter it into a glass bottle like the one you see directly below.

Now, I have a chemically clean plate ready to be subbed with the albumen solution. The 1 liter of albumen goes a long way, so I don’t have to make it very often.

I hover the plate over a small humidifier like the one in the photo below. After the plate is moist, I pour a puddle of albumen and work it like collodion. After pouring off the excess and wicking the drain end of the plate, I stack it on a drying rack for at least one hour before pouring collodion on the plate and sensitizing it in my silver bath.

I typically do this activity several times per week as I have time to prepare a bunch of plates for the next step in the process. Working in batches makes things seem to go a lot faster.

Tomorrow, I will pour my negative collodion emulsion on the plates and sensitize them in my silver bath, just like I was making a wet collodion negative in the field, but I add an extra step to make it a dry plate. I use a 3% tannic acid solution and float the plate, just like I was pouring collodion. After I tan the plate, I wash it in distilled water and then place it in my light-safe drying rack overnight. Then, I either load some plates into my holders or I place them in my light-safe storage boxes. The shelf life is at least 6 months based on my experience, but I see no reason they wouldn’t last a lot longer as long as they are stored in a temperature controlled environment like my darkroom building.

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If you enjoy slowing down with film, darkroom printing, and meaningful photography, consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel. I share new videos each week focused on simple tools, timeless techniques, and the quiet joy of analog.