Anyone here making Tintypes?

Yep, been doing wetplate ambrotypes and tintypes since 2007. Fun to be totally self sufficient, and not need to worry if they'll still make film, isn't it?
 
I love it, but I started with the Rockland kit which is a dry plate emulsion. I wanted dry plate stuff and I'm totally happy with it. Only started a couple weeks ago and just near the end of my testing and ready to shoot some people! Love the old ways!

Here is one of my first:
tintype_no1_by_christophersacry-d6xe31o.jpg
 
Wow, Pirate! I never heard about the Rockford kit. Worth it you think? I don't see myself getting the chemicals down where I live.
 
I didn't realize the Rockland kit was dry, even worse, I've had one in the closet for over a year (just no time to play with it, and I still need a plate holder). I'm curious, what are you using for plate holder?
 
I trim the plates down to the size of a 4x5 sheet of film and slide them right into a normal film holder with no problems. I do use a pair of tweezers to pull the plate out but have had no problems with them at all in that respect.

Shouldn't be a problem with sitting for a while without use. The developer just needs to stay away from air and it may still be good (don't quote me on that).

I emailed them and chatted with the owner about the developer. He tweaked the developer that goes with the AG-plus emulsion. Added something to make it contrast more. I did a plate with HC-110 (B) and the emulsion went just about clear, so using the Rockland developer with the AG-plus seems to be a necessity. Normal paper fixer seemed to make the emulsion a little bit brighter than the KodaFix that comes with it and may be worth investigating further.
 
Here's the Rockland page for their Tintype stuff: http://rockaloid.com/tintypes
Freestyle sells the kit too, but the prices are close enough.

I started with the standard 4x5 kit which includes 8 plates, emulsion, and fixer. I had bulk plates and bottle of AG-plus ordered to do more before I finished with the kit. I'm enjoying it.
 
The Rockland tins are anodized aluminum and work pretty well. I will eventually try painting a darker black onto them which I think will work better for the darks.

I tried pouring a thinner emulsion onto the plates and it seems to crinkle up pretty bad, although the image is still rather good. I'll be going back to a slightly thicker emulsion to keep it flat as in the guitar picture above.

This is very thin emulsion:
tin_straws_by_christophersacry-d6ylgjl.jpg
 
I based my readings from a starting ISO of 1.6 and used a reflected reading on my Gossen LunaSix 3 with a blue filter over it for the guitar shot.

For the straws shot I did the same and added two more stops down which really helped the highlights. I'll be metering this way from now on. When I pour the next batch of plates, because I'm going back to a thicker coating I'll start my ratings at an ISO of 0.8 which is as low as my meter goes, add the blue filter, then add the two extra stops and I should be good to go. Should have some of these to post in a few days. I want to shoot outside with some sunshine which we should be getting here by Monday.
 
There's a couple here in Austin that are doing a good business with tintypes. They are hipsters and have an almost exclusive hipster clientele, but they're really cool people.

They're keeping a tradition alive and making some dough from it so kudos to them.

http://lumieretintype.com/
 
Here's an original 1800's tintype I purchased to use for a benchmark of my progress. It really gives me a good direction to follow in my own studies of this process.

tin_dude_by_christophersacry-d6ylils.jpg
 
The shop in SF is known as Photobooth and one of the owners built his own large format camera. It's ULF, I believe about 20x24". You can schedule tintype portraits starting at about $80 for a 4x5. I believe one of the owners is a member here as well.
 
that's really cool !!!! I saw a review of their tintype 4x5 work on a tech show youtube vid. Very impressive. They were using flash to light it, very close.
 
Thanks to OP for the info!
I wanted and searched for this type of the media and aggressive chemistry was turning me away from it. This one seems to me less dangerous.
Price, including shipping, is very reasonable also.
 
Pirate said:
Here's an original 1800's tintype I purchased to use for a benchmark of my progress. It really gives me a good direction to follow in my own studies of this process.

tin_dude_by_christophersacry-d6ylils.jpg
Click to expand...


That guy was Bashar al-Assad when he had reincarnated in the 19th century :)
 
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