Who We Are
Silver Hand emerged from a desire to build a portable studio and darkroom. We provide quality handmade photographs on-site and a unique experience for our clients. We shoot in two formats - tintype and polaroids.
Think of a photo booth but with quality images, professional lighting, and a unique 19th century photographic process.
By taking our studio on the road, we’re able to connect with more people and share this unique art form with a wider audience.
This most closely represents the early photographers who would roll into town and offer their services until they ran out of plates and moved on to the next town.
FAQs
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Tintypes are a 19th century photographic process - one of the earliest forms of photography. A metal plate is sensitized with silver nitrate, loaded into a camera, and exposed.
Each plate produces one image, so no two plates are the same.
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A metal plate in sensitized with a light sensitive emulsion. Then it’s loaded into the camera, our model (you) will sit for a portrait, we expose the plate then in the darkroom develop and fix it. From start to finish the process takes about 15-20 minutes. Leaving you with a handmade portrait on metal.
Tintypes are archival and are often family heirlooms that are passed down through generations.
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Wear anything you’d like! Some people want to dress in vintage clothes to mimic the early portraits taken in this process. Your every day clothes are also a great choice to represent yourself and your taste. No matter your stylistic choice, keep in mind your image will be mirrored - so text will be reversed.
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Silver stained hands is a telltale sign of a tintype photographer.
It’s common for tintype artists to get silver nitrate on their hands when coating a plate, resulting in hands stained with silver for weeks or sometimes months at a time.