Existing comment:
Collodion Photography:
The wet collodion process was the most popular photographic process when the Civil War erupted. Though it was more cumbersome than today's photography, it was state-of-the-art in the 1860s and offered outcomes that benefited photographers and their consumers. The three most popular uses of collodion made glass plate negatives, ambrotypes, and tintypes.
To make the collodion, silver nitrate was added to the liquid mixture of gun cotton that had been dissolved in ether. This mixture was poured onto glass or thin iron plates. The plates had to be put in the camera while still sticky to the touch, hence the name wet collodion process.
Photographers could make and develop glass plates in the field. The plates would then be sent back to the studio for printing. Alternatively, photographers could make tintypes, which do not require printing and could be distributed almost immediately. |