Choice Library?

[doughowk]

George Todd - Elements of Black & White Photography: the making of 20 images
John Williams - Image Clarity: high-resolution photography
Just got the two Lustrum Press books on Darkroom, and they contain discussions by various printers of their darkroom techniques.

 

[Sparky]

A few opinions on a handful of books.

1) The Adams trilogy (there are actually five, incl. Camera and Lens, The Negative, The Print, Natural Light Photography, Artificial Light Photography:

These are very good if a little bit propagandist. I don't think they are good books to start out with. A bit too dogmatic and not conducive to creativity. The Zone System is a good way to avoid thinking about making pictures. To be avoided IMO. For starters at least. This goes for other zone system type books. Beyond the Zone System and Zakia/Lorenz's also. It's a cult!

Feininger: Darkrom Techniques: Good, No real problems with it. Not super exciting but a good read nonetheless.

What I WOULD recommend are the following with a short descripton of WHY:

1. L.P. Clerc, Photography: Theory & Practice 1 L.P. Clerc, Photography: Theory & Practice 2

Pretty rare. But you can dig it up on the web. Just phenomenal scope and depth of information. Basically an encyclopaedia. It's older (1954) but that really doesn't matter. Nothing's changed substantially enough since then to be of consequence. Explains the chemical underpinnings of different developer types as well as about the design history/methodology behind famous lenses from the Cooke triplet to the Zeiss Biogon to WHATEVER. It's all here folks. It won't tell you anything about pixels. But that you can dig up later. Cannot recommend highly enough.

2. M.J. Langford, Basic Photography M.J. Langford, Advanced Photography

Just as good (pretty much) as Clerc's books. I have all four in my reference library. Just amazing. There's just enough difference in coverage and opinion between this one and Clerc's to make it worthwhile. Stirs the creative juces like nothing else.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books %26field-keywords%3Dlangford%252520photography%26store-name%3 Dbooks/103-6724156-8535038

3. The Ilford Manual of Photography

Meat and Potatoes!! VERY VERY good. Much covered without going into QUITE the depth of the above books. A working manual/encyclopaedia.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0801956552/qid=1100 925140/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-6724156-8535038?v=glance&s=books

4. Coote, Ilford Monochrome Darkroom Practice: A Manual of Black-And-White Processing and Printing

Different from the Ilford Manual above, but very informative. Excellent scope. Great images. Inspiring.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0240513681/103-6724 156-8535038?v=glance

4. Norman Snyder, The Photography Catalog:The Best Equipment, Materials, Techniques ...

Do not question this - but run out (or online) and GET THIS BOOK NOW!!!! It's a BIT hard to find. Not a manual. Not a how-to book. Nor an encyclopaedia. But the best damn read you'll ever find. A BIT dated (from 1976) but still the most fun, informative overview of the science and art of photography done in the style of The Whole Earth Catalog. Even if you're a veteran like me you'll learn HEAPS from this book. Great section on photographers too! Balanced and just FASCINATING!

http://www.google.com/search?q="photography+catalog"+snyder &hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

Jonathan Green, American Photography

EXCELLENT EXCELLENT overview on the state of modernist (is there any other kind, apart from, perhaps pre-raphaelite) photography. NOT technical. It's about the artists only . GREAT!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0810918145/103-6724 156-8535038?v=glance

 

[BradS]

Another one...

Robert B. Rhode and Floyd H. McCall, Introduction to Photography, (C) 1965 Macmillian Company, NY.

In addition to covering all of the usual topics...The camera, Exposure, Developing the negative, making the Print, etc...this text also contains chapters on Composition, The Nature of Light, and Light as a Language (aka Sensitometry)!

The second edition came out in 1971 and aside from being slightly more readable, it dropped some interesting (well, to me at least) material on figuring exposures and replaced it with an about equal number of pages on automatic exposure, which, I guess must have seemed appropriate at the time. Ther is a third edition as well. I've not seen it. I much prefer the first edition. Apparently not a big seller, this one is getting harder to find in decent condition.

 

[Jim Chinn]

I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but Adams- "Examples: The making of 40 Photographs" is a companion to the revised 3 volume photography set and references technical details by volume and page number in each example. In some ways this book is more of a must have for the LF shooter then any of his technical books.

This book also seems to have had a great impact on how others describe their own work and methods. You find Adam's style of narrative evident in a great number of other photographers' writing.

 

[Michael A. Smith]

All the formulas you could ever want can be found in copies of the Photo Lab Index by Morgan and Morgan. They were updated yearly. Try to find one from the 1960s or early 1970s.

Also The Handbook of Photography by Henney and Dudley from the 1939 is the most single most complete book on technical things there is.

Of the 50 or so technical books in my library, these are the only two I have referred to for many, many years. (In 1970 I taught Photographic Theory and Technique and had to buy all of these books to learn about what I was teaching. Being a self-taught photographer I knew nothing about this stuff when I was hired by a very high-end art school. I knew I had succeeded when, after the final exam, the best student, who had already graduated with a degree in engineering from Carnegie Tech and who knew far more than I did, asked me if I had gone to RIT. I shouted an inwardly loud, but outwardly silent, "Yes!")

I wondered if the Henney and Dudley book was still available and checked at bookfinder.com. Many copies available. Some quite reasonably priced. On a whim I bought a copy for Richard Boutwelll, our assistant.

 

[c6h6o3]

On a whim I bought a copy for Richard Boutwelll, our assistant.

...as if he needs it. That's a little like buying Gauss a numerical methods text.