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"One aspect that I work at the most is to try to make the commonplace look unique. And if I'm shooting digital on assignment, I'll try making something look a little more interesting with lenses, special angles, lighting techniques, creative use of sunlight and shadows and lighting." About eight months ago, Benson's interests took a giant step backward in time when he became enamored with a Civil War-era photographic process known as tintype photography.

How did your interest in tintypes come about?
I've always been drawn to the alternative in photography. I have an old four by five press camera, the kind they used to use in the '50's. I shoot Polaroid with that from time to time, and I have a couple of Holga cameras. They're wacky and fun to play with. I stumbled across tintypes, and that was a way of really making the commonplace look really unique. Three years ago I didn't even know what a tintype was. I saw a photographer doing them for National Geographic - Robb Kendrick - and when I saw his portraits, and I was hooked. I've been making them myself for a little less than a year now.

I'm not an expert on the history of wet plate collodion (the process by which photos are made on glass or metal), but during the Civil War era photographic images were made on different materials. If made on glass, they were called ambrotypes. Photos made on metal, or tin, were called ferrotypes, or tintypes.

Describe the process.
In wet plate collodion, the picture has to be taken and processed while the chemicals on the plate are still wet. If it dries, you're out of luck. It won't work. I have a big 8x10 view camera made in the 1920's that was modified to accept a wet plate holder. I have a few lenses. One of them is a Petzval lens made in 1868, of brass. There are no shutters. You use a lens cap to make exposures, which are three to five seconds long. And the subject is looking right into the lens all that time, trying not to move. I think there's something a little magical in a person trying to do that, as opposed to a digital picture that's made in a thousandth of a second. Have you ever stared at yourself in the mirror for five seconds? It's almost hypnotic.

How do your subjects react to their own tintype images?
Most seem to have a certain bewilderment to it all. After I shoot the picture, I develop it in the back of my truck, then bring it out into the light for the fixing portion in cyanide. The image on the metal turns from a negative to a positive in about 30 seconds. It's like watching a Polaroid image come up. But because there are so many variables, it is very hard to predict what I will get.

The chemicals are not only toxic, but volatile as well.
All the chemicals are mixed by hand. You can't buy anything premixed, and there's only a handful of places in America that actually sells everything necessary to make the chemistry. I begin with a metal plate. I'm shooting whole plates, which are 6.5 x 8.5 inches. I pour the plate with a thin layer of collodion. This is done in full light, and it begins drying immediately. After about 15 seconds it becomes tacky, and I dunk the plate into a solution of silver nitrate in complete darkness for three minutes. This sensitizes the plate. After three minutes the plate is ready to be exposed. It fits into a plate holder that attaches to the back of my view camera. After the exposure is made, the plate is immediately placed into the developer, and then "fixed" in a solution of cyanide. I do all of this on site, in the back of my car, which I have converted into a rolling darkroom.

I buy collodion (sold at chemist suppliers) then "iodize" it by adding grain alcohol, some bromides and a few other things. The collodion itself is not light sensitive, but is used as a transparent support for the light sensitive compounds. It becomes light sensitive after immersion in the silver nitrate. The stuff used to make the collodion is explosive.

You studied wet plate collodion with Will Dunniway.
I emailed the only tintype photographer I knew, Robb Kendrick. He pointed me in the direction of Dunniway, who lives in Corona, California. He runs a two-day workshop a few times a year. He got me started. He's been making tintypes for 20 years and is an expert.

Is your mental process different when you create a tintype as opposed to shooting a digital portrait?
Normal digital assignment photography is done at eight frames per second. Tintypes are made at one frame per hour. It's slow going and forces me to really focus on composition and capturing a moment, almost making the moment, rather than waiting for them to happen then quickly firing off a handful of frames.

What do you look for in a subject for tintype?
My ongoing theme in tintypes has been to photograph athletes. Otherwise, I want someone with a unique face.

Are there certain types of subjects that tintype just won't work on?
People have asked me to photograph their pets. They don't understand that exposures are five seconds long (or more) and pets can't remain still all that time. Motion translates into blur.

I shoot everything in open shade. I've found direct sun is too contrasty, and exposures become hard to control. Shade provides a nice, even lighting. Northern light is even better.

Does tintype limit your expression, or do you think that the process inspires more creative possibilities for you as a photographer?
I think making tintypes is somewhat of a structured process. You have to do certain things, develop in a certain way, and shoot in a certain light. Otherwise, it just doesn't work. It's a slow, cumbersome process with a big heavy tripod and a huge camera that weighs 30 pounds or so. I feel like I can push the creative boundaries more when shooting digital, but there's something magical about a tintype.

Main drawbacks?
The silver nitrate bath. It stains your hands a dark blackish brown and it doesn't come off for a few weeks. In the 1800's, you could spot a tintype photographer by his brown-stained hands. I got in trouble a while back when I did a photo shoot in my living room. I dripped silver nitrate onto the carpet and ended up having to cut the stained fibers out of the carpet, because nothing will remove those brown stains from my hands or carpet or anything else it touches. Nothing.

- Contributed by Dave Good