Darkroom & Processing Books - Page 3

Silver Gelatine: A User's Guide to Liquid Photographic Emulsions

Martin Reed, Sarah Jones

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Silver Gelatin; A User's Guide to Liquid Photographic Emulsi 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

All photografers professionel/not professionals that want to know what they are dialing with, can get very far with this book if you want to experimentate with cemicals - AND save money. I'm Danish (Sorry my English)

Editorial Review:

Silver Gelatin is a practical art book designed to comprehensively illustrate the use of liquid photographic emulsion. The first part showcases the work of top photographers and artists, such as David Scheinmann, Chris Nash, Lana Wong, Melanie Manchot, Jennifer Bates, and Jane Quinn. The second section is a clear and concise technical guide, taking the reader through all the necessary steps to produce exciting images on a multitude of surfaces, including handmade paper, plaster, fabric, glass, ceramics, rubber, metal, painted surfaces, wood, plastics, and stone.

The Art of Handpainting Photographs (Amphoto crafts)

Cheryl Dorskind

List Price: $24.95 By: Watson Guptill - Model: 0817433104 Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $3.90

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Handcoloring with Photo Oils. Emphasis on Portraiture. 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

"The Art of Handpainting Photographs" provides detailed instructions for handcoloring black-and-white photographs with Marshall's Photo Oils, which generally impart somewhat muted colors. Colored pencils are often used in conjunction with the oils. Author Cheryl Machat Dorskind briefly mentions other media that can be used in handcoloring photographs, but she does not discuss them. Although there is a chapter on landscapes, Dorskind is primarily a portrait artist, so this book's emphasis is portraiture.

Chapter 1, "Selecting a Good Photographic Print" makes suggestions in how to best photograph for handpainting, including choosing appropriate film and photographic paper. This is the book's weakest chapter. The advice could be confusing to beginning or intermediate photographers. For example, it recommends bracketing exposures, but does not explain that, unless you tell the lab, they will try to print them all the same. And there is not much point in bracketing old chemistry black-and-white film by just one EV anyway. It's better to vary the exposure in printing. The author doesn't mention chromogenic black-and-white film at all, which is less expensive, easier for amateurs to obtain, and would be fine if printed on a fiber-based paper. Dorskind doesn't recommend T-grain films or high speed films, but doesn't explain why. Her suggestion of infrared film is interesting, however, as its characteristic white foliage (when used with a dark red filter) is well-suited to handpainting. A handy chart lists texture, tone and contrast for recommended fiber-based and resin-coated papers. The option of toning prints prior to handcoloring is mentioned, but no instructions are provided. Oddly, I have never seen a book on handcoloring photographs mention digital prints. Most ink jet prints are unsuitable as the ink will run, but I am curious as to how permanent inks and dye-sublimation prints fare. No answer is forthcoming. The information about papers for conventional printing is very good, though.

Chapter 2, "Materials and the Work Station", explains supplies you will need and what conditions provide the best working environment for coloring photographs. Chapter 3 is dedicated to "Basic Color Theory". There are explanations of the color wheel, complementary colors, hue, value, intensity, color temperature and advice on how best to choose the most appropriate color to convey your intentions.

Chapter 4 discusses the five steps involved in "Preparing Your Photograph for Color Application": Spotting the photograph (retouching spots and scratches), masking the border, making wood/cotton skewers, arranging your color palette, and priming your photograph with Marshall's P.M. Solution.

Chapter 5 provides a step-by-step explanation of "The Basic Painting Process". The example the author uses is a portrait. She explains how to mix colors, paint the photo, and use pencils on top of oil paints. These instructions are very good and would be invaluable if you are handcoloring a portrait, as there are specific suggestions for how to achieve the correct skin tone. Chapter 6, "More About Portraiture", provides further valuable advice to portraitists by explaining how to best paint red, blond, brown and gray hair. There is also some discussion of painting portrait backgrounds for various effects.

Chapter 7, "Focusing on the Environment" is about handpainting landscapes. The author discusses color, tone, and composition in rural and urban landscapes, but there are no detailed instructions. Chapter 8, "Presenting Your Artwork" gives advice for how to store, mat, and frame your painted photographs. Chapter 9, "Special Assignments" mentions some specialized uses of handpainting, such as vintage photographs. There is a list of Resources in the back of the book.

Editorial Review:

Transform ordinary black-and-white photos into beautifully painted display art. This step-by-step workbook guides you through the process, assists with material selection and provides different approaches to different originals and other useful handcoloring tips. These techniques can be useful not only to the photographer, but artists and creative hobbyists as well.

Toning and Handcoloring Photographs

Tony Worobiec

List Price: $24.95 By: Amphoto Books Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $1.19

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Perhaps as a reaction against the growing tide of digital photography, many traditional photographic techniques are enjoying a creative revival. The most popular are the related skills of toning and handcoloring. Now there's an easy-to-use resource that shows artists, photographers, and crafters how to master this unique, age-old technique. In Toning and Handcoloring Photographs, acclaimed photographer Tony Worobiec takes readers step by step through each process, examining the use of products that have only recently come on the market, as well as long-established ones. Illustrated throughout with Worobiec's own inspiring photographs and packed with useful tips and hands-on techniques, everything needed to tone and color successfully is here. Step by step, readers will see how easy-to-use media like photographic spot pens and artists' watercolors can breathe new life into treasured old photographs. Whether one wishes to give an old black- and-white photograph some added depth with pastels, handcolor an old family portrait for a scrapbook, or make rich gold-toned prints of exhibition quality, Toning and Handcoloring Photographs will bring out the dormant artist in everyone!

The New Darkroom Handbook, Second Edition

Joe DeMaio, Roberta Worth, Dennis Curtin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The only guide you will ever need to building a darkroom 5 out of 5 stars.
73 of 75 people found this review helpful.

I just purchased this book because i am planning to build a darkroom in my basement, and it has provided me with alot of information. And if you have a really small bathroom and you think it's impossible to turn it into a darkroom and use it at the same time, then you better get this book. There are floorplans/layouts & elevation provided, as well as pictures to give you an idea of how your darkroom will turn out. There are so many alternatives given that you can't go wrong in builiding the perfect darkroom of your own and save money as well.

Editorial Review:

The Darkroom Handbook, Second Edition, is a completely revised and updated version of a classic guide to the best design, construction, and equipment to use when setting up a darkroom.

This book features ideas and money-saving tips on how to put a darkroom almost anywhere in your home or apartment. It takes you inside darkrooms of photographers around the world including those of famous photographers such as, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Berenice Abbott, and W. Eugene Smith. In addition, it contains detailed do-it-yourself plans for the most essential darkroom components, cutouts and design grids to plan that "dream" darkroom, and special sections on the color darkroom and the digital darkroom.

The most comprehensive book on the darkroom.
A step-by-step guide to help anyone plan and build a photo lab.
Illustrated with an abundance of photos and sketches.

Platinum and Palladium Printing

Dick Arentz

List Price: $39.95 By: Focal Press - Model: F391A Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $24.67

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Platinum and palladium printing is one of the easiest of the non-silver processes to learn but it also offers a number of variations, which the photographer can closely control. Platinum printing encompasses three basic phases which are somewhat under the control the photographer: sensitometry, chemistry and mechanics.

This unique book is the only thoroughly comprehensive work on platinum and palladium printing. This exciting method of print-making is explained with an emphasis on technical control not only to manage the cost of materials but also to teach the reader to optimize the variations possible with this process.

Photographers interested in learning or improving upon this process will find this book an indispensable resource and reference guide.

Practical information based on the making of over 3000 platinum and palladium prints
Includes 50 duotones of Arentz's platinum and palladium prints
Explains sensitometry as applied to the platinum/palladium process

The Variable Contrast Printing Manual

Steve Anchell

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Variable Contrast Printing Manual is the only comprehensive resource for photographers printing with variable contrast papers. Anchell provides a wealth of techniques and information to enable photographers to achieve the best possible results, and express their unique personal vision. As in his best-selling The Darkroom Cookbook (Focal Press), Anchell has provided the reader with an easy-to-follow approach to a medium that now dominates black-and-white printing.

Stephen G. Anchell has been a freelance and commercial photographer, writer, and instructor for over 25 years. His fine-art black-and-white photography has been internationally exhibited and collected. He teaches workshops and seminars privately, at universities, and for companies such as Agfa, Cachet Fine Art Paper Company, and Sinar-Bron. His writing on photography has appeared in View Camera, Shutterbug, PIC (Great Britain), and PhotoPro magazines. He was a contributing editor to the former Camera and Darkroom magazine, and is a current contributing editor to PhotoWork and Outdoor Photographer magazines.

Only comprehensive how-to manual for printing on variable contrast papers.

Timely and instructive; provides a wealth of proven techniques.

Invaluable reference for art photographers.

Beyond the Zone System, Fourth Edition

Phil Davis

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This fourth edition of Beyond the Zone System makes the science of photographic sensitometry both accessible and useful to interested photographers. It will appeal to any serious photographer interested in knowing how the materials and processes of black-and-white photography work. Instead of describing rote procedures to be followed blindly, this book provides the basis for understanding what needs to be done and why. This book relates theory to practice in a way that promotes a true partnership of science and art.



Beyond the Zone System bridges the gap between the more theoretical aspects of the photographic process and the popular empirical procedures used by many photographers in the attempt to predict and control the quality of their photographs in practice.

This book is intended primarily for photographers who use large-format cameras and black-and-white sheet film, but the basic information about how the B&W photographic materials and processes work will be useful to users of any B&W film format.

Beyond the Zone System, 4th ed. will appeal to any serious photographer interested in knowing how the materials and processes of black-and-white photography work. Instead of describing rote procedures to be followed blindly, this book provides the basis for understanding what needs to be done and why. This book relates theory to practice in a way that promotes a true partnership of science and art.

A direct, practical approach to the technical aspects of photography
Thoroughly updated throughout
New chapter on control of image gradation

Zone VI Workshop

Fred Picker

List Price: $13.95 By: Amphoto Books Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $2.83

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great start for those interested in B&W photography 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I learned how to do B&W darkroom techniques from a friend in high school who had taken a course at a local junior college. My pictures (and his pictures) looked horrible (flat, washed out, gray). I bought this book several years later (the edition from the mid 1970's), and it corrected every last bad habit and technique I had been using. It is a must-have for any serious B&W photographer, particularly useful in the areas of accurate exposure readings, and darkroom techniques to maximize correct contrast and create truly BLACK blacks on the prints.

An Understandable Zone System Book 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

All the technical information in the world won't do you any good if you don't understand how to apply it. Fred Picker's Zone VI Workshop was the fourth book I'd tried to read about the zone system. It's also the last. This book clearly and simply explains the zone system. After reading this book I was able to understand Ansel Adams' books "The Negative" and "The Print". Highly recommended!

Pretty old 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book expecting it to once for all explain aa's zone system. i was quite disappointed that the book is from 1974 and the illustrations are of very poor quality.

sure, the basics of good black & white photography are still the same, but think the book feels outdated.

there has to be a better guide than this out there.

Basic 35Mm Photo Guide: For Beginning Photographers

Craig Alesse

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Start your introduction to photography here 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

I started here and couldn't be more thankful. First, I must concede that to find any value in this book, you pretty much have to be totally ignorant about 35mm photography. However, if you are (like I was), it is EXACTLY what you need. To me, an absolute novice photographer is someone who has never shot a photograph using a camera other than a simple "point and shoot" model. You know you're this type of person if someone has ever asked you to take a photo for them with a non-point & shoot (e.g. a 35mm SLR) and you panicked because you didn't know how or didn't think you could. If this example doesn't suffice, then ask yourself this question: Do you know what "SLR" stands for and what it means? If not, then you need this book.

All told, this book is something like 112 pages long. However, I was able to read it in about 30 minutes. The reason is because the author gives you only the absolute basics you need in three or four sentences per page, with one or two visually explanatory accompanying photos. As such, it's PERFECT for explaining (and demonstrating) the nuts and bolts that you absolutely must know if you want to step up into a camera in which you have some control over the camera functions.

Beyond that, you will admittedly learn little. However, what little you learn is absolutely essential. I recommend buying it too (rather than just reading it in a library, for example) because I still refer back to this book every now and then to make sure I'm correctly understanding the more advanced techniques I'm trying to learn in other books. I can't say enough about this book. If you want a small compact easy-to-read introduction to the bare basics of 35mm cameras and photography, this is the one and only book you will need. Enjoy!

Editorial Review:

This newly revised edition of the popular beginner's guide makes 35mm photography simple to learn with an easy, step-by-step approach and 180 explanatory photos. Novices and those interested in brushing up on the fundamentals will find this book an invaluable resource.

Historic Photographic Processes: A Guide to Creating Handmade Photographic Images

Richard Farber

List Price: $29.95 By: Watson Guptill - Model: 163812 Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $9.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The ultimate alt-photo book 5 out of 5 stars.
56 of 56 people found this review helpful.

First a disclaimer: I am the inventor of the Ziatype process described in the book.

The title is a little misleading since it says "historical processes." The book focuses on photo processes that are used largely in art photography and do not involve the normally used silver paper or color paper. Yes, many of these processes were used for photography in its earlier years and are "historical," but these processes are most often referred to as "alternative photography" now. If you are a photographer and are looking for a respite from the ordinary, this is your book.

This book replaces the now quite dated Keepers of Light first published in 1979. Since that time, and to the credit of Keepers of Light, alternative photography has grown considerably. This book is excellent and takes in much of the later developments and knowledge of the field.

Farber's treatment is lucid, well illustrated, and takes a hands-on approach. Despite the advances in alternative photography, many of the materials previously available have disappeared from the marketplace. Farber takes this into account and I particularly found his chapters on bromoil and carbon printing to be valuable as he discusses the use of modern bromide papers for making bromoil prints and also how to make your own carbon tissue.

This book belongs on the shelf of every serious darkroom photographer. If you are a photographic collector, I would also advise buying a copy even if you never intend to make an alternative photo print. There is a wealth of succinct information here that would be valuable for any collector wanting to understand the nature of many earlier photographic print-making processes.

Editorial Review:

Visual treats abound in this manual of 19th-century photographic processes with complete directions on how to achieve such stunning effects.