This book is aimed at advanced amateur and semi-professional monochrome photographers, who have at some time developed and printed their own images, prefer the beauty of traditional photography, but want to improve their negative and print quality. The book will take the reader on a journey, which will transform ‘trial and error’ into confidence and the final print into something special.
This book explores techniques of print and negative control using example pictures, graphs and tables to communicate the information. Armed with this knowledge, the case studies show how and when to select which techniques to overcome problems on the path to the final print. The combination of technical background information and hands-on case studies creates a link between the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of traditional monochrome photography.
In this second edition, we have meticulously updated and extensively revised most chapters, adding better how-to pictures and improving all illustrations, while carefully rearranging the content and introducing several new topics. A brand-new section discussing the path from visualization to print, illustrating the interaction between eye and brain, and showing how craft and creativity can be combined to a quality photograph with impact was added. Print presentation was completely omitted from the previous edition, but is now covered in detail, including hands-on mounting, matting, spotting, and framing techniques as well as display considerations. Also, image capture has a more in-depth focus, including pinhole photography and digital capture. Film pre-exposure and latitude have been added, while film development has been extended. Making and printing with digital negatives is shown in detail. On the paper side, factorial development and print bleaching are new, while existing chapters were extended and improved. A few new case studies have been added. There is now a detailed section, showing all image-taking and image-making equipment we use on a regular basis. Plus, there are new do-it-yourself projects, including a shutter tester and how to make and work with paper negatives. In the appendix, we added a complete list of formulae to make your own darkroom chemicals, included a helpful glossary and extended the bibliography.
The focus of this book has not changed from the original goal to make high-quality silver-gelatin prints. For reasons already mentioned in the preface, digital output is not covered in this book at all. However, we still see a benefit in combining the new and creative opportunities of digital capturing with the proven quality of analog silver-gelatin prints. We have, therefore, included digital negative technology and sufficient information about digital capture to enable an experienced and dedicated darkroom worker to take advantage of these opportunities and combine the better of two technologies. Nevertheless, this is still predominantly a book about advanced techniques in traditional photography. We are certain that this new edition will provide something of interest for the practical and the more technically minded photographer.
For up-to-date information about this book, electronic sample chapters to show to friends, potential error corrections and many useful downloads, check the dedicated website at:
Ralph W. Lambrecht
Chris Woodhouse
June 2010
Ralph Lambrecht was born and educated in Germany. His interest in photography started when he was about seven years old and saw a B&W image emerging in the developer of his father’s darkroom. His first camera was a Box Brownie handed down from his grandmother, followed by a post-war 6x6 rangefinder from his father.
As a young adult, Ralph emigrated with his wife and two children to the United States, where he worked and received a Masters Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan. While living in the US his interest in photography grew slowly into a passion, when he met accomplished photographers such as Howard Bond and Phil Davis, who taught him the basics of fine printing and the Zone System. Further photographic education followed, including a workshop with John Sexton in California, which ended with an unforgettable visit to Ansel Adams’ darkroom.
His choice of equipment has become more sophisticated since the days of the Brownie, but he still uses mechanical cameras in medium and large format for all his fine-art photography. Traditional silver-gelatin film and fiber-base paper are his media of choice, and he enjoys performing all darkroom tasks himself. To him, an attractive presentation of the image is just as important as the photography itself. Consequently, he performs all mounting, matting and framing to archival gallery and museum standards. Since 1999, he is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Graduate Image Scientist since 2007. His work has been exhibited internationally from private galleries to the London Salon of Photography.
Ralph has been involved in adult education for over 20 years. As a photographic author, he has written for major photographic magazines, including Camera & Darkroom, Black & White Photography, Photo Techniques, Fine Art Printer and View Camera magazine. He is a regular on FotoTV and has contributed to several book projects, including Schwarzweiß Fotografie Digital and the fourth edition of The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography.
Chris Woodhouse was born in Brentwood, England and during his teenage years was a keen amateur artist. Around this time, he was given his first camera, a Zenith B, which along with the discovery of his school darkroom started his interest in monochrome photography. At the age of 15, he joined a local photographic club, where he experienced his first large monochrome enlargements. Later, he received a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering at Bath University, and after a period of designing communication and optical gauging equipment, he joined an automotive company. As a member of the Royal Photographic Society, he gained an Associate distinction in 2002.
During the last twenty-five years, he has pursued his passion for all forms of photography, including landscape, infrared, as well as portraiture, still life and architectural photography, mostly in monochrome. This passion, coupled with his design experience, led him to invent and patent several unique darkroom timers and meters, which are sold throughout the world. For a period of time, he turned his attention to digital imaging and the particular problems of making convincing monochrome inkjet prints. During this time, he wrote magazine articles on advanced printing techniques for Camera & Darkroom, Ag+ and Photo Techniques.
In the dim peace of the darkroom, the negative is the beginning of a creative journey. Rather than assume that there is only one interpretation of a given negative, Chris explores alternative techniques, even with a familiar image, to suit the mood of the moment. Even after several interpretations, new techniques and experience often lead to better prints.