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

Whatever your interest in making prints, there is no reason not to desire to make them of the best quality. If I photograph something to help to make the subject more memorable by a simple record shot, or by whatever embellishment I might bring to it by photographic expertise, is nobody's business but my own. As an Aero Space Engineer (30 years with NACA-NASA) I was interested in fidelity of the data represented by the photo. As a musician (so was A. A.) I was interested in what might be called the accompaniment to the image.

I started with the instructions that came with the film and printing paper kits that I bought at the local drugstore. This was about 70 years ago. At NASA, I had access to a Confidential book that was a compilation and translation from Russian of a number ot articles on photographic techniques that were originally translated from English to Russian.

Every painter learns the basis of his art either from experience or through instruction from a master. Da Vinci once told a person how to carve a realistic statue of an elephant:"Get a very large block of marble and cut away anything that does not look like an elephant." Sounds like good advice to me.

For someone wanting to learn printing I would recommend The Elements of Black and White Printing: Going Beyond the Basics by Carson Graves.

In a red binder I purchased in 1973 titled, "Kodak Technical Information," a series of booklets on photography that I have read over and over through the years. Here is the order I put them into the binder:

"Professional Portrait Techniques,"
"Printing Color Negatives,"
"Kodak Color Films,"
"Copying,"
"Kodak B/W Photographic Papers,"
"Kodak Professional Black-And-White Films,"
"Printing Color Slides and Larger Transparencies,"

My first booklet was, "Printing Color Slides and Larger Transparencies," as that was information I was interested in learning. I thought it was very well written so I went back to the camera store (Brown Photo) and bought them all with the binder. They were expensive, $20.00 for the entire set.

Some of the information is not pertinent anymore.

At any rate, since I'm nostalgic for the good old days and I'm using a little more film again it's kind of nice to re-read information that helped me in the 1970's.

The books l learned the most from in college during the early 90s:
1) The Kodak Black-and-White Darkroom Dataguide (Kodak, 1988)
2) Photography, 4th edition, by Upton & Upton (Harper Collins, 1989)
3) The Darkroom Book, edited by Jack Schofield (Amphoto, 1981)

pgomena said:

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

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+1 on the Fred Picker Zone VI Workshop book (out of print, but often available used) and Ansel Adams' book series. Fred Picker can be quite dogmatic at times but the "Zone VI Workshop" book is brief and well written. Picker's own photos often leave me cold but the book is purely a technique/craft book. Ansel's 40 examples book is also very informative and his photos are in a different league in my estimation.