A Tintype Portrait of the B&H Photography Podcast Team

After having the folk from the Penumbra Foundation on our show this summer, they were kind enough to invite the B&H Photography Podcast team to their studio and sit for a tintype portrait. It took us a couple of months to clear our busy schedule, but last week we took them up on their offer and hustled across town to meet with Geoffrey Berliner and Jolene Lupo and be photographed in an older “alternative” process. 

The process was fun, educational and, all-in-all, gratifying. After greetings and chitchat, Berliner and Lupo discussed what camera and lens combination would work best for our three-person portrait. They decided on the Agfa Ansco 5 x 7 studio portrait camera, with a 4 x 5 reduction back, and a Schneider Xenotar 150mm f/2.8 lens, and arranged us shoulder-to-shoulder on apple boxes so that our eyes were lined up. They set the Profoto strobe lighting—which was one major compromise for modern convenience—bounced light from a reflector placed near our feet, and set composition and focus. We were then asked into the darkroom, where Berliner poured collodion onto the metal plate and then placed the plate into a 9% silver nitrate solution to sensitize it. After about three minutes in the solution, the plate was ready, but because this is a wet-plate process, we had a maximum of 5 minutes to expose the plate before the collodion would dry and harden. So back into the studio and onto our apple boxes we went. Berliner slid the plate into the camera back, we made minor adjustments of body positions and focus, and with a final instruction to hold still, he pulled off the lens cap for exposure and popped the strobe.

Back into the darkroom and into the ferrous sulfate developer went the plate and, as we watched the portrait emerge, cold running water was used as the stopping agent. With experienced eyes, they based when to stop the developing process by noting details in the shadows and then placed this “negative” image into the fixer—and it converted to a “positive.” Lupo mentioned some of the alternate chemical combinations used as fixers at times, including potassium cyanide, which can give the images a warmer, creamier tone in the highlights, but as a downside, could also kill you. They used Ilford Rapid Fixer  and Heico Perma Wash to expedite the wash process and then let the plate dry before varnishing it, to ensure that the silver would not tarnish and the image remain “archival.” In our case, we let the image air-dry before they scanned it digitally and varnished it, but if you decide to give your family a gift tintype portrait, they can speed the drying process and you can walk out with your portrait after a session that takes just less than an hour.

As you can see, the final product looks pretty cool, whether framed on your mantle or sent through the “Interweb” to family and friends. For us on the podcast team, it was not only a great learning experience, but a way to document and celebrate a year of production, with high hopes for more great shows in the year to come. If you are interested in having a tintype portrait taken at the Penumbra Foundation, follow this link—the people there are congenial, the process is fun, and the final product lasts a lifetime… or longer.