Film book recommendations?

dylan77 · Nov 11, 2020

I am looking for any recommendations on film photography books, That relate to exposure and ideally rating different film stocks such as portra 400.

I have a meter on my camera that I use, though this may be helpful as well

Thanks

bdial · Nov 11, 2020

Fred Picker, Zone VI Workshop It's a short book with an easy to understand explanation of relating tonality to exposure. It's mostly oriented to B&W work, but the principals apply to color too. It's long out of print, but copies aren't super difficult to find, though you'll probably need to order it from over the pond somewhere.

jeffreyg · Nov 11, 2020

Check out "Way Beyond Monochrome" by Ralph Lambrecht an APUG member. It's an encyclopedia of information.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/
http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 11, 2020

dylan77 said:
I am looking for any recommendations on film photography books, That relate to exposure and ideally rating different film stocks such as portra 400.

I have a meter on my camera that I use, though this may be helpful as well

Thanks

Not sure what you are asking for. If you're shooting primarily color, most of the B&W targeted books, which far outweigh anything ever written on color, are not all that helpful. And, you have a camera with meter? What camera? Perhaps good enough to skip a printed lecture and start shooting?

dylan77 · Nov 11, 2020

Witold said:
Not sure what you are asking for. If you're shooting primarily color, most of the B&W targeted books, which far outweigh anything ever written on color, are not all that helpful.

I want to see how colour film responds in different lighting conditions etc, with examples so yes black and white won’t help here

And, you have a camera with meter? What camera?
Nikon f100

Perhaps good enough to skip a printed lecture and start shooting?

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 11, 2020

So camera wise and its meter is all you need, so long as it all works as designed. I'm not going to pretend I know color in your context, so can't help on this one. But, if you search say flickr for color film (with films still available) you can see how they differ in color rendering, and there are significant differences. It will give you better idea of what look you like than any book ever will. Sure monitor has to be fairly close to calibrated state, but once you look up shots on different films, you will see right away how they differ.

Louis Nargi · Nov 11, 2020

I found A.A. books were excellent the Camera, The Negative , The Print.

BrianShaw · Nov 11, 2020

Perfect Exposure: A Practical Guide for All Photographers https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817453989/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_MsiRFbCN0VGQK

AgX · Nov 12, 2020

I am into books but do not know one that fulfills the OP's requirements. More so as in the times of books there was a great fluctuation at colour films and it made not that much sense to describe in detail films and their look or colour rendition in a book. That was done at photo magazines. I do not know of such current book either.

jay moussy · Nov 12, 2020

BrianShaw said:
Perfect Exposure: A Practical Guide for All Photographers https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817453989/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_MsiRFbCN0VGQK

Quick question: there seem to be a 1999 and a 204 edition, out there (and misleading cover illustration, check print date!)
Any reason one would be better than the other?

Oddly, not found on my local library network in MA - they really culled the analog photo stuff, maybe on account of low circulation stats, as now practiced?

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 12, 2020

jay moussy said:
Quick question: there seem to be a 1999 and a 204 edition, out there (and misleading cover illustration, check print date!)
Any reason one would be better than the other?

Oddly, not found on my local library network in MA - they really culled the analog photo stuff, maybe on account of low circulation stats, as now practiced?

If you read reviews on Amazon it will give you a wide spread opinions. I don't have the book, but I do have memories of posts by Mr. Hicks. I'd skip every book he's ever written, so I do believe reviewers who skewer the content as being incomplete, artificial and not what the title would have one believe. Certainly the only way to tell would be to flip through one. There are great books on black and white techniques, most of which hardly applies to color photography (in spite of cute lines referring to "color zone system").

So for B&W I would put in front of everything else one by John Schaefer "How to use the Zone System for Fine Black & White Photography" . This is the most compacted version of most everything to know about every step from start to finish about B&W photography. I have not seen another book that covers pretty much everything, in more than sufficient detail, and in so few pages. Think of John Schaefer as Ansel's assistant to put some weight on the content, think of AA's tri-tome widely considered standard, then imagine that John Schaefer managed to get the 3 books into one that is about half size of one of them, condense all info from AA and then some, then explain it all in a much easier format, and you have what appears to be one of a kind and would be of help to photographers at every level.

keep in mind that despite Zone System being in the title, there is a lot more outside of it. It is in fact a general book on B&W photography techniques with ZS being just part of it.

removed account4 · Nov 12, 2020

Hi dylan77

I hate to say this, but I think the best way to do this thing you are asking is to buy a bunch 35mm film and just shoot it. I wouldn't spread yourself too thin, get one film stock and bracket expose it, send I too 2 different labs or process the film yourself .. and look at how it looks. Don't use more than 1 camera, stick to 1 camera and just expose, get used to the film play with it. I suggest 2 different labs ( if you have 2 labs still ). because different labs might process the film differently so you get the added extra of processing, not just exposure and lens work. I was going to suggest going on IG or Flickr and typing in whatever film stocks you wanted to see how they looked as tags-searches, but you know the internet, and the modern age. Who knows if the poster played with things in "post production" so I will loosely suggest look at Flickr or IG just to see what's there. regarding how to expose film, IDK if you have previous experience using a dslr that is translatable to shooting chromes, because of the slim latitude of exposure, shooting color negative film is its own beast. It doesn't really commingle with B+W very much because well or slides, its different.
Don't forget to have fun.
John

BrianShaw · Nov 12, 2020

jay moussy said:
Quick question: there seem to be a 1999 and a 204 edition, out there (and misleading cover illustration, check print date!)
Any reason one would be better than the other?

Oddly, not found on my local library network in MA - they really culled the analog photo stuff, maybe on account of low circulation stats, as now practiced?

Not sure of the differences between editions, and in general newer is more current. Roger was a quirky man and wrote quirky books. I bought my copy after practicing photography for decades and still found parts of the book useful. One good thing is that you, like me, can buy a copy for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee.

dylan77 · Nov 13, 2020

jnantz said:
Hi dylan77

I hate to say this, but I think the best way to do this thing you are asking is to buy a bunch 35mm film and just shoot it. I wouldn't spread yourself too thin, get one film stock and bracket expose it, send I too 2 different labs or process the film yourself .. and look at how it looks. Don't use more than 1 camera, stick to 1 camera and just expose, get used to the film play with it. I suggest 2 different labs ( if you have 2 labs still ). because different labs might process the film differently so you get the added extra of processing, not just exposure and lens work. I was going to suggest going on IG or Flickr and typing in whatever film stocks you wanted to see how they looked as tags-searches, but you know the internet, and the modern age. Who knows if the poster played with things in "post production" so I will loosely suggest look at Flickr or IG just to see what's there. regarding how to expose film, IDK if you have previous experience using a dslr that is translatable to shooting chromes, because of the slim latitude of exposure, shooting color negative film is its own beast. It doesn't really commingle with B+W very much because well or slides, its different.
Don't forget to have fun.
John

Thanks. This is very helpful

Film book recommendations?

Deleted member 88956

Deleted member 88956

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