https://maximilianzeitler.com/workshop-kollodium-nassplatte-berlin

Here you can read a short summary on the Institute’s website in english or german.

Thank you Lena, Megan and Jonathan for the text and the organization of this workshop.

• Location: in front of Fotogalerie Friedrichshain - Helsingforserplatz 1, Berlin

• May 10, 12-16h: reserve your portrait here

• Price: 65€ for a 4x5” tintype, 35€ extra for a frame, cash only

Questions? Send me a message to info(at)maximilianzeitler.com

Thanks,
Max

In two days, I will introduce you to the world of contact printing collodion glass negatives onto salted paper. This stunning process is one of the earliest ways to reproduce images from glass negatives and offers plenty of choices for your creativity.

On day one, you will learn to expose and develop wet collodion glass negatives correctly to achieve the density for salted paper prints. On the second day, you will learn how to manufacture your own salted paper and will print your glass negatives.

In a small group, you will have plenty of practice with both large format cameras and historic equipment. An instruction manual will help you after the workshop to follow up.

Register via my website, just a few spots are left.

I have included some portraits and some landscapes so if you want to have a look, you can follow this link.

https://mfzfoto.bigcartel.com/product/calendar-2026

Presale price will be 25€ plus shipping until 1st of December, then regular price is 30€.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

• 8. Januar 2026: K1 | 1 Day Beginner Workshop in Berlin

• 20. & 21. Februar 2026: K2 | 2 Days Glass Negatives & Salted Paper Printing in Berlin

• 9. Mai 2026: K1 | 1 Day Beginner Workshop in Berlin

• 20. & 21. Juni 2026: K2 | 2 Days Outdoor Workshop in Brandenburg (tbd)

• 18. Oktober 2026: K1 | 1 Day Beginner Workshop in Berlin

You can find detailed descriptions on my website and also the possibility to book.

Let me know if you have questions and best regards,

Max

Buchung unter: https://maximilianzeitler.com/book-a-tintype-portrait-session

Danke fürs anschauen und fürs weitersagen.

Beginner and advanced techniques, including formulas, handouts, and lighting (continuous & flash). Over two days, a professional model will join us.

Discover the secrets of ultra large format in this one-of-a-kind masterclass.

This workshop is suitable for beginners and advanced practitioners of wet collodion.

PRICE: €2,400 incl. all materials, beverages, and 19% VAT
Early-bird price until July 31, 2025: €2,000 incl. 19% VAT.

Booking via: maximilianzeitler.com/book-a-tintype-portrait-session > Workshops

Date: Saturday May 17th 2025
Time: 18:00 - 22:00
Location: Studio R116, Berlin-Wedding

THE ARTISTS

Jonas Ruhs has established himself as a distinctive voice in contemporary photography since founding his practice in 2019. Specializing in portrait, documentary, and corporate photography, his work centers on authentic human narratives enhanced by thoughtful use of light and space. Jonas's international assignments across Colombia, Lebanon, Senegal, and Madagascar have enriched his visual language and storytelling approach.

Maximilian Zeitler brings the magic of 19th-century photography into the present through his mastery of the wet plate collodion process. After transitioning from engineering, Maximilian dedicated himself to crafting unique tintypes (on aluminum) and ambrotypes (on glass) that capture subjects with exceptional detail and timeless quality. His meticulous process involves preparing photographic plates on-site using a mobile darkroom.

THE EVENING

This exclusive gathering offers you a chance to:

• Engage in conversation about photographic practice, process, and vision

• peak into the photo lab and darkroom

• Connect with like-minded photography enthusiasts and collectors

• max. 4 people

• mix the chemical solutions

• pour your first 4x5” and 5x7” wetplates on glass and aluminium

• incl. a 13 pages handout with all recipes

• english and german

• costs: 330€ incl. tax

Dates: May 3 | June 21 | September 6

More info here: https://maximilianzeitler.com/workshop-kollodium-nassplatte-berlin

Advanced Techniques Workshops

All advanced techniques can be addressed in individual 1:1 workshop courses. Please get in touch with me.

Online Course

I have experience in online courses and troubleshooting so this is a great opportunity to enhance your technique even if you live abroad. Either possible via email or online meeting.

For a version in german please visit my website.

Exhibition

I will be exhibiting portraits from my Berliner Kulturräume series. The series portrays people from Berlin's cultural sector who offer spaces for culture and fill these spaces with culture. This is an inventory of the current restrictions imposed by the Berlin Senate on the cultural sector.

I will also be showing works from the Berlin City Views series, which has been running for years.

Information

March 21 to April 6, 2026, from 12-18h from Friday to Sunday or by appointment. Please send me an email to info(at)maximilianzeitler.com.

Vernissage: March 21 from 18h
Portrait day direct positive paper: March 29, 12-18h
Portrait day Tintype: April 5, 12-18h

Location: Reinickendorfer Str. 116, 13347 Berlin (U+S Wedding, U6 Reinickendorfer Straße).

For the whole program of the photo festival you can visit the website of Month of Photography: Off.

On the portrait days we will take portraits of you on a donation basis - while stocks last.

• Date & Time: January 18, 10-18h

• Location: in my studio in Berlin Wedding

• you will pour your first 4×5″ and 5×7″ tintypes and ambrotypes, mix the chemicals and will be amazed by the wetplate collodion process

• 4 people max.

• language: german and/or english

• you will get a printed out handout in german or english

• costs: 330€ incl. tax and materials

Booking via email or my website, follow this link and navigate to “5/ Workshops”.

Want to book a private course or are you interested in a specific topic? Get in touch with me…

Galerie Le Bonheur Est Dans l'Instant: 72 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris

Vernissage: Friday, November 8, 17h

Artist talk: Saturday, November 9, 11h

I will contribute two salted paper prints and three original tintype photographs to this exhibition.

I hope to see you in Paris.

All the best,
Max

Preorder benefits:

• Preorders will be signed.

• Preorders will get free shipping within Germany - valid until November 16.

• Preorders will be shipped at 1. December 2024.

• Preorder Price: 25€

The calender can be ordered through my new webshop

I M   S O G   D E S   W A L D E S

FOREST VORTEX

„Im Sog des Waldes" ist eine Gruppenausstellung von vier Fotograf:innen und Künster:innen deren Arbeiten und Interessen im Themengebiet Wald zusammenfinden. Der Wald, oft mehr Imagination als realer Ort, erfährt in den Arbeiten der Ausstellung eine Aktualisierung.

In ihren Bildern zeigen sich die Künstler:innen als Autor:innen vor & hinter der Kamera, sie präsentieren Fotografien, die sich technisch und inhaltlich von Landschaftsfotografien zutiefst unterscheiden. Der Wald als kulturelles Konzept wird in seiner Beziehung zum Menschen untersucht und erkundet.

Fotogalerie Friedrichshain | Website
Laufzeit: 01. November bis 11. Januar

Vernissage: 31. Oktober ab 19:00 Uhr
Begleitprogramm to be announced

Sam Evans - Instagram website

Nathalie Ericson - Instagram website

Maximilian Zeitler - Instagram website

Martin Tscholl - Instagram website

english text

I M   S O G   D E S   W A L D E S

FOREST VORTEX

“Forest Vortex” is a group exhibition of four photographers and artists whose work and interests converge on the theme of the forest.  In their pictures, the artists show themselves as authors in front of and behind the camera, presenting images that differ profoundly from traditional landscape photography in terms of technique and content. The forest, often more an imaginary than a real place, is actualized in the exhibition's works.

Fotogalerie Friedrichshain | Website
run time: 01. November 11. January

Vernissage: 31. Oktober from 19:00h
guided tours and program to be announced

Sam Evans - Instagram website

Nathalie Ericson - Instagram website

Maximilian Zeitler - Instagram website

Martin Tscholl - Instagramwebsite

and also part 2:

When do you need a heavy silver bath maintenance

As you know, light silver bath maintenance can be done with sunning and filtering and removes ether and organic substances. It also regulated the acidity of the silver bath because nitric acid is neutralized. This light maintenance is something you can do on a regular basis, if you know how many plates you run through it. Sometimes, some other problems will need a more nasty variation of silver bath maintenance.

1. Pinholes: pinholes are small black spots all over the plate. Those are present right after fixing and they won’t disappear with washing. This is caused by an over-iodized bath, that means that too many free silver iodides are present in the silver bath and this blocks building up silver iodines in the collodion layer.

2. Developer distribution: with overworked baths, you will realize that you need to increase the amount of alcohol in your developer to get an easy distribution of the developer when pouring on the developer. The volume of alcohol in your developer should match the volume of alcohol in your silver bath to enable a good distribution. Silver baths with too much alcohol tend to fog your plates, also when measuring the specific gravity, you also measure the amount of alcohol in your silver bath and therefore you get obscured results.

3. Fogging: if you silver bath fogs your plates, too much alcohol is present so an heavy maintenance should help.

There are plenty of other problems that might be solved by silver nitrate maintenance, just remember: take your time and have a cool head while doing heavy maintenance.

My heavy silver bath maintenance

This is my procedure to reset my silver baths. It is a bit different to other information you may find in the web but it works for me in a very good way.

You will need this equipment to do a heavy maintenance:

• a large glass beaker (min. 2l)

• distilled Water (a lot)

• a big stainless steel pot

• a heating plate (best would be induction)

• all filtering equipment like described in the latest episodes

• a thermometer for higher temperatures (up to 90°C)

Caution: use safety equipment like googles and gloves and keep every a clean and childsafe working environment. Also: do the heavy maintenance outdoors!

Step 1: Precipitation of free iodides

The first step is quite easy, fill in about 1l of your silver bath in a glass beaker and double the volume. In doing so, free iodides will precipitate and turn the silver bath into a milky liquid:

Don’t worry, the bath will be clear as soon as it is heated since the free iodides will break up, this is done in step 2.

Step 2: Evaporating the excess water and alcohol

Alcohol has a boiling point of 78°C, so heating up the silver bath is the only way to remove it. I saw many videos where collodion photographers heat up their silver baths until it boils: don’t do that! Too high temperatures can cause the building up of silver fulminate, that can explode. So keep in mind not to heat up your silver nitrate like water you cook noodles in!

1. Take your stainless steel pot and fill it with at least 2l of distilled water

2. Put your glass beaker (that holds the milky silver nitrate) into the pot

3. Heat up the silver nitrate up to 80°C and check the temperature with a thermometer

4. Wait until the water has evaporated and the original volume is reached

Step 3: The end phase

After the silver nitrate solution has cooled down, it’s safe to filter it. Do that at least 4-6 times, you will see that a lot of materials are present. After that, check the specific gravity, add silver nitrate crystals or water and note every step you have done in your notebook.

Now you have a nearly brand new silver bath, with no ether and alcohol present, free iodides are gone and it should work like a new bath. Be aware that you won’t need as much alcohol in your developer.

That’s it for now,

Max

This part 2 will cover the routine maintenance that I do on a regular basis. How often you do that, depends on the plate size and of course the number of plates you pour. I do this light maintenance after like 10-20 5x7” and/or 8x10” plates in 2l of silver bath.

The chemical background

The so called double decomposition (old term) or metathesis reaction is the core mechanism for all silver based photographic processes. Two reactants, silver nitrate (AgNO3) and and an iodine of e.g. potassium (KI) form light sensitive AgI (silver iodine) and KNO3 (potassium nitrate). Here is the formula:

AgNO3​+KI→AgI+KNO3​

This also counts for bromide salts (for example KBr) used in the collodion solution, forming AgBr and KNO3.

In other words, if you dip a plate with collodion in a silver nitrate bath, you will get a plate full of silver iodines (AgI) and silver bromides (AgBr). Your silver nitrate bath on the other hand will be contaminated with several ingredients, such as:

• organic substances like dust, hair… : the source of every artifact like comets…

• ether: will destabilize collodion when too much is present

• alcohol: from the collodion, will affect developer distribution on the plate

• nitrate compounds: will slowly lower pH and make the bath more acid

• silver iodines and bromides: will be present in the solution as well

Some of those ingredients can be removed with the basic maintenance, some need a bit more effort to remove. And by the way: I am not a chemist!

Sunning the silver bath

The rays of the sun are quite powerful, as we know from our latest sun burn. The most effective way to treat a silver nitrate bath is sunning it.

Get a large glass vase with a big opening (for example a big pickle jar glass) and fill your silver nitrate bath into the container. Please be aware to wear safety googles and gloves! Then, cover the glass with a nylon cloth and put it into the sunlight for several hours or days. Over the time, the silver bath will get grey and it will also loose some water due to evaporation.

Sunning the silver bath is the most effective way to prepare the removal of organic substances.

1. Tiny organic particles are being exposed and can be filtered afterwards.

2. Depending the temperature you are sunning your silver, the ether will be removed. Ether has a boiling temperature of 35°C, so if you sun your silver on a summer day, all of the ether will be evaporated.

3. On the other hand, alcohol’s boiling point is 78°C, so sunning alone won’t help to remove all, but a bit will also be evaporated.

4. Sunning also removes acids like nitric acids, regulating the pH of the bath.

Finishing the light maintenance

When you realize that the grayness of the silver nitrate solution does not change anymore, it is time to filter it. I always you a cotton pad that you find in nearly every supermarket around the globe - just squeeze it in the funnel and let the silver nitrate run through. You will need to filter at least 4 times, to take your time and don’t hurry: silver nitrate is expensive and every drop you loose costs you money.

Now your silver nitrate solution is free of organic particles, only one thing is left to do: checking the gravity of your solution. You can read how that works in the first part of this series:

I always check if the pH ranges from 3-4 with a litmus strip and then, the silver nitrate is ready for the next plates.

What’s next?

From time to time, you may notice some problems like pinholes or other issues. If you can nail it down, that the silver nitrate is the culprit, it’s maybe time to think about a heavy maintenance. I will cover my heavy silver bath maintenance routine in the next and probably last episode of this series.

If you want to learn the wet collodion process or if you want to improve your technique, feel free to check out my upcoming workshops.

That’s for it now, see you next time.

Max

Costs: 330€ (incl. 19% tax)

For all interested please visit my website for more info, you can book directly through my booking hub or also write me a short mail.

Max

One of the key elements of wet collodion images is the silver bath. After coating a plate with collodion, it is dipped in a bath of a silver nitrate solution and a chemical reaction called “salt metathesis reaction“ takes place. In easy words, salts in the collodion solution (like ammonium iodine) combines with the silver nitrate to silver iodine and ammonium nitrate. Within minutes (2-3 minutes depending on the temperature), the reaction is completed and the collodion wet plate is sensitive to light due to the presence of silver iodines and silver bromides.

When working with silver nitrate and its solutions, be aware that silver nitrate is the strongest oxidizer known, wear gloves and safety googles. If silver nitrate solution comes in contact with organic substances like your skin, it darkens everything and stains your clothes. It can also blind you if you get a drop of it into your eyes.

Always handle this chemical with the utmost respect!

Mixing the first silver bath

Most of the times, a 9% solution of silver nitrate is used for wetplate collodion processes. This means, that in every 100ml of distilled water, 9g of silver nitrate is added. Only use the finest grade 99.9% for your silver bath to avoid impurities caused by other metals in the silver nitrate.

As soon as you are getting into wet plate, you will find yourself in need to mix a new silver bath. Here is what you need:

• 99.9% pure silver nitrate crystals

• distilled water (don’t use demineralized or tap water!)

• fine grain scale

• hydrometer to measure density of the silver bath

• a thin and elongated laboratory measuring cup (glass)

• a glass bottle to hold the volume of silver nitrate

Now, let’s continue to mix one liter of 9% silver nitrate solution.

1. in a glass bottle, fill 1 liter of distilled water
   It’s very important to use distilled water, tap water has way to much minerals that will instantly combine with the silver nitrate and generate a milky liquid. If you are using a new batch or manufacturer of distilled water, test the water with a little amount (100ml, 9g AgNo3) first to check if the solution stays clear.

2. On a fine grain scale, measure 90g of silver nitrate crystals with care. Don’t be hasty and take your time. If you get a crystal on your skin, wash it immediately with water.

3. Add the silver nitrate crystals to the distilled water, close the bottle and shake well to dissolve the crystals.

4. Now, fill the measuring cup with the silver nitrate solution to check the gravity and therefore, the purity of your silver nitrate. (see below)

5. Coat a plate with collodion and let it sit in the bath over night. This iodizes the silver bath to work, meaning it regulates the pH a bit and brings in free iodines into the silver bath.

6. The next day: photograph with your fresh silver bath

Checking the specific gravity

One of the tools that I use is a hydrometer to check the strength of my silver baths. It’s quite clear: every plate takes out some silver, lowering the resulting strength of the silver nitrate bath.

Note: checking specific gravity has the best accuracy if you have an ether and alcohol free silver bath (I’ll explain that in a later episode…).

The hydrometer is a tool to measure specific gravities of liquids and we can use it for check if we still have the 9% solution present. The hydrometer should have a scale from 1.05 to 1.10 and is dipped into the silver nitrate solution to float on it. On the scale, you can then read the strength.

Our target strength is a 9% solution, so the hydrometer will read 1.07, if it is lower, then you need to add silver, if it’s above, then add distilled water.

pH or not pH

There are many confusions about the pH of your silver nitrate bath. Byproducts of your reaction of collodion salts and silver nitrate will lower the pH of your bath over the time. You can test your bath with a litmus strip very easily, be aware that electronic devices don’t work well because of the silver in the bath.

The optimal pH range is from 3-4 for a workable bath, if your bath is more acid or less acid than that, you should do something, but nothing special: just sun your bath.

All about light silver bath maintenance will be covered in the next episode of this blog.

Subscribe now