Tintype Photography, Or A Photographic Trip to the Past

A group of friends and I went to Gettysburg for Remembrance Day, where we spent most of our time at the fabulous Victorian Photography Studio. We also visited in 2015, but the new owner encourages social media and digital photography, which made the experience even more interesting as it was possible to take detailed comparison pictures in the same environment.

The above pictures were taken at nighttime, between dinner and the second half of the ball (yes, a few of us missed half the ball to have a few more tintypes made!). In period, photographers were dependent on daylight, but thankfully the studio has an excellent daylight mimicking light setup. All of the color pictures were taken with our cell phones and haven't been touched up, just cropped to help the comparisons a bit.

The ball gown I'm wearing is one of my older dresses. I made the skirt in 2007 and the bodice in 2010. I think the color shift in the wet plate was the most interesting of my dresses. The green in my skirt has quite a bit of yellow in it--it's shot with one of the threads a goldish color--and it darkened noticeably.



I love that we had such a variety of fabrics and patterns in our group shots. Some of our dresses shifted in expected ways--however, Leia's dress has a striking contrast of rust and chartreuse in real life, but faded into one color. Taylor's blue dress lightened considerably and the contrast with the black trim is even more pronounced than in reality. Adrienne's dress has lost definition in the check and appears more like a stripe.

My dress, Robin's wrapper, Alice's dress, and Amanda's dresses look more like what you'd expect in black and white photography with the contrast in colors remaining consistent with reality.



In our second group shot, I think the most striking change is the lightening of blues--and Leia's plaid looking like a stripe.


For this dress, I copied a period photograph and tried to get the details as close as possible to the original. Though it's impossible to know, I'm glad that the colors I chose had similar contrast to the original. The ribbon on my dress is strips of white and black shot taffeta with fringed edges, which reads as grey. The center is a bit darker than the original, though the darkness of the soft edges is similar. The eyelets in my collar stand out a little more in the tintype. Please note, I took my rings off in between the pictures--they didn't disappear!



This pose is inspired by an original photograph. Though portraits are the most common, many photographs also showed people doing activities--or at least pretending to!



Even though I brought my paletot, I didn't expect to take a tintype with it. Saturday though, it was pouring rain, so wearing it with my silk dress was a necessity. I couldn't resist finding out what the soutache trim would look like, and I wasn't disappointed. Though the purple and black contrast well, it's even more defined in the tintype.



Many photographs featured knitting, and since I not just love period knitting, but have a knitted bag in progress, I decided that I needed to recreate such a scene. This photograph was my main inspiration, though I decided to pose with more knitting instead of a book. I've included two miser's purses, princess royal scarf, Robin's pineapple, and Adrienne's pence jug.

The white brooch on my chest isn't actually white--it's a miniature of President Obama that I made for a reenactment just before the 2008 election. It has a glass covering, which reflected the light so you couldn't see the picture--his official senate picture. I do wish it had shown up!



Looking through the camera was fascinating! In addition to the photograph being flipped, the image is upside down.


The camera is positioned a good distance away. All of our pictures with our phones were taken much closer, yet had similar or wider angles. The exposure time was 15 seconds, half of the 30 seconds of our previous session in 2015. Though this wasn't a very long time to sit, having the head clamp was very useful. Breathing and blinking are fine during the process.



Setting up the yarn winding shot--getting in good distance of the camera, and head support hidden behind me.


Setting up the table of knitting--trying to make everything look as natural and distinct as possible. I left off the talma wrap and mariposa hood that I also brought on the trip. And once again, having the head clamp positioned. It's really quite comfortable--your neck just rests on it.



Two of the tintypes in cases--I think they really add to the authentic look!
If you ever have the chance to have a tintype made, do it! It's really an amazing experience and helps to imagine what people in the past experienced. The picture emerging is fascinating to us--just think what it would've been like 150 years ago! And I couldn't recommend the Victorian Photography Studio more. They were professional, friendly, took beautiful photographs, and even had delicious cinnamon rolls. What more could you ask for!


And speaking of the photographs emerging, below are videos of the developing process. They start as negatives, and then all is revealed!

VID_20171117_122020 from Katherine on Vimeo.

VID_20171117_130032 from Katherine on Vimeo.

VID_20171118_112635 from Katherine on Vimeo.

VID_20171118_114955 from Katherine on Vimeo.

VID_20171118_120121 from Katherine on Vimeo.

VID_20171118_215427 from Katherine on Vimeo.

The Purple Paletot

I love outerwear. It's so much fun, so pretty, adds so much to an outfit, yet, I almost never get to make it, doing most of my costuming in weather that just doesn't allow it. So, when Sarah suggested a trip to the mountains for a sleigh ride to Twila and me, I jumped at the chance to make a paletot covered in soutache.


I used the Homespun Patterns Paletot pattern as a starting point. As is usual with patterns, the smallest size was much too big for me, but it's a very nice pattern and I think was easier to work with than my bodice pattern like I normally do. It's made with a layer of purple tropical weight wool that I think I found on eBay, interlined with cream wool flannel from B. Black and Sons, and lined with pink silk taffeta from Pure Silks. The soutache is from Farmhouse Fabrics. I used rayon soutache, which, while not period, still looks nice, and is easy to work with. Since I needed so much, wool soutache wasn't an option. The soutache pattern is taken from an original Godey's that I found online, though the site now leads somewhere else.

The bonnet and winter hood I wore with this are both from Miller's Millinery, the low brim and quilted opera bonnets. My scarf is a pattern from Godey's, The Princess Royal scarf.


Sadly, I couldn't take a pony ride. They had a scale though, and I found out that everything I was wearing weighed about fifteen pounds. I'd guess most of it was in the paletot!


And here I am being uncharacteristically festive, and the paletot on my dress form, which shows the braiding better.


First, I made the outer layer of the coat--sleeves and body. I then drew the soutache pattern on tissue paper, basted it to the coat, and sewed it into place. Once the soutache was done, I sewed the sleeves in. Then I made the lining, treating the wool flannel and silk taffeta as one piece. Then I inserted the lining into the coat, wrong sides together, and edge stitched the hems, and folded the center front of the coat down as a facing.


The only non soutache construction picture I seem to have taken is the collar. The collar is lined with a piece of twill for body, and then I sandwiched it between the purple wool and the lining.

In addition to wearing the coat twice, I was able to wear it to work when the building was freezing. I think they were using the air conditioning, even though it was in the 40s out. I'm also planning to wear this for Remembrance Day 2015 in Gettysburg. It should be perfect there :)

For endless ramblings about this coat, I wrote quite a bit on Live Journal.