Darkroom Books

Messages
3,817
Name
Carl
Edit My Images
Yes
Carl Hall submitted a new resource:

Darkroom Books - Darkroom Books

Hi all, I’m after a bit of advice about books. I’m currently trying to learn about traditional photography techniques and processes as I’d like to eventually print my own photos as well as scan them. Just curious if anyone has any can recommend any books that they've found particularly useful, specifically about developing and printing? I've found a lot of books in the internet but there are loads to choose from and I’m sure some are a little outdated now. If anyone has any recommendations then hopefully I’ll be able to pick them up cheap from one of the second hand book websites around, and I’ll be printing before I know it :D

Cheers!

Carl

Mod Edit: Please check the Resource discussion pages for lots of recommendations regarding this subject (y)

Read more about this resource...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ansel Adams, "The Negative" and "The Print" are kind of the scripture of the process. There may be better how-to books, and the zone system is more suitable for sheet film than roll film, but everyone will recommend those two anyway.
 
I don't think much has changed in the field of darkroom work for at least fifty years, except the names of specific developers, so I wouldnt worry about a book being out of date. I'll check some titles on my shelves and post again later on.
 
The darkroom handbook by Michael Langford. Covers everything and more :)
 
It's well worth scoring the charity shops. I keep coming across old photography books that cover D&P.
 
I have a softback book called "Developing, printing ,and enlarging", by Kodak. 96 pages published in 1980


Here are two example books which are generally about photography, in the days when that meant film photography, and have sections on darkroom work.

  • The Amateur Photographer Handbook, published by Hamlyn, no author stated. My copy was published in 1987 but this title was re-published several times. About 150 pages on darkroom work. I paid £1 in a charity shop.

  • The Photographers Handbook, by John Hedgecoe, who published several general photography books. About 50 pages on darkroom. Paid £1 at a charity shop.
I had a book called "the black and white handbook" by Roger Hicks and Frances Shultz which was good but I donated that back to the same charity shop I bought it from.

"John Blakemores' Black and White Photography Workshop" - got this out of the library and it is worth buying.

The Ansel Adams books are classics which you will probably get at some point, but they are a bit heavy for a beginner, and I would caution against too much "reading ahead" - I think you learn more by reading a little, getting some practice, reading a bit more, practicing some more, etc
 
"The Negative" by Ansel Adams is the holy grail of B&W film development.It is not best to start with that book though,The Darkroom Handbook by Langford is the best one to get started with. For an easier read than "The negative" by Ansel Adams there was a book called " The zone system for 35mm photographers" by Carson Graves. If you can get that it will help tremendously in the exposing and developing of B&W photos. For Colour I never found any single book that was good. If you want to know about colour ask on here and you will probably get better advice then any book.Colour printing is a lot more difficult than B&W.
 
Ansel Adams certainly; I'd throw in "Way Beyond Monochrome" and Ctein's "Post Exposure". The latter is out of print, but was certainly recently available as a free pdf download. There's a lot of otherwise hard to find info in it. I've probably got a couple of dozen or more books on darkroom work (make that three dozen of more, as I remembered a load more while typing) but those two and Adams are the ones I'd start with as a basis. If you want to get into B&W darkroom printing, Carson Grave's book is the one I wish had been written when I started. I can supply fuller details if needed, but at the moment I have a cat on my lap that makes typing difficult and getting up to verify reference impossible :D
 
I'd also recommend Gene Nocon's Photographic Printing
 
Ansel Adams, "The Negative" and "The Print" are kind of the scripture of the process. There may be better how-to books, and the zone system is more suitable for sheet film than roll film, but everyone will recommend those two anyway.

I had a feeling the Ansel Adams books might get recommended lol. I've added them to my list but they seem to go for quite a bit so I'll keep an eye out for any bargains
 
I have a softback book called "Developing, printing ,and enlarging", by Kodak. 96 pages published in 1980


Here are two example books which are generally about photography, in the days when that meant film photography, and have sections on darkroom work.

  • The Amateur Photographer Handbook, published by Hamlyn, no author stated. My copy was published in 1987 but this title was re-published several times. About 150 pages on darkroom work. I paid £1 in a charity shop.

  • The Photographers Handbook, by John Hedgecoe, who published several general photography books. About 50 pages on darkroom. Paid £1 at a charity shop.
I had a book called "the black and white handbook" by Roger Hicks and Frances Shultz which was good but I donated that back to the same charity shop I bought it from.

"John Blakemores' Black and White Photography Workshop" - got this out of the library and it is worth buying.

The Ansel Adams books are classics which you will probably get at some point, but they are a bit heavy for a beginner, and I would caution against too much "reading ahead" - I think you learn more by reading a little, getting some practice, reading a bit more, practicing some more, etc

Brilliant, thanks :) I will keep an eye out for these books as well.
 
"The Negative" by Ansel Adams is the holy grail of B&W film development.It is not best to start with that book though,The Darkroom Handbook by Langford is the best one to get started with. For an easier read than "The negative" by Ansel Adams there was a book called " The zone system for 35mm photographers" by Carson Graves. If you can get that it will help tremendously in the exposing and developing of B&W photos. For Colour I never found any single book that was good. If you want to know about colour ask on here and you will probably get better advice then any book.Colour printing is a lot more difficult than B&W.

For the moment I'm going to stick to black and white (which is confusing me enough at the moment!). I have added Carson Graves book to my list too :)
 
Ansel Adams certainly; I'd throw in "Way Beyond Monochrome" and Ctein's "Post Exposure". The latter is out of print, but was certainly recently available as a free pdf download. There's a lot of otherwise hard to find info in it. I've probably got a couple of dozen or more books on darkroom work (make that three dozen of more, as I remembered a load more while typing) but those two and Adams are the ones I'd start with as a basis. If you want to get into B&W darkroom printing, Carson Grave's book is the one I wish had been written when I started. I can supply fuller details if needed, but at the moment I have a cat on my lap that makes typing difficult and getting up to verify reference impossible :D

Is the book called "The Elements of Black and White Printing" by any chance? I've had a look for books that he's printed and it gets great reviews
 
Ok, so my list is quite big now lol. So far I have:

Michael Langford: The Darkroom Handbook PURCHASED
Ansel Adams: The Negative
Ansel Adams: The Print
Ralph Lambrecht: Way Beyond Monochrome
Ctein: Post Exposure
The Amateur Photographers Handbook (published by Hamlyn) - PURCHASED
John Hedgecoe: The Photographers Handbook - PURCHASED
John Blakemore: Black and White Photography Workshop
Carson Graves: Zone System for 35mm Photographers - PURCHASED
Carson Graves: The Elements of Black and White Photography
Gene Nocon: Photographic Printing - PURCHASED

A quick look on amazon and I've got he Amateur Photographers Handbook, The Photographers Handbook, Zone System for 35mm Photographers, Photographic Printing and The Darkroom Handbook for the tidy sum of £16.95 delivered :)

Now to find an enlarger :D:D:D
 
There are pdf copies of the Adams books on the net, I don't have the links to hand but a quick Google search should find them.
 
Is the book called "The Elements of Black and White Printing" by any chance? I've had a look for books that he's printed and it gets great reviews

That's the one.
 
Ok, so my list is quite big now lol. So far I have:

Michael Langford: The Darkroom Handbook PURCHASED
Ansel Adams: The Negative
Ansel Adams: The Print
Ralph Lambrecht: Way Beyond Monochrome
Ctein: Post Exposure
The Amateur Photographers Handbook (published by Hamlyn) - PURCHASED
John Hedgecoe: The Photographers Handbook - PURCHASED
John Blakemore: Black and White Photography Workshop
Carson Graves: Zone System for 35mm Photographers - PURCHASED
Carson Graves: The Elements of Black and White Photography
Gene Nocon: Photographic Printing - PURCHASED

A quick look on amazon and I've got he Amateur Photographers Handbook, The Photographers Handbook, Zone System for 35mm Photographers, Photographic Printing and The Darkroom Handbook for the tidy sum of £16.95 delivered :)

Now to find an enlarger :D:D:D

Wow, someone's seriously been bitten by the film photography bug, eh? :)
 
The pdf for Post Exposure is here; details here.
 
Ok, so my list is quite big now lol. So far I have:

Michael Langford: The Darkroom Handbook PURCHASED
Ansel Adams: The Negative
Ansel Adams: The Print
Ralph Lambrecht: Way Beyond Monochrome
Ctein: Post Exposure
The Amateur Photographers Handbook (published by Hamlyn) - PURCHASED
John Hedgecoe: The Photographers Handbook - PURCHASED
John Blakemore: Black and White Photography Workshop
Carson Graves: Zone System for 35mm Photographers - PURCHASED
Carson Graves: The Elements of Black and White Photography
Gene Nocon: Photographic Printing - PURCHASED

A quick look on amazon and I've got he Amateur Photographers Handbook, The Photographers Handbook, Zone System for 35mm Photographers, Photographic Printing and The Darkroom Handbook for the tidy sum of £16.95 delivered :)

Now to find an enlarger :D:D:D
With enlargers you have condensed light (they have a big lens inside them) or diffused light(they have a box that scatters the light around inside the head. Condensed light is the original way of doing B&W printing and will give a more contrasty print but your negatives have to be in really good condition because condensed light shows up every little scratch especially with 35mm not to bad with medium format. Diffused light is a lot more forgiving if you have scratches on negatives but produces a less contrasty print for the same neg.
 
Wow, someone's seriously been bitten by the film photography bug, eh? :)

Haha yep! :) I blame you though, it all started in February when you commented this on one of my digital photos:

Or you could just pick up a medium format TLR, get this shot in camera with just a single exposure, and completely circumvent the need for any computer?

A Mamiya C220 with an awesome 80mm f/2.8 lens can be had for just over £100, if you're patient.

:D :)
 
With enlargers you have condensed light (they have a big lens inside them) or diffused light(they have a box that scatters the light around inside the head. Condensed light is the original way of doing B&W printing and will give a more contrasty print but your negatives have to be in really good condition because condensed light shows up every little scratch especially with 35mm not to bad with medium format. Diffused light is a lot more forgiving if you have scratches on negatives but produces a less contrasty print for the same neg.

Thanks for that, I had no idea that there were different types of enlargers! I'm going to wait for a suitable one to come up at a cheap price near me (or perhaps post in the "wanted" thread), and in the mean time I'm going to read up on the different types and how they work, so that I don't end up getting a lemon lol
 
Ok, I've added a wanted thread now for an enlarger (in case anyone with one for sale doesn't visit that area but reads this) :)
 
You might be interested in The Film Developing Cookbook even if you have no intention of making up your own developer from basic chemicals. It covers the different types of developer, what they do and why they exist.
 
If it's OK with you Carl (@Carl Hall ) I'd like to drop this thread into the "resources" section, but it may take a little "Mod Edit:" addition in the initial post... There's too much good information in this post to let it just drop back into oblivion, but the subject doesn't come up often enough to really warrant a sticky thread....
 
If it's OK with you Carl (@Carl Hall ) I'd like to drop this thread into the "resources" section, but it may take a little "Mod Edit:" addition in the initial post... There's too much good information in this post to let it just drop back into oblivion, but the subject doesn't come up often enough to really warrant a sticky thread....

Yeah crack on, use or edit anything you want :) hopefully all the nooby questions I ask in this section might help someone else some day :)
 
Yeah crack on, use or edit anything you want :) hopefully all the nooby questions I ask in this section might help someone else some day :)

Cheers, wasn't a massive alteration, just a "look in the discussion bit" for people who find the thread via the Resources section.... ;)
 
For an easier read than "The negative" by Ansel Adams there was a book called " The zone system for 35mm photographers" by Carson Graves. If you can get that it will help tremendously in the exposing and developing of B&W photos.

I bought this book second hand on the strength of this post.

It is brilliant! I would recommend it to anyone with a passion for B+W photography.
 
As a newbie I found these two books good to start out with
Tim Rudman - The Photographer's Master Printing Course
John Hedgecoe -Complete Guide to Black and White Photography
 
These are interesting:

The Film Developing Cookbook (Stephen Anchell/ Bill Troop, Routledge (2015) ISBN 978-0-240-80277-0 but not sure how much it's been updated since the Focal Press edn in 1998 as there are some references in it that seem to belong to the first edition)

The Darkroom Cookbook (Stephen Anchell) ISBN 0-240-80196-2 (not sure of year). I have read reviews of it and people who have it seem to like it.

Only have the Film Developing Cookbook so far but it is a very interesting read, despite the fact I don't even have a darkroom yet! If you want a source of detail for B+W film developing and all the chemistry involved, it's a good one to have on the shelf.

Edge of Darkness: The art, craft and power of the high-definition monochrome photograph (Barry Thornton, Argentum (2000) ISBN 1-902538-09-9). Readable and full of interesting technical knowhow.

I also have Way Beyond Monochrome, which I saw someone above had listed, and The Negative – both interesting and full of useful info for the monochrome darkroom printer.
Cheers,
JD
 
You might be interested in The Film Developing Cookbook even if you have no intention of making up your own developer from basic chemicals. It covers the different types of developer, what they do and why they exist.
Ah – just noticed you'd already mentioned this book, which I've just repeated below. I'd agree – it's a very interesting reference for reading what goes on during development, fixing etc. Good value for money too.
 
The Film Developing Cookbook (Stephen Anchell/ Bill Troop, Routledge (2015) ISBN 978-0-240-80277-0 but not sure how much it's been updated since the Focal Press edn in 1998 as there are some references in it that seem to belong to the first edition)

I've heard rumours that there is a new edition of this coming out early next year though for the most part I doubt much has changed in the last 20 years.
 
Highly recommend Les McLean's Creative Black and White Photography - don't think I saw it mentioned. I've read most of the darkroom books around and I always had this marked down as one of the easiest to digest and a brilliant instruction in B&W darkroom work. Everyone should have this book.

I love the Ansel Adams trilogy (The Camera, The Negative, The Print) but I would save for later on.

Again, "Way Beyond Monochrome" is brilliant, and one of the most complete books on traditional black and white work, recently revised, I have both editions here - but pretty advanced (it does state "Advanced techniques for traditional black and white photography" on the cover) - graphs start cropping up a couple of pages into the first chapter. And there is a whole chapter on masking.
 
John Blakemore: Black and White Photography Workshop
That one. And 'Darkroom', edited by Eleanor Lewis, Lustrum Press, 1977 - which can be found secondhand (I paid £4.50 for my copy) - a range of practitioners are in there. In both these cases the included images themselves may be inspirational, apart from the processes mentioned.

Much older book material will be just as relevant today in terms of process. There've been changes in enlarger technology & the introduction of RC and variable contrast paper, but burning and dodging etc are surely the same? And coincidental with the onset and increasing maturity of digital there seems to have been an increased interest in alternative processes. It's a fertile world!
 
Back
Top