Glass Negatives

A Brief History of Glass Plate Photography

Images on glass, whether they are positives or negatives, are sensitive to oxidation, delamination, scratches, abrasions, and breakage. These pieces need to be handled with care. Avoid touching the surface of the emulsion as oils from your fingers will cause silvering and accelerate deterioration.

A “negative” refers to the image created when light is focused through the lens and lands on light sensitive materials. In our case, that material is a chemical solution, or emulsion, spread over a glass plate. The created image is the opposite (negative), in terms of light and dark, to what the eye sees (positive).

MAKING POSITIVES FROM A GLASS NEGATIVE

Take a photo of the glass negative on the light box with your DSLR

Open that photograph in Photoshop and hit Control-I

In Photoshop: Add a b&w adjustment layer and a Levels adjustment layer.

STEPS:

Step 1: Wearing gloves, pick up the glass negative carefully and place it on the lightbox. Only touch the negative by the edges. Make sure the EMULSION side (the not shiny side) is down.

Step 2: Using your DSLR on APERTURE mode, use a small aperture and shoot a photo of the negative directly over top of the negative.

Step 3: Using a card reader, take your SD card out of the camera and put it in a card reader and put it in the computer. Transfer the photos to your Google Drive.

Step 4: Open one of the photographs in Photoshop and rotate it if you have to by going to Image>Rotate>clockwise or counterclockwise.

Step 5: Click Control-i.

Step 6: With the positive image, Add a B&W adjustment layer and a LEVELS adjustment layer and adjust accordingly.

Step 7: Using the BURN tool, burn in any edges that seem to be lighter.

Step 8: Do these steps for all 4 glass negatives.

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