Making Daguerreotypes of Mom & Dad

My parents came to visit for my birthday and one of my wishes was to make daguerreotypes of them. This video shows a summary of the process and the two daguerreotype plates that were the result. I’m pretty obsessed with the blue background in my mother's plate. If you look closely, you can see that not only is the background blue but her shirt is pink. The colors in that plate are pretty amazing. From the lighting angles shown, my father’s plate takes on greener and golden tones but it does flip into blues under more angular lighting as well but it’s easier to see in the other plate.

Exposures for the two plates were made with a modern lens instead of my older 19th century glass. I did this because I wanted the particular rendering of this lens and an entirely sharp image without falloff, swirl, or chromatic aberration. The exposures were:

Mom: f5.6 @ 1m30s
Dad: f5.6 @ 40s

Also worth noting is the chair which is of the Daguerreian period. It is one of a set originally made for the Royal box seats at the London Palladium Theater circa 1850’s. Royal butts have been in those chairs so I thought it fitting to put my parents in them.


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Video settings at 1080p or higher for better viewing quality.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/francescofragomeni

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