‘The Rain Maker’: How I Shot a Conceptual Wet Plate Collodion Photograph

During past few weeks I have been working on a new picture I had in mind. This time I already knew the title: “The Rain Maker.” It’s a picture made with the collodion photographic process that was invented back in 1851.

I discovered a beautiful antique greenhouse that was flooded at that time, so I asked for permission to use it for my idea and the owner agreed.

I made some clouds and wanted to see these clouds really pour rain during the shoot, so I had to make a construction of tubes and hoses to make that happen.

The first shoot wasn’t a success — the weather conditions weren’t good and somehow the plate wasn’t interesting enough.

During the second shoot everything worked out just perfectly. I used a 26.5×26.5cm plate and a Dallmeyer 16″ antique Petzval lens at f/5.6 with a 2 second exposure.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video showing the making of “The Rain Maker”:

And here’s the final wet plate image:

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