Wet Plate Tintype Portrait Photography
I’m Dylan Burr, a wet plate collodion / tintype photographer in Denver Colorado. I create modern wet plate collodion tintypes, and ambrotypes in studio, or on location. I absolutely love this process.
Wet Plate is a historic photographic process that enables me to connect with the building blocks of photography and share that experience with others. It’s extremely fun and difficult. When you get it right it is true magic.
Wet Plate Collodion and Tintype Photography are one-in-the-same. It's is the same prographic process, but the photos are on different surfaces. Tintypes are made with cheap metal, that may or may not be tin. Ambrotypes are wet plate collodion photos on glass.
Most photographs from the civil war era are tintype photographs.
It's not about being perfect. The beauty is in the errors.
Watch this video to see the process of creating a photograph.
View the Blog HERE for recent tintype events
Tintype Photography Photobooth
New Hybrid Technique
After being asked to do events, I have developed a new technique to elimiate the time and safety constraints while maintaining authenticity for what makes this process special. I can also guarantee results.
I have combined my 1880's lenses and 8x10 view camera with digital medium format capture.
This approach enables me to do events with a photo booth to produce more images per hour. I can now have a portrait done in 2 minutes vs 20 minutes. I produce metallic prints on-site that are ready right away. The image captured is the same since I am using the same historical lenses.
The final metallic print looks amazing. It's a fun experience and I love talking about the 150 year old gear I use.
This process afforts me several benefits
- I can produce approx 20-30 images an hour vs 4
- No weather or location limits
- I can can travel with my setup
- Final portraits ready in minutes vs several days after
- No hazardous chemicals needing proper ventilation
- I can guarantee results
The images really speak for themselves. All images below were produced with my hybrid process.
View the Photography Blog HERE for recent tintype photobooth events
