Make Your Own Silver Gelatin Emulsion
The Zebra Silver Gelatin Emulsion Starter Kit gives you everything you need to begin crafting your own photographic emulsion. This is the same light sensitive material that forms the foundation of traditional black and white photography.
Designed around real alternative process workflows, this kit allows you to mix, experiment, and coat your own plates or paper using a classic silver bromide and iodide gelatin emulsion.
Whether you’re exploring dry plates, hand coated paper, or simply want to understand the chemistry behind photography, this kit is your starting point.
What’s Included
Silver Nitrate 25g
Potassium Bromide 25g
Potassium Iodide 25g
Gelatin 100g
Thymol 25g
Each component is supplied in a full working quantity, allowing multiple batches and experimentation beyond a single attempt.
Understanding the Process
This kit is built around 25g of silver nitrate, which defines the core emulsion recipe.
Silver Nitrate forms the light sensitive silver salts
Potassium Bromide creates silver bromide, the primary image forming compound
Potassium Iodide is used to fine tune sensitivity and tonal response
Gelatin acts as the binder, allowing you to coat plates or paper
Thymol preserves your emulsion and prevents spoilage
Together, these components allow you to create a fully functional photographic emulsion from raw materials.
Designed for Learning and Experimentation
This is not a single use kit.
It is designed to give you multiple attempts, room for experimentation, and the ability to refine your process.
Some components are intentionally supplied in larger quantities so you can explore different ratios and techniques as you learn.
🎬 Follow the Full Tutorial
This kit is designed to work directly with our step by step guide:
👉 Basic Silver Gelatine Emulsion Tutorial
And you can watch the full process here:
👉 Silver Gelatin Emulsion Video Guide
Together, they guide you through preparing the chemistry, forming the emulsion, coating and handling, and understanding your results.
What You Can Create
Hand coated glass dry plates
Silver gelatin paper
Experimental emulsions with different tonal characteristics
This kit gives you the tools to move beyond ready made materials and into fully handcrafted photographic processes.
Important Note
This is a working chemistry kit designed for experimentation and learning.
It is not pre measured for a single batch, but instead provides flexibility for multiple emulsion attempts and variations.
