New Daguerreotype lens

[deep diver]

My wife got me an extremely cool new lens for my birthday. The lens design is based on the lens made by Charles Chevalier in 1839 that Daguerre used on his cameras. It is manual focus and uses Waterhouse aperture plates. The camera only controls ISO and shutter speed. This lens has forced me to slow down and think very differently about what and how I am shooting. This is a good thing. It has also forced me to go back and relearn a lot of stuff I forgot when I started shooting digitally. Here is the link for those that are interested: https://shop.lomography.com/en/lens...rt-lens/daguerreotype-achromat-art-lens-brass

These images are from my first real outing with the lens. All of these images were taken at Hale Farm and Village in Bath, Ohio. Hale Farm is one of the Western Reserve Historical Society properties. WRHS is located in Cleveland. It is a 19th Century Village built around some of the farm’s original buildings and other period buildings that were moved there. I figured a 19th Century setting was the right place for a 19th Century lens.

The focusing on this lens is very good. How soft the focus is depends on the size and design of the aperture plate. In various images I was trying to capture a sense of what a Daguerreotype might have looked like, a sense of this being a long ago time and place, or a sense of the living history they preserve. Some of the images are cropped to the Daguerreotype aspect ratio (8.5 x 6.5). The only post processing was to adjust some lighting, cropping, and cloning out the occasional road sign.

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[deep diver]

 

[anotherscotsman]

What a great present and a great way to actually learn about photography rather than just how to use a camera.

 

[campyguy]

It's been a long while since I've been there. Thanks for the mental refresh, thanks so much for sharing your very nice work.

 

[deep diver]

It's been a long while since I've been there. Thanks for the mental refresh, thanks so much for sharing your very nice work.

Do you have a connection to NE Ohio?

 

[campyguy]

Do you have a connection to NE Ohio?

I did, with friends formerly in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, and Chillicothe - all friends who I went to college with, but each has since moved. I'm a NYer who isn't fond of flying, so I drive. Parts of Ohio are just, well, beautiful and IMHO overlooked by non-natives to Ohio. Like my trips to Europe, I lease a car instead of flying and like "turning left" when going straight is what the navigation unit tells me to do (and then I turn it off...). My friends formerly of Chillicothe had to move there, chose to rent a flatbed truck and drove - that was years ago, but they took my advise to "take the slow route".

I've only got stories about the roads to Cheb or Prague or Nelson or Concrete. You've got pictures...

 

[deep diver]

I did, with friends formerly in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, and Chillicothe - all friends who I went to college with, but each has since moved. I'm a NYer who isn't fond of flying, so I drive. Parts of Ohio are just, well, beautiful and IMHO overlooked by non-natives to Ohio. Like my trips to Europe, I lease a car instead of flying and like "turning left" when going straight is what the navigation unit tells me to do (and then I turn it off...). My friends formerly of Chillicothe had to move there, chose to rent a flatbed truck and drove - that was years ago, but they took my advise to "take the slow route".

I've only got stories about the roads to Cheb or Prague or Nelson or Concrete. You've got pictures...

I completely agree. I grew up in Philadelphia. I think people from the Northern Atlantic and Southern Pacific coasts do not appreciate how much the rest of the country has to offer. I'll always be a Philly boy, but I like the pace here much better.
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[deep diver]

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[bent christian]

Most of the photos are out of focus. Highlights are blown out. I don't understand the appeal.

 

[kenoh]

Most of the photos are out of focus. Highlights are blown out. I don't understand the appeal.

I like it. It has an old wet plate look about it. As a creative look I think it is intriguing. It is soft rather than out of focus. I like the pictures. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[bent christian]

I like it. It has an old wet plate look about it.

I don't think so. The images look soft and blown out.

 

[kenoh]

I don't think so. The images look soft and blown out.

Give the guy a break, he just got it. and look more closely at the search results...

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.germanmurillophotography.com/gallery/Wet_Plate/bin/images/small/Wet_Plate_Class_0013_B.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.germanmurillophotography.com/gallery/Wet_Plate/&docid=2rNIskskwhwaOM&tbnid=Z6eFJsco3BL4uM:&w=424&h=520&safe=off&client=safari&bih=885&biw=1608&ved=0ahUKEwiS1PTYmIDPAhXnDcAKHak9AM8QMwg9KBowGg&iact=mrc&uact=8

It is a creative lens rather than a razor sharp lens. It uses aperture plates rather than an adjustable blade system so is likely a steep learning curve.

I really like the effect and the atmosphere it gives the images.

Oh and if Deep Diver wanted sharp, he would get sharp. He knows his way round a camera so enjoy the retro look. I for one am really interested in this as it encourages the art rather than the science of our hobby.

Peace...

 

[deep diver]

Most of the photos are out of focus. Highlights are blown out. I don't understand the appeal.

This is a soft focus lens, and it is a specialty lens. The softness of the focus depends a lot on the size and design of the aperture plate. There is a very dramatic shift in the softness of the focus with each size aperture. The first image is properly focused, and was shot using a fairly large Lumière aperture plate which is what gives it the very soft focus and the wet plate feel. The first image is the only one with blown highlights. The highlights were not blown in the same shot with a similar size round aperture. I have to do some research to learn why it would be this way with the Lumière plate.

Folks that know me on this forum know that I am always open to good critique. In fact, I reached out privately to several people for direct feedback. It would be good for you to have a better understanding of the “back story” before leveling this kind of raw criticism. (And, no. I am not thin skinned.)

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