Here is a photo of a man and a woman from the nineteenth century. The photo plate is iron-based and it is opalized. It is North American and possible Midwestern. Can anyone help me with a possible date of the fashions and the technology of the photograph? Thanks in advance.
This is probably from the mid-1840s, mainly because:
The woman's cap, with the side ruffles, is a style that was fashionable in that decade, although it would stick around after that as a kind of default "elderly" cap until the end of the period. After the 1840s a woman who looked this young would never wear one like that.
Her sleeves are long and closely-fitted to the forearm. In the later 1840s, the sleeve would open up at the ends to form a trumpet shape, often filled in with a puffy white undersleeve. The belling and undersleeve would get bigger in the 1850s and wouldn't come back in until around 1865.
Her corset looks very flat-fronted, a style that changed in the later 1850s. Most photos of women in the 1840s show a lot of flattening in the bust - I think the goal was to make the torso look longer.
The man's hair, necktie, and waistcoat all look appropriate to that period as well, although if I just had him to look at I'd probably hedge more and say "1840s-1850s".