My First 4x5 Glass Dry Plate Photography
My first 4x5 glass dry plates Lac Alouette with my Toyo 45 AII camera on 27 Dec. 2025 ISO 03 box says 02, but my light meter only goes down to 03. Was amazed to see some foreground detail in first exposure of the lake & mountains in the background. f/64 @ 5 seconds. This was my first load and it was difficult to load into the holder. Stream flowing into the lake f/22 @ 60 seconds. This second plate was also a bit difficult to load but not as hard as the first one. Unloading was also difficult. Processed in trays and made silver-gelatin prints 03 Jan. 2026 HC-110 (1:31) ~2 minutes development under safe light … WoW that is fast. Stop ~60 seconds, fix no less than 05 minutes. Wash in Gravity Works (fill n empty tank) for about 20 minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Following are some contact prints I made on ILFORD RC MG Satin paper. Lake and log - f/8 @ 3 seconds, foreground dodged Bubbling Brook - f/8 @ 5 seconds CONCLUSION: I've got work to do, these first two images clearly reveal that. ...
