picture of young girl about sixteen with hair net, lace color, and earings. Dark dress.

I stare into the eyes of a beautiful girl. The image has almost a three demensional quality. The visage appears to be a reflection in a mirror, a mirror with a memory. Every detail is clear. The photo seems to capture the essence of this person, her personality, not just her image, maybe even a part of her soul. I fall in love. The problem is, the object of my affection lived over 150 years ago. She is preserved for the centuries in the flower of her youth.

Young Girl I got this for about $30 on Ebay. Only after I got it and examined it with a loop did I discover the intricacies of the lace, the exquisite gloves, the haunting eyes, and the bow on her chest. You can't see all these details in this scan. If a girl today were to dress in the same outfit, she would look ridiculous. But the style suites this girl perfectly. She is beautiful. She would have made a good date to the ball. I can imagine a wounded soldier lying on the battlefield pulling out this picture to take one more glance before he dies.

Steps In The Daguerreotype Process

Daguerreotypes are works of art. I believe they are the most beautiful form of photography ever. In 1839 this was something different from anything anyone had ever seen before. Enthusiasm for the invention caught on quickly despite the involved and complicate process.

First you polish a plate of copper with a coating of silver.

Then you coat it with a mixture of iodine and bromide.

After you expose it in the camera, you subject the plate to the vapors of heated mercury.

You then remove the mercury by washing the plate in hyposulphite of soda.

Then you fix the image using chloride of gold.

Age it for 150 years or so. The oxidation that appears around the edges actually enhances the beauty.

Bellows camera on tripod does silly dance

My purpose here is not to describe the history and process of dags. To learn more check out this web site

Qualities Of A Daguerreotype

One of a kind direct positive image.
Silver based emulsion on metal plate.
Gooey quality of image requires that it be housed in a case under a plate of glass and sealed.
Cases often quite fancy with relief designs. Some are octagonal. Early ones often looked like a book. Some are in lockets.

Many people confuse dags with:

Ambrotypes: A type of direct positive image made on glass. The image is basiclly an underexposed negative. The dark areas are clear, so when the ghostly image is placed over a black background the darks are filled in making the picture a positive image.
Tintypes: Same process except the image is exposed on a sheet of black painted steel (not tin).

You can tell if your picture is a daguerreotype if it is shiny like a mirror and you have to move it around in order to get the best angle with the least glare in order to get a good view of the image.

This young girl who looks out at us from the past is still as pretty as she was 150 years ago. The nature of a Dag gives you almost a 3d look, which makes this image almost as realistic as you can get. The detail of dags is unequaled even by today's technology. It was popular to tint these images. I prefer dags that are untinted. They have a cleaner, more brilliant look, though you are left wondering what color the dress was, or the table cloth. Something was lost when the Daguerreian Era ended. The photographs we take today probably will not be in as good condition 150 years from now. What I am drawn to is the mystery. Who was this girl? What did she worry about? Would she have loved me? I think it is more fun not to know the answers.

· · · If you want to talk about dags or share your dags with me then contact me · · ·

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