Daguerreotype Photographs the Old Fashioned Way

Step 3 Picture time!

It is not necessary to use a view camera to make Daguerreotypes but it helps. Since there is no enlarging, your final image is only the size of the plate that you started with. My view camera can accept up to 8x10" daguerreotype plates which are quite excitingly expensive. There isn't any reason why you couldn't do this process with a 35mm camera and a postage-stamp sized silver plate.

Since Becquerel Daguerreotypes have an equivalent ISO of about .0004, the exposure times can take a little while.

I can give you a general rule of thumb but many variables effect the exposure including your polish. In FULL sun with a well-polished plate, you should be able to get 45 seconds at f/5.6. This would mean that you're reading EV16 on a grey card. That's REALLY DAMN BRIGHT. For comparison, an exposure based on EV12 on a grey card would be about 6 minutes, 45 seconds at f/5.6.

Becquerel Daguerreotypes also suffer from limited dynamic range. While modern slide film or digital cameras can give you 7-9 stops of dynamic range, you'll be limited to about 3 with Becquerel. If you're metering a scene and the sky is 5 stops brighter than your subject, you're in solarization-ville.

Check out the attached PDF showing my cheat sheet for exposure calculations. I use this in the field and then adjust based on experience.