The daguerrotype was one of the earliest means of capturing images onto a surface and was the first photographic process available to the public. Using a piece of silver-coated copper and a 35mm film camera, this videos shows you how to make your own.
Nick Brandreth of the George Eastman Museum explains the process of taking a silver plate and producing an image, notably without having to use mercury vapor to make the image visible after it has been captured. Mercury poisoning was an occupational hazard for daguerrotype photographers, and though scientists were fascinated with mercury during the 19th century, it’s not clear how Daguerre stumbled upon its role in his newly-discovered process, though there are plenty of tales suggesting both insight and accident. Mercury poisoning probably led many daguerrotype photographers to go mad as a result of inhaling the fumes or through absorption via the skin.
Keep in mind that there are some costs involved in this process. You’ll probably need to find the silver plates from a jewelry supplier and you will need to hunt hard for the gold chloride which, according to the comments, will cost you around $45 for an ampule of just one gram (0.035 oz).
Let us know in the comments below if you plan on having a crack at this.
Looks like way too much prep time and processing time for me.
Something that would be fun to try sometime. I'd probably want to check out all the options that end with kind of a similar metallic finished product (ambrotype, daguerrotype, tintype, etc.) to settle on which one is least expensive and least hazardous to produce. They all look basically the same to me.