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 8×10 / 10×10 camera, which we paired with a Carl Zeiss Tessar 750mm f/9. First of all, thankfully we were working with his camera, which allows for pretty much infinite bellows extension. As it turned out, we needed more than enough of it to make this shot possible.

There was something wonderfully appropriate about pointing such a large camera at the Sun for an event that would last only a short time. We spent the afternoon setting up, experimenting and working out our exposure, while also enjoying the moment through Zebra black glass plates. They proved to be a convenient tool for observing the Sun as well, not just a support for making beautiful direct glass positives.

Quite a big group of people had gathered on top of the hill to observe the magical moment, so it was also nice to chat with everyone around us. Naturally, quite a few people were wondering what the hell we were trying to do with this enormous camera pointed directly at the Sun.

When the moment finally came, we stopped the Tessar all the way down to an incredible f/180. The exposure itself lasted just 1/8 of a second, and then we had absolutely no idea whether it had worked.

That is, of course, part of the fun. There was no screen to check, no autofocus and no instant preview. Once the plate had been exposed, the only way to find out what we had was to take it into the darkroom and develop it.

Watching the eclipse appear on glass

After all the preparation and waiting, developing the plate together was probably our favourite part of the whole experiment. There is always something special about watching an image appear during development, but this time we were looking for something very specific. Had we actually captured the eclipse?

We had!

The photograph was the result we had hoped for, but the experience of making it was at least as important as the finished plate. We also learned quite a bit along the way, so when the next event like this comes around, we can say that we are at least a little more prepared.

Days like this are a reminder of why we enjoy these photographic processes so much. They slow everything down, make you experiment and leave plenty of room for mistakes. Perhaps most importantly, they give people a reason to get together, share what they know and try something slightly crazy.

We filmed the entire process as well, from setting up and experimenting to making the exposure and finally developing the plate in the darkroom.

Watch the full process here:

Meanwhile, in France…

After sharing our eclipse experiment, we heard from Dominique Genty, who had been doing some eclipse experiments of his own in the Dordogne area of southwest France.

Dominique took a series of 9×12 cm Zebra glass plates using a Sky-Watcher 120ED telescope, with an old wooden camera mounted to it. For his Zebra dry plates, he covered the telescope lens with an AstroSolar filter with a density of 3.8. His exposures were between 1 and 3 seconds, with a wonderfully simple solution for controlling the exposure: a piece of black cloth held in front of the telescope, of course.

We love seeing the different results and approaches. While we were working with a large-format camera, a 750mm Tessar and an exposure measured in a fraction of a second, Dominique approached the same subject with a telescope, smaller plates and exposures lasting several seconds.

But he took the experiment one step further.

Photographing the eclipse as a daguerreotype

Alongside the dry plates, Dominique also attempted to capture the eclipse as a daguerreotype. For this photograph, the telescope tracked the Sun during an exposure of approximately 80 seconds.

Dominique prepared the plate using iodine and bromine. He considers the resulting image slightly underexposed, but considering what was involved in making it, we think the result is fascinating.

There is something particularly beautiful about using one of photography’s earliest processes to photograph an astronomical event. Our own exposure took just 1/8 of a second, while Dominique’s daguerreotype required an exposure of 80 seconds.

These are two very different approaches to photographing the same eclipse, but both required preparation, experimentation and a willingness to wait before discovering whether the photograph had actually worked.

The photograph is only part of it

Looking back at our own eclipse plate and seeing Dominique’s photographs reinforced something we already felt while making ours. Experiments like these are not really about finding the easiest way to make a photograph. There are obviously much easier ways to photograph a solar eclipse today, but that is not really the point.

The interesting part is choosing a process that makes the outcome uncertain again. You prepare the equipment, calculate an exposure, wait for the right moment and expose the plate. Then you wait again. Only when the plate is developed do you finally discover what happened.

Most of all, though, we love how these processes bring people together. Our plate only happened because a group of people decided to spend an afternoon experimenting together. After sharing it, we then got to discover how another photographer hundreds of kilometres away approached the same eclipse in an entirely different way.

Different cameras, different plates and different processes, but the same Sun, the same eclipse and the same curiosity about what happens when light meets a photographic plate.

That seems like a pretty good reason to keep experimenting.