What book or books are the foundation for your film and print developing?

[RalphLambrecht]

craft lol, a crap boring picture printed well is still crap.

just shoot from a interesting perspective dont worry about craft, leave that to the scrapbookers, middle age women waiting to retire and die.

cathedral roofs, lonely little abandoned houses, tree in field, moody sky shots, flowers (make me sick), passport photo portraits lol, sheep, bird in distance , wine/champagne bottle, water reflections. ......just shoot me im feeling sick

Before you find someone fulfilling your repeated death wish, may we see your photographic work?

 

[paulie]

yeah sure i live in the jordaan amsterdam. im free tomorow but i dont wake until 1 pm so anytime after that

i dont do digital or have any scans or fikrcrrcr tweet accounts , but i do have a small collection of contacts on paper mainly using the most short lived salt paper processes . i lust after the temporary images. here today gone tomorrow

sometimes i will create a picture for just a week and then destroy the print and neg

because i just dont give a damn

 

[RalphLambrecht]

yeah sure i live in the jordaan amsterdam. im free tomorow but i dont wake until 1 pm so anytime after that

i dont do digital or have any scans or fikrcrrcr tweet accounts , but i do have a small collection of contacts on paper mainly using the most short lived salt paper processes . i lust after the temporary images. here today gone tomorrow

sometimes i will create a picture for just a week and then destroy the print and neg

because i just dont give a damn

Paulie

I'm sure you will make APUG a livelier place. If you are really interested in temporary images (here today, gone tomorrow), consider to skip fixing, but careful, we are talking craft already.

 

[paulie]

there a difference between craft and a process. wouldnt you say?

so 1pm ok for you?

 

[KenR]

Vestal's book was my bible when I was learning to develop and print my own negatives. Even now, many years later, I occationally open it up and still find pearls in it.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

there a difference between craft and a process. wouldnt you say?

so 1pm ok for you?

A good craftsman is in control of the process.

No, I can't make it tomorrow. I'll wait for your online debut.

 

[paulie]

Vestal's book was my bible when I was learning to develop and print my own negatives. Even now, many years later, I occasionally open it up and still find pearls in it.

natural or cultivated?

had to correct your spelling lol

 

[Alan W]

Sully,there was a complete Time Life photography series published in the early seventies that I've seen several times and bought(once).Various copies show up at my local secondhand bookstore and are never more than one dollar per volume,titles include"The Camera" "The Negative" "Photojournalism" etc.This set of books is truly valuable and enlightening.Well written,beautiful quality paper,an all round good time!

 

[Sully75]

reading books about creativity is uncreative, at best you will be a clone of what went before. surely photography is about individuality and finding a look or approach which is unique and not predetermined by the crappy zone system and ansel adams boring pictures.

do yourself a favor and covet your creative accidents , use them as a strength and not as your weakness. thius way you might just create something original for once.

and for gods sakes stay away from rocks on beaches ,fence posts, fluffy clouds, random fruit, tree roots, tractor wheels, tea cups, etc etc etc these pictures make me want to kill myself

yeah that's great except I asked for books about exposing and developing film.

 

[paulie]

yeah that's great except I asked for books about exposing and developing film.

well the box your film came in will have that info

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Categorically stating that certain subjects should not be the concern of photography is verging on the absurd.

Tom

 

[pgomena]

Fred Picker's Zone VI Workshop, Beyond the Zone System by Phil Davis, Adams' series. You don't need many more texts than those. Picker's little book, although poorly organized in places, was the first text I read that explained how a light meter worked and why I had been misusing one for years.

Peter Gomena

 

[rorye]

Gene Nocon's "Photographic Printing" is a favourite of mine. I still go back to it after 20 years.

 

[ulysses]

Very easy, Developing by Kurt Jacobson, which ran to 18 editions, and is still the best book on the subject along with his other book Enlarging.

Ian.

Ian,

This is a book I picked up over 40 years ago, then lost somewhere along the way. Recently I picked up a copy of the 1948 edition on eBay, and I'm thrilled to have it again. Wonder perspective, and the formulae are still very useful. Interesting as history, and instructive as well. I'm glad to hear someone else appreciates it as well. I think my original was a similar vintage to the one I have now. Are later editions any different?

Ulysses

 

[Allen Friday]

I have a number of books which were very helpful at different times in my photographic journey. Nevertheless, the following books are ones I re-read every year or two:

Art and Fear

Light: Science and Magic

The Edge of Darkness

 

[ozphoto]

I too read (and re-read) AA's trilogy - gave me a good grounding for my process and print work.
Kodak's B&W Darkroom Techniques was a good read as well

http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-D...=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273295240&sr=1-9

 

[Ian Grant]

Ian,

This is a book I picked up over 40 years ago, then lost somewhere along the way. Recently I picked up a copy of the 1948 edition on eBay, and I'm thrilled to have it again. Wonder perspective, and the formulae are still very useful. Interesting as history, and instructive as well. I'm glad to hear someone else appreciates it as well. I think my original was a similar vintage to the one I have now. Are later editions any different?

Ulysses

Yes the later 18th edition is different and far more comprehensive, I have that and a 1941 edition, and similar aged versions of Enlarging, it's worth having the last versions.

The 3rd Edition of the Darkroom Cookbook by Steve Anchell has moved closer to being a modern replacement.

I'd add that most of the books mention by others in this thread were either not written or not available in the UK when I firts became seriously involved in photography.

Ian

 

[TimmyMac]

self taught, from the internet - you fine folks included. I'm still new to this nonsense though.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

I'll chime in just because I haven't seen some of my formative books here. I should mention that I am a complete autodidact. I took one workshop once with a Minor White student who only said, "nice prints, why did you make them?"

I started out on the afore-mentioned Time-Life series, which my father owned. That was in my early teens. When I got "serious," I read the Ansel Adams pentology ;-) That was the old 5-part "Basic Photography Series," which was anything but basic. The newer trilogy has a lot less math and theory. Although I don't derive foot-candles from meter readings (and never did), the grounding in theory in the old series was great.

The basis for all my Zone System testing to this day comes from the Minor White/Peter Lorenz "The New Zone System Manual." I still derive film speed and development times and still make Zone Rulers for new film/paper combinations using the visual method they outline.

Supplement the above with Ctein, Rudman (not as helpful as I would have thought), Troop/Anchel (both "Cookbooks"), and many others. One picks up bits and pieces all over; magazines, forums, libraries,

And, let's not forget this particular forum. Although one has to "filter" a bit on a public forum, I consider the information from PE, Ralph Lambrecht, Ian Grant and many, many others to be invaluable.

Best,

Doremus Scudder
www.DoremusScudder.com

 

[Anscojohn]

craft lol, a crap boring picture printed well is still crap.

just shoot from a interesting perspective dont worry about craft, leave that to the scrapbookers, middle age women waiting to retire and die.

cathedral roofs, lonely little abandoned houses, tree in field, moody sky shots, flowers (make me sick), passport photo portraits lol, sheep, bird in distance , wine/champagne bottle, water reflections. ......just shoot me im feeling sick

***********
These comments remind me of a statement made to me by a mentor many years ago: "You think you're bein' creative when all yer doin' is makin' a mess."

 

[Anscojohn]

The Weston meter instruction manuals; 1948 US Navy manual "Photography;" the Adams books; Darkroom (Nr. 1), edited by Eleanor Lewis.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Honestly, my darkroom foundation has been APUG. I expound through other litereature, but it all started right here and nowhere else.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

***********
These comments remind me of a statement made to me by a mentor many years ago: "You think you're bein' creative when all yer doin' is makin' a mess."

Well said. Some people confuse 'creative' with 'just trying to be different'.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Honestly, my darkroom foundation has been APUG. I expound through other litereature, but it all started right here and nowhere else.

That makes me said. I've got to stop posting then.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

What, got sell more books? Heck, even you have helped a little, Ralph. ;p

And I appreciate EVERY bit of it.