I made one good plate, but the rest would disappear when I fixed, cyanide or hypo.
I made new developer and collodion with fresh chem from artcraft. images are there, but there is a lot of fog, even when I develop right from the bath. I made a new silver bath, and still have an issue. My next step is to add acid to the silver bath, but I don't want to poison it.
cheers,
chriso

OK. the way to tackle complex problems is by substitution. hopefully you have some, maybe just a little..of your old stuff around. Swap out the collodion first, and try some that had worked for you.

when the collodion is over iodized, it will throw the greater part of the image onto the surface of the plate, where it will promptly fade away when fixing. I suspect this is the problem, you mixed something up when making the collodion and put in too much bromide or iodide.

dont do anything to your bath before trying other collodion.

Thanks, Ray, this is why I asked. I'll give the old stuff a try.
chriso

Still has a fog when the plate is not exposed. I used my old silver bath and collodion. This really only leaves environmental. I'l wait until the sun is down and do it all in the dark.

it may be your developer. how hot is it where you are? are you using your "regular" developer?

I am using the regular developer, then I tried the vinager/sugar, same thing. I used all the old stuff, which I was using when this first started, 3 batches of collodion, old reliable, old work horse AND poorboy. It looks fine until I fix, but fog does I suppose. I have used hypo and cyanide, same thing. I just tried doing it in total darkness, and still have fog. I've been using 2 different bottles of distilled water, no change. All the chemistry I got from artcraft within the past month.

I can see my wit's end from here and it ain't pretty. Looks like I was just lucky for the past 12 months and having good luck not having these issues. The olny option I see is to order all new chems and start from there, but I JUST DID THIS.
grrrrr.

cheers,
chriso

not sure where to go from here.

it is tough to find a solution sometimes from one computer screen to the next.

i would NOT add any acid to your silver bath. mine works fine at pH 7.

did you mix all the above formulas from this last batch of chemicals or did you mix them a long time ago? i suggest you mix and work with only one formula at this time. the best to work with IMO is the poor boy mix as it does not require ether or grain alcohol. (i was thinking the ether may be an issue. this will alleviate this issue).

sometimes the "collodion voodoo" will take over and it will work itself out. take a break fro a day or two and come back at it fresh.

does the fog wipe off? did you try to sun and filter your silver bath? did you leave a plate with collodion on it in the silver bath over night to iodize it?

eddie

Eddie,
I have two sets of chemistry, the old and the new. I have tried all 9 combinations of old and new, all new and all old, ad nauseum.
All the New is from what I ordered in he past month. The old I've been using since August. I did a couple plates mid march, no issues, then everything turned.
The fog doesn't wipe off, and I iodised the bath.
cheers,
chriso

There is no "voodoo" in wet plate. Its all a series of simple chemical reactions.

You really need to review your mixing technique and CHECK that scale. I still have the feeling your collodion is overiodized.

That is the only way your image will form on TOP of the collodionized surface. The greater part of the image will be formed and then the fixer will wash it away, which sounds like what is happening to you.

Aside from that, contamination, or light, are the only other ways fog forms. An alkaline situation will cause problems somewhat like this, contamination ON your plate can do it too...(how did you clean this glass?)

Dont give up. Go back to basics and review your mixing technique and make SURE your scale is not giving you 5 grams of bromide instead of 2.

Can you post some scans of the plates?

to calibrate a scale a NEW penny (post 1983) will weigh 2.5 grams. an older bronze cent will weigh 3.11 grams.

curious as to how you made out with this situation....

Still working on it. Had a nice chat with Ty the other day and we tried a couple things. The developer was working much faster than ever before, like half second, not the usual 15-18. That and he had me shoot wide open (f/8) for twice the time I was using for f/11. (about 4 seconds) I watered down the developer quite a bit and things are getting better. He recommended a different developer too, and I am having good results. For some reason the collodion is quite a bit slower than I remember. This may be due to the time of year, not as much UV as in the summer. The fog seems to be gone, though. I'll try more when the weather clears.

Thanks for checking up, I appreciate it. I haven't posted results yet because they are not conclusive.
I've made Daguerreotypes with less hassle than I've had the past few weeks. All is not lost.
cheers!
chriso

What exactly ARE you using for a scale? Reason I ask is that I recently bought a very inexpensive digital scale...I intended to use it for grain/gram weighing of small coins. Turns out, it threw a wide variety of weights at me, and none of them were in any way completely accurate. Now, If I had been weighing out iodides or bromides....the results would have been catastrophic.

Dont try and peg troubles on such things as "UV" or such....its really very simple IF all your chemistry is in harmony. A good way to thrown everything out of whack (which it seems is where you are) is to use an incorrect scale in formulating your chemistry.

I double checks my scale's accuracy against one at the lab I work at. It is OK. Plus the approximate volume looked OK. When I first started doing this I noted the approx. volume in case I was out and needed to make more without a scale. At this point It could be chemistry, technique or both. I'm leaning towards technique at this point, although I have not changed it.
Even if my scale was off, the ratio would be correct, so the collodion would either be running rich or lean. What is the difference between too much and not enough iodine and bromine?
The real kicker is my old stock of collodion that was working fine weeks before this issue stopped working too. That is the main reason I have so much confusion with this. Everything stopped working at the same time, old, new and all combinations. Really, that only leaves contamination of the water I used to make the developer, but I changed that too. That leaves technique.

eh, I'm probably overlooking something simple. It'll come back it is just really frustrating.
cheers,
chriso

Chriso,

i know, this is very very frustrating. Where do you live? Isn't there any other wetplater where you are able to compaire the chemicals ?
Some students of mine had a severe problem. We solved it this way and it turned out to be a contaminated ammonium iodide.

Alex

Alex: I;m just west of Chicago, the nearest Wet-Head near me is 80 some miles north, as I recall.
I'm at work now, but when I get home I'm going to double double check my scales. In my experience, Ray is correct more often than not with this sort of thing. I am starting to get a flat spot on my head from hitting it against the wall, though.
cheers,
chriso