Developing really old glass plates?

[Matt_Bigwood]

I recently bought an old Thornton Pickard reflex http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbigwoo ... 333332925/

With it came six plate holders, I opened one to discover a glass plate in it, and judging by the weight of them I think the others are also loaded.

I don't know whether the plates have been exposed, but I thought I'd have a go at developing them anyway. Some of the plate holders have HP3 written in pencil on them, so I'd guess it's Ilford plates in them.

I suppose I'd need to give a lot longer development time for something this old - a friend has already mentioned 'latent image regression'!

[IanG]

If exposed then they shouldn't need that much extra development, I shot some 35mm HP3 while at school & the dev times were much the same as HP5. 20% extra is usually a safe bet.

Remember that HP3 was nominally 200 ASA until the testing method for the ASA/BS standard changed in the early 60's and with fewer people using meters there was a tendency to over expose.

Ian

[Matt_Bigwood]

Thanks Ian, I'll give it a go, but they may never have been exposed.

Cheers

Matt

[Fourtoes]

Lucky they're seperate plates. You can dev just one and then assess where to go form there. Hope theres something of interest on them. If you get anything post them up for all to see. Good luck.

[Matt_Bigwood]

Finally got round to developing them, but they have never been exposed. Just ended up with glass plates with a layer of base fog.

[dave_whatever]

Just ended up with glass plates with a layer of base fog.

But is it art?