Wet Plate

Wet Plate (Wet Collodion Process): A historic photographic method invented in 1851 where a glass or metal sheet is coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed all within a tight fifteen-minute window before the chemicals dry. Because these physical plates are highly fragile and prone to flaking, modern archiving relies on camera-based digitization to capture their high-resolution details safely, preserving the imagery without risking handling damage to the delicate emulsion.