Please submit any troubleshooting tips — particularly topics that have come up on Facebook — via the Contact Form below.
The Wet Plate Collodion Forum (Quinn Jacobson) has several boards dedicated to troubleshooting
Trouble Shooting (Peeling, lifting, comets, etc.; Lund Photographics)
How to Locate a Leak in a View Camera (by Borut Peterlin):
White Spots on a Varnished Plate (example by Adrian Whipp):
This is caused by water reacting with sandarac varnish. This downside of sandarac was noted by A.K.P. Trask in The Practical Ferrotyper (Philadelphia, 1872):
“Some use gum sandarac for varnish;but it has one fault, which
I call a serious one and very injurious to the trade, namely, any
dampness coming in contact with the picture will cause it to
turn a milky white, sometimes spreading over the whole picture, completely obliterating it.”