About Pictoriographica:
In December 2017, after 2 ½ years of working with dry plate, I decided to put three boxes of 4x5 plates up for sale in the classified section of photrio.org. These were extra plates that I didn’t think I would get around to using due to my work schedule. To my surprise, the boxes sold in 15 minutes and I was inundated with requests for more. Thus, Pictoriographica spontaneously came into being over Christmas break, 2017. I spent my vacation time from my day job coating plates day and night, clearing out space in the basement to create a production area, and scrambling to find packing boxes to ship the plates out. The support and interest from the photographic community has continued to grow since that unexpected start, and it has been great to help re-establish dry plate as a viable alternative photographic process.
Pictoriographica manufactured Dry Plates out of Brookline, New Hampshire until June 2022. During that time, Pictoriographica grew to employ 10 part-time technicians, some of who helped make the dry plates and some who helped start and run Photo Retro, the public darkroom located in Amherst, NH.
In the summer of 2022, I moved back to Arkansas where I had been born and raised. The dry plate business was shelved while I focused on the trials and tribulations of Life, part of which involved starting my own company, Ozark Optical Systems, involved in optical systems design, manufacture, and production (same type of optical work I've done my entire career, but now I'm the boss and no one can tell me not to sleep at my desk or watch my Navy-trained mouth).
Both Ozark Optical Systems and Pictoriographica are now housed in a facility large enough to support their expansion over the next several years. I have devoted a section of the facility to dry plate production, complete with new emulsion-making and test rooms as well as coating room. Production of J Lane Dry Plates restarted in November 2025, using the original formulation but adding two stop speed increase so you can meter at ASA 8.
J. Lane Dry Plates resurrect the look of early 1880s un-sensitized silver gelatin emulsions, which were mostly coated by hand using similar methods as mine. This was a critical time in the development and mass marketing of photographic negatives, and many of the world’s first amateur photographers took their first photographs on dry plates very similar to ours. With the advent of sensitized emulsions (orthochromatic, panchromatic) and other advances in emulsion engineering, these original silver gelatin emulsions were lost to time and no longer produced by anyone until today. Even those have gone obsolete, and J. Lane Speed Plates preserve the look of late 1890s Orthochromatic plates. I plan to offer these emulsions for as long as there is an interest, filling the hole in photography that has been left behind in the name of progress.
About Jason Lane:
I am an optical engineer by profession, the vast majority of my career working as a lens designer and imaging systems engineer. I have designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested optics and imaging systems for over 25 years in various industries. My optics have been fielded in the ocean depths, the reaches of outer space, and everywhere in between. As a professional working on the cutting edge of modern technology, analog photography has always provided me a break from the high-tech technologies that I work with on a daily basis. My involvement in dry plate photography fits my personality well: A hands-on tinkerer with the technical background to get consistent, successful results.
I am a member of the Royal Photographic Society, the Optical Society (OSA), a lifetime member of the International Society for Photonics and Optics (SPIE), and a couple of other professional societies which I cannot remember off the top of my head. I've also published papers on optics and hold a handful of patents in the field of optics and imaging systems. I founded my own business - Ozark Optical Systems - in September 2024 to more effectively pursue my passion for optics as best I saw fit. The ongoing success of this business provided the resources and facilities to restart Pictoriographica production so that I can provide you the opportunity to experience the fascinating world of dry plate photography.
In December 2017, after 2 ½ years of working with dry plate, I decided to put three boxes of 4x5 plates up for sale in the classified section of photrio.org. These were extra plates that I didn’t think I would get around to using due to my work schedule. To my surprise, the boxes sold in 15 minutes and I was inundated with requests for more. Thus, Pictoriographica spontaneously came into being over Christmas break, 2017. I spent my vacation time from my day job coating plates day and night, clearing out space in the basement to create a production area, and scrambling to find packing boxes to ship the plates out. The support and interest from the photographic community has continued to grow since that unexpected start, and it has been great to help re-establish dry plate as a viable alternative photographic process.
Pictoriographica manufactured Dry Plates out of Brookline, New Hampshire until June 2022. During that time, Pictoriographica grew to employ 10 part-time technicians, some of who helped make the dry plates and some who helped start and run Photo Retro, the public darkroom located in Amherst, NH.
In the summer of 2022, I moved back to Arkansas where I had been born and raised. The dry plate business was shelved while I focused on the trials and tribulations of Life, part of which involved starting my own company, Ozark Optical Systems, involved in optical systems design, manufacture, and production (same type of optical work I've done my entire career, but now I'm the boss and no one can tell me not to sleep at my desk or watch my Navy-trained mouth).
Both Ozark Optical Systems and Pictoriographica are now housed in a facility large enough to support their expansion over the next several years. I have devoted a section of the facility to dry plate production, complete with new emulsion-making and test rooms as well as coating room. Production of J Lane Dry Plates restarted in November 2025, using the original formulation but adding two stop speed increase so you can meter at ASA 8.
J. Lane Dry Plates resurrect the look of early 1880s un-sensitized silver gelatin emulsions, which were mostly coated by hand using similar methods as mine. This was a critical time in the development and mass marketing of photographic negatives, and many of the world’s first amateur photographers took their first photographs on dry plates very similar to ours. With the advent of sensitized emulsions (orthochromatic, panchromatic) and other advances in emulsion engineering, these original silver gelatin emulsions were lost to time and no longer produced by anyone until today. Even those have gone obsolete, and J. Lane Speed Plates preserve the look of late 1890s Orthochromatic plates. I plan to offer these emulsions for as long as there is an interest, filling the hole in photography that has been left behind in the name of progress.
About Jason Lane:
I am an optical engineer by profession, the vast majority of my career working as a lens designer and imaging systems engineer. I have designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested optics and imaging systems for over 25 years in various industries. My optics have been fielded in the ocean depths, the reaches of outer space, and everywhere in between. As a professional working on the cutting edge of modern technology, analog photography has always provided me a break from the high-tech technologies that I work with on a daily basis. My involvement in dry plate photography fits my personality well: A hands-on tinkerer with the technical background to get consistent, successful results.
I am a member of the Royal Photographic Society, the Optical Society (OSA), a lifetime member of the International Society for Photonics and Optics (SPIE), and a couple of other professional societies which I cannot remember off the top of my head. I've also published papers on optics and hold a handful of patents in the field of optics and imaging systems. I founded my own business - Ozark Optical Systems - in September 2024 to more effectively pursue my passion for optics as best I saw fit. The ongoing success of this business provided the resources and facilities to restart Pictoriographica production so that I can provide you the opportunity to experience the fascinating world of dry plate photography.