18 Aug
Uncategorized

Photographing a Solar Eclipse on Glass Plates

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0
What happens when a group of photography nerds gets together during a solar eclipse? Naturally, we try to capture it on a photographic glass dry plate. A little while ago, we got together with our good friend Peter from Primer Cameras to turn the eclipse into an experiment and, perhaps more importantly, a great excuse to spend the afternoon making photographs together. The idea was simple enough: could we photograph the eclipse using a glass dry plate? And would ISO 2 Zebra Dry Plates prove themselves to be too slow for once?  One camera, one glass plate, one very short exposure Peter brought along a beautiful Primer 8x10...
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04 Aug
EQUIPMENT, Uncategorized, WET PLATE PHOTOGRAPHY, Zebra Dry Plates

How We Built a Giant 24×35″ Wet Plate Collodion Equipment

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0
Every Project Starts with an Idea Over the years, we have built just about everything in the Zebra workshop. From tiny custom camera accessories and plate holders to some of the largest wet plate equipment currently being used by photographers around the world, every project has presented its own set of challenges. Most of them begin with a simple question from a customer, but every now and then someone comes along with an idea that immediately makes us stop, look at each other and think, this is going to be fun. A few months ago we received an email from Richard, who...
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15 Jun
DARKROOM BUILD, DARKROOM CHEMISTRY, EQUIPMENT, KICKSTARTER, Zebra Dry Plates

Zebra Daylight Processing Tank: Reinventing Daylight Processing for Film, Plates & Paper

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5
There is a certain irony in large format photography. Many of us are drawn to it precisely because it slows us down. We enjoy the deliberate pace of setting up a camera, carefully composing an image on a ground glass, loading holders by hand, and making every exposure count. In a world where everything seems to move faster each year, large format photography encourages the exact opposite. It rewards patience, observation, and craftsmanship. Yet when the time comes to develop those negatives, the experience is often far less enjoyable. Anyone who has spent an evening standing in complete darkness, carefully shuffling sheets of...
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07 Jun
AUTOCHROME, EQUIPMENT, ON THE FIELD

Rebuilding the Lumière Cinematograph: An Interview with François Thibault

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2
For those of us who work with historical photographic processes, there is something deeply fascinating about the pioneers who laid the foundations of our craft. Few names carry as much weight as Auguste and Louis Lumière. Best known as pioneers of cinema and inventors of the Autochrome process, their influence on photography and moving images continues to be felt more than a century later. While many photographers have studied the Lumière brothers' achievements, very few have attempted to understand their inventions by recreating them from the ground up. François Thibault is one of those rare individuals. A visual arts and film...
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24 May
EMULSION, ON THE FIELD, PRINTING PROCESSES, Zebra Dry Plates

The Revenge of Analog: Why I Trade a 30 FPS for Hand-Poured Glass Plates?

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0
Shadows Captured in Silver: The Creative Awakening of a Modern Glass Plate Photographer What if the most radical step forward in your photography meant looking back a hundred years? In a world where digital cameras fire off thirty pristine frames a second, every image risks becoming disposable. Algorithmic perfection has stripped away the soul of the craft, leaving many of us feeling like operators of a machine rather than creators of an art form. If you are craving a deeper, more tactile connection to your imagery where every single exposure demands your full presence, intellect, and heart, the answer isn’t a newer...
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20 May
AUTOCHROME, EMULSION, EQUIPMENT, ON THE FIELD, PRINTING PROCESSES, Uncategorized, WET PLATE PHOTOGRAPHY, Zebra Dry Plates

Why ProFilm Meter May Be the Most Complete Light Metering App for Film & Plate Photography?

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39
The Exposure System Built for Film, Dry Plate, Wet Plate, and Alternative Photography! Today, after months of development, field testing, and beta testing together with photographers from the analog community (a huge thank you to all the testers who helped shape the app along the way), we are incredibly excited to officially launch ProFilm Meter on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This is not just another light meter app. ProFilm Meter was built specifically for photographers working with film, dry plates, wet plate collodion, cyanotype, infrared materials, RA4 and alternative photographic processes the kinds of materials most modern...
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12 May
AUTOCHROME, EMULSION, Zebra Dry Plates

First Reverse Processed Zebra Autochromes – A Small Step Closer to Magical Colour Photography

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9
Over the last few weeks we have been quietly experimenting with something that has completely captivated us: reverse processed Autochrome plates. And finally… we have our first successful results. The images were taken during a recent trip through the Czech Republic, and seeing those tiny glowing colors appear for the very first time on glass has honestly been a magical experience. Even in these early stages, the plates already possess that unmistakable Autochrome atmosphere soft light, luminous color, and a depth that feels almost impossible to reproduce digitally. What makes them especially exciting is that these are not scans or digitally inverted negatives....
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05 May
DARKROOM CHEMISTRY, KICKSTARTER, Uncategorized, Zebra Dry Plates

The Zebra Daylight Developing Tanks Are Almost Here

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From Kickstarter Success to Full Release Not long ago, the Zebra Daylight Developing Tank existed only as an idea. A simple but ambitious goal: to create a system that would make large format film and plate processing easier, more flexible, and accessible without the need for a traditional darkroom setup. When we launched the project on Kickstarter, we didn’t fully know what to expect. What followed exceeded everything we imagined. The campaign quickly gained momentum, reaching its goal and continuing far beyond it. What mattered even more than the numbers, though, was the response from the community. Photographers, alternative process enthusiasts, and large format users...
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22 Apr
DARKROOM CHEMISTRY, Zebra Dry Plates

Brighter Whites & Balanced Tones – A New Chapter for Direct Dry Plate Positives!

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2
There’s something incredibly satisfying about finally seeing clean, neutral and bright positives appear on the plate in fixer exactly the way you imagined them. If you’ve worked with direct dry plate positives for any length of time, you’ll know that this has always been one of the most elusive parts of the process. Not sharpness, not contrast, but white balance  that delicate, silvery neutrality that gives a tintype its unmistakable presence. And this is exactly where things have just taken a big step forward. Tested Where It Matters In Real Workshops Over the past months, I’ve had the chance to test a new complexing agent not just...
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15 Apr
AUTOCHROME, Uncategorized

The First Complete Zebra Autochrome Plate!

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8
Following our April Fools’ joke this time, it’s real! There is a moment in every long process where separate experiments stop being isolated steps and begin to connect into something complete. For us, this was that moment. For the first time, we have successfully produced a complete Autochrome plate, bringing together all the individual layers into a single working system capable of forming an image. A colour screen, a panchromatic emulsion, and light passing through both are no longer separate variables, but parts of a unified structure that finally behaves as intended. What makes this stage particularly significant is not only that it...
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