photography, still: The Collodion Process

The dilemma of detail versus reproducibility was resolved in 1851 by an Englishman, Frederick Scott Archer, who introduced the collodion process. This method, also known as the “wet plate” technique, involved coating a glass plate with silver iodide in suspension, exposing it while still wet, and developing it immediately. Once fixed and dried, the glass plate was covered with a thin, flexible film containing the negative image, the definition and detail of which approached that of the daguerreotype. As this process merged the advantages of both its predecessors, it was universally adopted within a very short time.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Digital Technology
• Other Aspects of Photography
• Modern Photography
• The Impact of New Technology
• The Aesthetics of Photography
• Art and Documentary Photography
• Further Developments
• The Impact of Early Photography
• The Collodion Process
• The Calotype
• The Daguerreotype
• The Invention of Photography
• Early Developments
• Bibliography

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