Today was my first time, I count a chemical kit and mixed everything according to the instructions.

frist plate... was just a ghost
second plate an image but the upper corner stayed milky white. kind of like the power white when you remove the plate form the silver bath
third plate . not much better light image very hard to see and some of the same white at the upper top corner.
fourth .. i dropped the plate into the silver bath with the light on. A person I talked to said it would not matter because the plates react so slow that you come in an out of the dark room without and issue. This plate had nothing it appeared as if most of the collodion came off.
five.. the collodion pealed.. this was the better of the images but the collodion tore their the middle of the image that it was ruined.
6th I shot middle aperture with for ten seconds. Again the image is very light.

Can someone give me some tips on what errors cause what issues. The collodion peal I am guessing is due to not cleaning the plates well enough. my kit did not come with plate cleaner so i tried to use dish soap and hot water. the first couple plates i cleaned and rinses well using hot hot water. the latter ones i was a bit sloppy so I am sure thats why they pealed.

One this i do not know because i am used to seeing the images on the computer now are they really this light in person and my eyes are used to seeing the digital version. I want to try some black tin plates to see if I get a better result.

Positive side it works but I do not really have an idea of how to figure out my exposure and when to pull from the developer. Also why i am thinking about it does it matter if i pour the developer or drop it in the tray like paper? would any of that handling cause the collodion to lift?

I am actually pretty happy with this so far considering I really did not spend a ton of time today. What i saw is close to usable so with a bit of work I should be able to get decent results. I am shooting with a brownie 2 3/4 by 4 1/4 glass plates. I just found a half plate and its in the mail to me now will have it monday i hope. I know this is kind of all over here forgive me I have no idea what I need to do I am just playing with it. the videos i watched show the process but have no information about errors and what result indicates what mistakes.
