Is there a good book on the science/details of photo chemistry?

markaudacity

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I'd like to learn more about the chemical processes behind developing film, particularly the actions of different developing agents and their effects. Learning this stuff in drips and drabs from forum posts and personal websites results in knowledge that is both incomplete and likely has misinformation and error baked in.

Surely there is at least one authoritative book on the subject, and I'd like to get a copy.
 

pentaxuser

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What depth of knowledge are you looking for and what is your present knowledge of chemistry and specifically photographic chemistry are the two things that might be helpful to know before we are able to specify the right book(s)

koraks link is maybe the bible but from a quick look it consists of over eleven hundred pages. Is that the kind of level of knowledge that you are looking for?


pentaxuser
 

Milpool

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There are several - however keep in mind they are all relatively old, and since they were written by people working at Kodak, Ilford... they could not disclose the latest/greatest, but you'll still get a lot of good information. My preferences would be the last version of Theory of the Photographic Process (T.H. James) or Modern Photographic Processing (Grant Haist). These are both from the late 1970s.

 

Alan Johnson

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The most recent overview of what B/W photo chemicals do and why, but not actually going into the chemistry of each developer:
The Film Developing Cookbook ,second edition, 2020, Bill Troop with Steve Anchell.
Note that AFAIK there are no books covering the fundamental chemistry , eg role of semiquinones etc, of recently discovered developers such as ascorbate based developers or pyrogallol/pyrocatechin based developers that have come into use since about 1998. Best search Photrio for what exists on these.

Some earlier books covering fundamental chemistry of metol, phenidone, hydroquinone, p-aminophenol, phenylenediamines etc:
Photographic Processing Chemistry, second edition,1975, LFA Mason [head of processing chemistry research at Ilford].
The Theory of The Photographic Process, third edition,1966, CEK Mees [formerly head of research at Kodak] and TH James.[There was a later fourth edition of this title.]
Photographic Chemistry, Pierre Glafkides: [Be sure to cancel recurring subscription if wanted for free]

A good introduction: Basic Photo Science, second edition 1977, HJ Walls, GG Attridge, a UK book not widely known.

Also covering color:

The Chemistry of Photography From Classical to Digital Technologies : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The Chemistry of Photography From Classical to Digital Technologies
archive.org
 
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MattKing

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markaudacity

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pentaxuser said:
What depth of knowledge are you looking for and what is your present knowledge of chemistry and specifically photographic chemistry are the two things that might be helpful to know before we are able to specify the right book(s)
Click to expand...
My present chemistry knowledge is college-freshman level, and I'm looking mainly for practical understanding, IE, compound Y does thing X in photochemical application Z, more than needing to know what's going on at the atomic level.

Technical but not academic-level theory, is I suppose how I would put it.

Milpool said:
There are several - however keep in mind they are all relatively old, and since they were written by people working at Kodak, Ilford... they could not disclose the latest/greatest, but you'll still get a lot of good information.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, that should cover most of the major/most common developer formulations, yes?
 

Milpool

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Yes. The caveat is like I said earlier they won’t get into all the latest “technology” Kodak developed with respect to colour developers (which is applicable to B&W although not widely commercialized) and there isn’t a lot about ascorbates in Haist. But you can’t do much better for the major/most common B&W developers. Then depending on how far you want to go you can supplement by reading patent/research literature.
markaudacity said:
As far as I know, that should cover most of the major/most common developer formulations, yes?
Click to expand...
 

Augustus Caesar

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Developing by Jacobson. It's a bit old, but just what you need!
 

Mick Fagan

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I have The Theory of the Photographic Process, Mees revised edition, as well as Developing, Jacobson & Jacobson 18th revised edition.

I would suggest the Developing book by Jacobson & Jacobson will suit your purposes very well. I've had my version for well over 40 years and still refer to it every now and then. Having looked at the online version, which I didn't know existed, I would still get the book in your hot little hands. Instantly available, can be read anywhere anytime and extremely portable.
 

DeletedAcct1

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Another vote for Modern Photographic Processing, vol 1 and 2, by Grant Haist
 

albada

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For that level of understanding, The Film Developing Cookbook (by Troop and Anchell) is appropriate. The second edition is most recent.

Mark
 
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