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Spook's Photography Book List


Traditional B&W Technique

Black & White Photography: a Basic Manual

Henry Horenstein
Little, Brown & Co. (2nd edition, revised, 1983)
ISBN 0316373141

Beginners. A gentle introduction to traditional silver halide black and white photography and darkroom processes. Covers the basics of equipment, lighting, exposure, film development, printing, and mounting, and touches briefly on alternative processes such as lith photography, solarization and infrared. Written in simple, clear and unintimidating style. The book is dated, but the basic principles haven't changed.

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July 2004


Beyond Basic Photography: a Technical Manual

Henry Horenstein
Little, Brown & Co. (1977)
ISBN 0316373125

Intermediate. A follow-on to Black and White Photography: a Basic Manual, Beyond Basic Photography takes the hobbiest to the next level, introducing the basics of sensitometry, photographic chemistry, intermediate film and print processing techniques, lighting, and view camera photography. Like the first book, the writing style is consistently simple, direct and unintimidating despite the technical nature of some of its content. Again, the book is somewhat dated but the basic principles haven't changed.

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July 2004


The Black & White Handbook

Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz
David & Charles (updated edition, 1997)
ISBN 0715311247

Intermediate. A wide-ranging introduction to traditional techniques for the devoted amateur, covering basic sensitometry, film structure, film choice and format, metering and filtration, film development, printing, toning, and alternative processes. Each topic is presented in sufficient depth to give the reader the basics plus a grasp of the deeper issues which distract professionals. The authors' tone is straightforward and pragmatic rather than professorial.

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July 2004


The Darkroom Cookbook

Stephen G. Anchell
Focal Press (2nd edition, 2000)
ISBN 0240804236

Advanced. The authoritative cookbook of photographic chemistry. The Cookbook introduces techniques and considerations of buying and home-brewing darkroom chemistry for professionals or (very) serious amateurs, covering the fundamentals of developing agents and developer constituents, formulae for special-purpose film developers and techniques such as monobath, divided and pyro development, paper developers, stop baths/fixers, toners, and other miscellaneous darkroom chemicals. Includes 206 formulae for home-brewing of almost any darkroom chemical using ingredients available through the internet.

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July 2004


Digital B&W Technique

The Digital Photolab:
Advanced Black-and-White Techniques Using Photoshop

George Schaub
Silver Pixel Press (2002)
ISBN 1883403758

Intermediate. An introduction to Adobe Photoshop B & W techniques for digital darkroom jockies already familiar with Photoshop basics. The first 30 or so pages skim over digital darkroom basics such as monitor and printer calibration, scanners, and digital printer and ink selection, but each of the 48 image workshops which follow demonstrates the manipulation of a different image using various Photoshop tools or processes such as color conversion, contrast manipulation, tone control, burning and dodging, retouching, toning, and filter effects. The book assumes the reader is already familiar with Photoshop basics and so focuses on selecting and using PS tools to achieve particular effects rather than on teaching the tools themselves.

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July 2004


Magazines and Periodicals

Black & White Photography

Guild of Master Craftsmen Publications Ltd.
166 High Street, Lewes
East Sussex BN7 1XU, England
www.thegmcgroup.com

Published in England by the Guild of Master Craftsmen, this monthly combines articles on technique and equipment with portfolio reviews and exhibits. The writing style is light, intended more for practioners than for critics, scholars, or collectors. The layout is tasteful and print quality high. While the magazine's technical content still emphasizes traditional darkroom photography and printing techniques, a significant portion of each each issue is now dedicated to digital B & W.

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July 2004


Black & White Magazine

(independently published)
Box 700
Arroyo Grande, California, 93412
www.BandWmag.com

This independent bimonthly glossy is intended, as it states on the cover, for "collectors of fine photography." Gallery advertisements typically take up a significant part of each issue with the remainder consisting of feature spreads, short articles and portfolio samples of photographers or exhibitions of note, and an occasional article on technical or practical aspects of collecting photographs. Although heavy with advertising, the portfolio spreads are worth the price of the magazine, and even the gallery advertisements can be fun to flip through since they tend to be sharp and professionally designed with collectors in mind.

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July 2004