Editing Collodion process (section)

==Advantages==
[[Image:Micklethwaite Portable studio.jpg|thumb|A portable photography studio in 19th-century Ireland. The wet collodion process sometimes gave rise to portable darkrooms, as photographic images needed to be developed while the plate was still wet.]]
[[File:Glass Plate Detail - Weir Embleton Holtermann-SLNSW.ogg|thumb|Animation illustrating the detail found in a wet-collodion photograph taken in [[Hill End, New South Wales|Hill End]] in 1872.]]
The collodion process produced a negative image on a transparent support (glass). This was an improvement over the [[calotype]] process, discovered by [[Henry Fox Talbot]], which relied on paper negatives, and the daguerreotype, which produced a one-of-a-kind positive image and could not be replicated. The collodion process thus combined desirable qualities of the calotype process (enabling the photographer to make a theoretically unlimited number of prints from a single negative) and the daguerreotype (creating a sharpness and clarity that could not be achieved with paper negatives). Collodion printing was typically done on [[albumen print|albumen paper]].

As [[collodion]] is a sticky and transparent medium and can be soaked in a solution of silver nitrate while wet, it is ideal for coating stable surfaces such as glass or metal for photography. When a metal plate is coated with collodion, charged with silver nitrate, exposed, and developed, it produces a direct positive image on the plate, although laterally reversed (left and right would be reversed, like in a mirror). When coated on glass, the image becomes negative and can be reproduced easily on photographic paper. This was a huge advantage over the daguerreotype, which was not directly reproducible. Wet plate/collodion is also a relatively inexpensive process compared to its predecessor, and does not require polishing equipment or the extremely toxic fuming boxes needed for the daguerreotype. With glass as the medium, the cost per image was also far less than special silver-plated copper plates, and more durable than paper negatives. The process was also very fast for the time, requiring only a few seconds to expose an image in daylight, rather than 30 seconds or more for other forms of photography available in the mid-1800s.