First darkroom book recommendations

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Hi,

I'm just starting to do B&W with some regularity and I want to start doing the whole process. I have access to a darkroom with some very excellent equipment (Durst Enlarger, Ilford processor, negative drier, etc) but nobody to really show me how its done. I'm looking for a book that will give me as detailed a description as possible of the whole process.

Any recommendations from the pros for the book you started with?

Thanks,

ben

-- Ben Grosser (grosser@uiuc.edu), December 07, 1999

Answers

For a beginner I'd recommend Henry Horenstein's "Basic Photography in Black and White" (I am not 100% sure of the title). It has fairly informative and easy to read explanations of the process and does not delve into jargon.

Apart from that, Tim Rudman's "The Photographer's Master Printing Course" is quite good.

Ansel Adams' volumes, while good, can appear pedantic.

-- Tim (Timothy_Bolotnikoff@justice.qld.gov.au), December 07, 1999.


For B&W, I'd try Fred Pickers "Zone VI Workshop". He covers it from start to finish. Although directed more to LF, he covers 35mm also, and has lots of good advice about printing.

-- Alec Jones (alecj@bellsouth.net), December 07, 1999.

"The Elements of Black-and-White Printing" by Carson Graves would be my first choice for learning to print. The latest edition (6th?) of "Photography" by London and Upton is the best overall introduction to a wide variety of matters photographic, including film processing. (BTW, Graves' book on the Zone System is not a first choice on that subject.) njb

-- Nacio Brown (njb@limn.net), December 08, 1999.

Although it's not a darkroom book, I would recommend "The Black-and-White Handbook - The Ultimate Guide to Monochrome Technique" by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz. It is a really comprehensive work on almost all practical aspects of b&w photography.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), December 09, 1999.

The classic work is by Lootens.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), December 09, 1999.


i had found carson graves' belaboured and pedantic prose, boring to say the least, and hicks and schultz's book, highly insipid. i'd strongly recommend tim rudman. his book is a real gem. try it.

-- hoko hoko (photoq@hotmail.com), December 19, 1999.

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