Ambrotype.Tone.Swamp.Plants

[Karm Redland]

All comments welcomed.

[Mike Buckley]

This is a stunning image and one of the very few times that I like including the frame. It would make a wonderful note card.

I'm curious why you call it an ambrotype. What is the characteristic that you see in this that reminds you of an ambrotype?

For the people seeing your beautiful image who don't know what an ambrotype is, it was a 19th century process of making an underexposed negative on clear glass. Placing a black background behind the glass made the image look like a positive. Alternatively, the underexposed image was sometimes made on dark purple glass with no other need to provide the dark background. It was the forerunner of the tintype that more people have heard about today. The tintype was simply an underexposed negative made on blackened metal. It became more popular than the ambrotype because the metal was more durable than the glass. Ambrotypes and tintypes were used commercially primarily if not exclusively for making portraits.

[Karm Redland]

This is a stunning image and one of the very few times that I like including the frame. It would make a wonderful note card.

I'm curious why you call it an ambrotype. What is the characteristic that you see in this that reminds you of an ambrotype?

For the people seeing your beautiful image who don't know what an ambrotype is, it was a 19th century process of making an underexposed negative on clear glass. Placing a black background behind the glass made the image look like a positive. Alternatively, the underexposed image was sometimes made on dark purple glass with no other need to provide the dark background. It was the forerunner of the tintype that more people have heard about today. The tintype was simply an underexposed negative made on blackened metal. It became more popular than the ambrotype because the metal was more durable than the glass. Ambrotypes and tintypes were used commercially primarily if not exclusively for making portraits.

[Karm Redland]

Mike, thank you for your compliment. Ambrotype is what Nik software calls this yellowish finish. I don't know whether it has anything to do with the history you described.

Karm

[Mike Buckley]

That's interesting, Karm. I don't understand why Nik calls the yellowish finish an ambrotype. No ambrotype I have ever seen and no images of them provided in authoritative books about photo history I have ever seen describe or present them as having a yellowish finish. Gold toning (not yellow) was applied to several types of 19th century photography mostly to keep them from aging into a "cheesy" look by adding luster and contrast to the image. But I don't remember reading about it ever being applied to a glass negative, which is what an ambrotype is.

None of this takes away from the beauty of your image.

[Karm Redland]

That's interesting, Karm. I don't understand why Nik calls the yellowish finish an ambrotype. No ambrotype I have ever seen and no images of them provided in authoritative books about photo history I have ever seen describe or present them as having a yellowish finish. Gold toning (not yellow) was applied to several types of 19th century photography mostly to keep them from aging into a "cheesy" look by adding luster and contrast to the image. But I don't remember reading about it ever being applied to a glass negative, which is what an ambrotype is.

None of this takes away from the beauty of your image.

[Karm Redland]

Nik has three versions of this tone: very light yellow, a middle yellow, and a deep yellow. I used the middle one. Maybe what I'm calling yellow is really gold.

Karm