3.4. Ambrotypes and tintypes

While researching wet-plate collodion methods, Frederick Scott Archer found that by placing an underexposed glass negative in front of a dark background, he could produce a positive image. This was the ambrotype or collodion positive, which was a more economical process than the Daguerreotype, and produced sharper, clearer images than Fox Talbot's paper negatives. The tintype (or ferrotype) used a metal rather than glass negative and was an even cheaper variation. Tintypes were robust enough to be sent by mail, or could be cut and mounted in lockets, and they were especially popular in the late 19th century as they enabled photographers to offer small, near-instant pictures to a much wider crosssection of society.

As always, it is worthwhile examining examples of ambrotypes and tintypes in museums, books, or online. Typically, the subject matter would be a portrait, and, because cheap tintypes could be made by street or traveling photographers, the subjects were often ordinary folks rather than more affluent citizens. An important characteristic is that ambrotypes and tintypes are laterally reversed-important if a picture included lettering or distinctive patterns. With sepia-toned ambrotypes and tintypes, the toning is usually subdued. They both tend to contain dark grays rather than blacks, and ambrotypes appear to lack whitesperhaps not surprising, as they have dark backgrounds. Both types of pictures were sometimes hand-colored, usually without much subtlety.

This black-and-white picture was taken at a wedding in the north of England, but I liked its Old West feel. The tintype in particular was hugely popular in the United States.

CURVES As an alternative to step two's Levels, you could use Curves. By dragging the curve's bottom left hand corner up, and its top right down, the same effect is created, but you are still able to add points for more precise tonal control.

If you are starting with a color picture, convert it to black and white using Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer. Check the Monochrome option. Increase the value of the Blue channel more than the others, but try to ensure that the overall sum of the Red, Green, and Blue channel adjustments is around 100%. Aim for a low-contrast image. In the Layers palette, click the "Create a new fill or adjustment layer" icon. Select Levels. In the resulting dialog box, drag the two Output sliders at the very bottom of the dialog inward, so the picture's darkest black will be a deep gray and whites will be very dark. To add a sepia tone, click the "Create a new fill or adjustment layer" icon and select Hue/Saturation. Check the Colorize box, and drag the Hue slider to about 30 and the Saturation to a low value of around 10. For each item that you want to color, hold down the Alt/Opt key and click the "Create a new layer" icon. Give it a memorable name and change the layer's blending mode to Color. Choosing this mode means you can paint on the layer and the underlying picture will show through. Select a brush and paint onto the layer. For small areas, zoom right in, change the brush size with the [and] keys, and soften the edges of the brush using Shift. If you paint too many pixels, you can use Undo, the Eraser tool, and the History Brush. But don't forget you are copying a manual process, the results of which were variable. Some Photoshop users would paint all the different colors onto one layer, but there are many reasons why it's better to use a different layer for each colored area. They all amount to flexibility. In general, I deliberately paint with strong colors and then tone them down. Even if you paint separate objects identically, as I did with the cravat and handkerchief, if each has its own layer, you can reduce the layer's opacity on its own and not alter the others. If necessary, you can discard or duplicate and try alternative colors. Ambrotypes are underexposed glass negatives on a black background and can often be very dark. Tintypes tend to be brighter, but are generally smaller and cheaper-looking. Both types of images were often presented in very elaborate frames. This is the frame made on page 32.