The Studio
Layout and Equipment
The early daguerreotype studio had to satisfy many demands in order to capture the perfect image. Proper equipment, chemicals, and lighting were necessary to develop a professional photo. While obviously old and outdated to us, the processes were cutting edge at the time and evolving constantly.
Lots of lighting was very important so photographic studios had sunlights directly overhead and/or large windows off to the sides. In cities, this meant studios were typically positioned on the top floor. The sitter is positioned where there is best lighting, often on a raised platform to get even closer to the light. Normal chairs were used to sit on, but to maintain a perfect image, the subject could not move around for minutes at a time. This is where the posing stand, or levelling stand, comes in. The posing stand is a standing clamp that holds the sitters head and body still, in place. It is positioned behind the subjects body so as not to be seen by the camera. It may have never occured to you that of all those stuffy, uncomfortable poses you've seen, physical discomfort was at least partially to blame.
A studio had a darkroom where plates were taken after they were buffered and polished. These plates were taken into the darkroom where they were sensitized with chemicals and placed into a light-proof box. This box is carried out of the darkroom and placed into the camera. The camera was positioned on a stand or on a high shelf. A built-in slide is removed from the box so that the plate is ready inside of the camera. When the pose is correct, the camera's lens cap is removed, and the plate is exposed to the light. When the time is up, the lens cover is replaced, and the plate is taken once again to the darkroom. The plate is placed into a wooden fuming box, where it's heated, and mercury fumes combine with the silver salts on the plate, and reveal a clear image. The plate is then fixed by being submerged in a seperate dish of hyposulphate of soda, and then washed in distilled water in yet another dish. The plate then dries.
At this point a plate could then be hand-painted with powdered pigments using a fine paintbrush. The finished daguerreotype was surrounded in a brass mat, covered with glass, and put in a metal frame. This was presented in a beautiful leather or cloth-lined case or put in a decorative frame to be inspected by the customer. Daguerreotypists in major cities invited politicians and celebrities to have their portraits taken and hung in their display galleries. This drew crowds and future customers who wanted their own likenesses taken.
As studios became more abundant into the 1860s-70s and other processes emerged, photography became simpler, less-expensive, and faster, and studios with props became more and more abundant. Vases, plants, books, skins, toys, costumes and other accessories became standard items in photos. The investment of setting up a studio could be earned back fairly quickly and traveling photographers and tintype studios sprung up throughout the country. Traveling photographers worked fairs and shows and visited homes to create post-mortem photos of deceased family members.
Portable Studios
Outdoor photographs became desired and portable studios developed later. The famous "whatsit wagon" was made popular during the American Civil War as Mathew Brady and other war photographers carried photographic equipment over battlefields. "Whatsit wagon" was the name given to it after soldier upon soldier asked "what is it?" as they curiously watched the photographers pull bulky camera equipment on and off the wagon. The field photographers shot during the day out of their wagons and cleaned and prepared new plates during the night. They were exhausted on campaigns as they also had to tend to their horses and other supplies.
The whatsit wagons were ordinary delivery wagons that were customized. They were designed to store all of the chemicals and sensitizing boxes, cameras, lenses, developed and undeveloped plates, as well as everyday living supplies. They were made to be lightproof, as they became the mobile darkroom. Or they made makeshift darkrooms in a tent. Though very tight for space, coating, sensitizing, and developing the plates could all be done from the back of the wagon.
The wet plate process was already extremely delicate, but field photography was even harder. Already a slight mispouring or improper exposure time could ruin a plate, but now a slight outside breeze or bit of moisture could ruin them as well, and did. Even after a successful photo, often, during the Civil War, these wagons were fired upon and hurried off of the field, jostling and breaking the sensitive plates and supplies.
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