Silver’s going up….
Written by David WhiteYou have got until the 1st Feb to buy any Harman ( read Ilford) film and paper products…after that all paper and films go up by 20% not least due to the increasing price of silver .
How do I know? I just tried to order some 12×10″ sheet fp4 for my Howlett camera. What do you reckon for 25 sheets?
Bear in mind I was paying £3 a sheet recently…
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.£231. OUCH. That’s nearly a tenner a pop.
That led me down a path that led to this wonderful stuff…which really would answer the questions surrounding limited editions….It’s a direct positive paper, and it comes in 11×14″ sizes. One shot, one positive, no neg. One extremely limited edition. If you can wrestle with the wildly varying reciprocity failure, and the exclusively blue sensitivity. And the contrast. And the slow speed. Etc. Balls.
Anyone know where I can get cheaper 12×10″ film in the UK? And I don’t want to use x-ray film, thanks.
Discussion (3 Comments)
Switch to Collodion wet plate. You have the camera, just get the back modified or another made by the same cabinet maker to take glass plate or tins.
I saw your work on Brunel and thought at the time what a pity it was you hadn’t used wet collodion. Always an excuse to go back to do it again….
And it is quite safe, you don’t need mercuric compounds. I think you might have been thinking of Daguerrotypes?
If these big films disappear I guess it is going to be your only option for ultra large format, either that or making your own gelatin dry-plates.
I’ll give you a demo in early August if you want with a period camera (c. 1870s) – only 8×10 mind. I should be back in the UK for 2 weeks then doing some collodion work in London.
Fionnbharr..you are so on. Thankyou, That’d be great.I know what you mean about the collodion. I though so long and hard about it, but it was essentially a commission and I didn’t want to screw up. I’m hoping to extend the project, and to be honest, I would really, really like to go collodion. I got the fear tbh.
Thanks for the offer.
You’re welcome. I’ll email you at your website address.