Must-Have Darkroom Books and References

[Dave Gustafson]

I thought it would be interesting to put together a list of what people have found to be there most used manual or reference for darkroom work. The ones you go back to the most often.

The three I use the most:

• The Expressive Black and White Print by John Sexton. It's kind of a cheat since you have to take his workshop to get it!
• Creative Elements: Darkroom Techniques for Landscape Photography by Eddie Ephraums
• The Darkroom Cookbook by Steve Anchell

What are your favorites?

 

[David Brown]

Here's the list I used to give my students:

Basic general:

Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual, Henry Horenstein, 3rd edition, 2004 *

Black & White Photography - Basic Manual, Henry Horenstein, 2nd edition 1983

Black & White Photography – Glenn Rand and David Litschel, 2nd edition 2002 *

The Amateur Photographer’s Handbook, Aaron Sussman, 8th edition 1979​

Basic Developing, Printing, Enlarging in Black-and-White, Kodak, 1982​

Basic darkroom:

Into Your Darkroom Step by Step, Dennis Curtin and Steve Musselman, 1991*​

​

Advanced:​

Way Beyond Monochrome, Ralph W. Lambrechth and Chris Woodhouse, 2nd edition 2011​

Creative Black and White Photography, Les McLean, 2002 *

The Darkroom Cookbook, Stephen Anchell, 3rd edition 2008, 4th edition, 2016

The Camera; The Negative; The Print, Ansel Adams, 1995


PS: I have the Ephraums book, as well. And many others.

PPS: The bold letters mean nothing, it is an artifact of "cut and paste" ...

 

[xkaes]

Great idea for a STICKY post.

I'll add that it will be even better if it is an annotated list -- and by "annotated", I mean "fewer than 100 words". People do tend to "go on & on".


Here's mine:

Controls in Black and White Photography, Richard Henry, 1986 -- at least two editions.

Explores many photographic myths & misconceptions, and then helps you create your own tests for your film and paper -- using your own gear and taste.

 

[Hassasin]

Richard Henry's book is in the end a mad scientist gone mad. Good luck controlling your process to that level of consistency. He's proving a moot point of what might happen if, if, if .... completely impractical outside of table arguments.

Way Beyond Monochrome is an all encompassing work, should do as sole reference for B&W work, but it is rather complex, detailed, and not the easiest read. For many I think it could be too much.

Ilford Manual is good, AA's triplet is a fun read and might be all one needs, even today. And it does have probably most appealing photographs within of all technical pubs.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Photographic Printing by Gene Nocon comes to mind.
There are some darkroom guides that are available to download on the Ilford website which cover film processing and basic enlarging.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Way Beyond Monochrome is one of the most useful photograph books for both inside and outside the darkroom that I have had the pleasure of owning.

 

[mshchem]

Ilford's website for up to date info. The amazing old Kodak technical books from the 20th century are phenomenal. Most of what is in the early Darkroom Cookbook editions are thoughtfully gathered from now extinct photochemical companies .

Latest edition of the Darkroom Cookbook avoids things that will kill you, what's the fun in that?

 

[Patrick Robert James]

A lot of books are great but they are old so the materials mentioned are no longer around. The best book that is modern is Way Beyond Monochrome. Probably the one book you should have after a book on basic things like the Adams books.

The David Vestal books haven't been mentioned yet. They are both good. The Craft of Photography and the Art of Black and White Enlarging. Also the Barry Thornton books haven't been mentioned yet. Those if I recall correctly are pretty good.


I still read old books just for fun and a bit of nostalgia.

 

[kernwhitaker]

I always come back to Simplified Color Processing Formulas as compiled by Patrick Dignan. Experimenting with B/W chemistry is great, but I had never previously realized how much fun you could have with color chemistry. I was very lucky to find an original copy last year.

 

[snusmumriken]

My most used is the Ilford Manual, 1950s edition. I read it so many times in my youth that I no longer need to open it, except for nostalgia.

 

[logan2z]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The Photographer's Master Printing Course by Tim Rudman. Lots of useful info in there for the darkroom printer.

 

[Ian Grant]

My most used is the Ilford Manual, 1950s edition. I read it so many times in my youth that I no longer need to open it, except for nostalgia.

Agreed, add to that:

Curt Jacobson's books Developing, and also Enlarging, later editions.
Then The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, I prefer the early 1960s editions.

Ian

 

[Klaus Mähring]

Post Exposure by Ctein!

 

[BobUK]

"The Art of Black and White Developing ( Developing Black and White Film) fifth edition by John Finch."

Well worth buying If only for the excellent descriptions about finding your own personal film speeds and developing times.

Enough detail and information without requiring degrees in hard sums and chemistry to understand.

 

[npl]

"The zone system for 35mm photographers" by Carson Graves is quite good.

A relatively short and practical guide for using the ZS with roll film, from metering to printing.

 

[Frank53]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The Photographer's Master Printing Course by Tim Rudman. Lots of useful info in there for the darkroom printer.

And The Master Photographer’s Lith Printing Course and The Master Photographer’s Toning Book by the same author.
and all Barry Thornton books.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I have way too many .

Those I consult often:

Tim Rudman: The Photographer's Master Printing Course
Lambrecht & Woodhouse: Way Beyond Monochrome
Ansel Adams: The Camera; The Negative; The Print
Ansel Adams: Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs
Anchell & Troop: The Film Developing Cookbook
Anchell & Troop: The Darkroom Cookbook
Les McLean: Creative Black & White Photography

Those I consult once in a while:

John Blakemore: Black and White Photography Workshop
Elanor Lewis (editor): Darkroom vol. 1 & 2
Andreas Feininger: Photographic Seeing
Fred Picker: Zone VI Workshop: The Fine Print in Black & White Photography
White · Zakia · Lorenz: The New Zone System Manual
David Vestal: The Craft of Photography
Barry Thornton: Edge of Darkness
Barry Thornton: Elements
John Finch: The Art of Black and White Developing
Jacobson & Jacobson : Developing


Those I'll probably get rid of:

Arnold Gassan: Handbook for Contemporary Photography
Andreas Feininger: The Complete Photographer
Andreas Feininger: Principles of Composition in Photography
Andreas Feininger: Advanced Photography
Freeman Patterson: Photography For the Joy of It
Phil Davis: Beyond the Zone System
Harry Horenstein: Beyond Basic Photography
Larry Bartlett: Black & White Photographic Printing Workshop
Carson Graves: The zone system for 35mm photographers

 

[reddesert]

The David Vestal books haven't been mentioned yet. They are both good. The Craft of Photography and the Art of Black and White Enlarging.

I agree with the recommendation for the David Vestal books. I used these in about the 1980s starting out and they were at a good level of detail - good information, not too deep into the weeds, and IIRC fairly free of accreted lore. At the time the Ansel Adams basic books revised by John Schaeffer did not exist yet.

BTW, I saw John Schaeffer speak a few weeks ago, he's still quite robust even though he is certainly up there in years by now.

 

[Craig]

Those I'll probably get rid of:

Phil Davis: Beyond the Zone System

Why get rid of that one?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Why get rid of that one?

Good question. Had to go back to the book to be able to give an adequate answer.

Should note that my "get rid of" list is in no way a form of negative criticism of these books. It's more that either they information they contain is redundant with what I have in other books, or that I've got out of them the little information that is (or was when I got them) useful to me.

The latter is the case with the Davis book. It's a fascinating book. I have a special fondness for theoricians. When I studied musicology and music analysis, I enjoyed spending months trying to analyse a Beethoven string quartet using Schenkerian analysis, or Stravinski's Rite of Spring using Allen Forte's set theory and pitch class sets. The analogy is not perfect, but Davis kind of brings me back to the intellectual quests and pleasures of these student years.

Also, you cannot but develop a kind of admiration for a guy that looks Ansel and Minor in the eye and says: "Hold my beer."

All this said, truth is, when I go through the book, I see nothing there that could, at this point, help make me a better photographer — even if it could make better at scientifically testing and analysing film and paper. At this point, the book — or rather, the theory — holds nothing that is useful to me. I mostly use two films, each has its dedicated developer, and when I opt for a different developer, it's one I know. I'm happy with my negs — they may sometimes be off by 1/3 stop, but they give me what I need to make a good print.

More importantly, at 63 (and I would have said the same 10 years ago), I don't have time for all the film and paper testing, or graph making and analysing, this, just to correct that 1/3 stop that I may be off by. Life's too short, and looking at the world trying to figure out what may possibily become an interesting photograph takes time enough. Not that I don't find important the scientific aspect of photography, but, as I said, I already have enough of that in the other books on my "keep" lists.

Davis' book, and theory, is interesting, but I do feel that it's more of a curiosity than a necessity. Sort of like Schenker and Forte.

Note that none of the books on my "get rid of" will find their way to the recycle bin. I'll probably end up giving them to my community darkroom library.

 

[Don_ih]

I have a lot of photography books. I buy them second hand at thrift stores, thinking I'll read them and maybe glean some insight I'm lacking.

Then I end up looking at the photos and ignoring the text.

So I am left lacking insight.

 

[xkaes]

Richard Henry's book is in the end a mad scientist gone mad.

Fortunately, Focal Press disagreed with your "insanity" assessment, and published two editions of it -- due to its sales and importance. And Richard Zakia -- no stranger to photography -- also disagrees with you, writing in the preface of the book:

"This book belongs on the shelf of every serious photographer, teacher and writer on photography. On a scale of f/2 to f/64 it rates a 64."

 

[Don_ih]

On a scale of f/2 to f/64 it rates a 64.

So, tiny and likely to cause diffraction? (Just kidding)

 

[xkaes]

Versus wide-open and very fuzzy -- with little depth.

 

[Milpool]

Fortunately, Focal Press disagreed with your "insanity" assessment, and published two editions of it -- due to its sales and importance. And Richard Zakia -- no stranger to photography -- also disagrees with you, writing in the preface of the book:

"This book belongs on the shelf of every serious photographer, teacher and writer on photography. On a scale of f/2 to f/64 it rates a 64."

It’s a different kind of book - more useful in principle (in my opinion) than most books, basically as a foil. It debunks a lot of nonsense and shows how full of BS so much of the old, new, parroted “wisdom” is.

In the end if you want to be at the top of the game technically, all you really need are a few basics and then it’s practice/work. The rest of the darkroom and/or technically oriented books are easily dispensed with. A lot of them probably do more harm than good.