Carson Grave's second edition

Has anyone read Carson Grave's 2nd edition "The elements of Black &

white printing"? I am a fairly experienced large format amateur and

have read among other books, all the Ansel Adams books, Steve

Achel's "The Darkroom Cookbook", and Bruce Barnbaum's "The Art of

Photography". Do you think that Mr. Carson has anything to offer

beyond these books and a lot of experience?

Hi Robert,

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I've always believed that you will ALWAYS glean something new in everything you

read. Carson does offer a new perspective on photography despite the fact that there

isn't anything that hasn't been stated before.

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The Adams series of books is very comprehensive, Bruce Barnbaum offers his own

unique vision of photgraphy and I haven't read Achel's book. But, the Carson book

isn't a terribly difficult read...especially for someone who has had any degree of

darkroom B&W experience.

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One book that I would highly recommend is, "Creative Elements - Darkroom

Techniques For Landscape Photography" by Eddie Ephraums. For each photograph he

uses in the book he discusses all the technical data involved in making the final

image...ie: Camerawork, film processing, print exposure, print processing, and the

final image. It's not only well illustrated and well written but it's also printed on high

quality stock.

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It's a CDN$65 book but I managed to pick my copy up on Ebay for US$21.00... so,

although it doesn't show up all that frequently on ebay, it does show up every so

often.

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This is one photog's opinion...hope you find it interesting.

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Cheers

Interesting books, though out of print, are Lustrum's Darkroom 1 and

Darkroom two, which deal with the working methods of a bunch of fine

photographers -- Wynn Bullough, Emmet Gowin, FRank Gohlke etc . There is

a wealth of information, and of course you learn that everyone does it their

own way.

Robert I was just perusing it last night over at Borders. Not being an

accomplished darkroom printer, I was looking for something to clue me in and

Carson's book was pretty good. He talks about exposing for the highlights and

using contrast for the low values. He also covers pre-exposing paper, water

bath development and a few other ways to lower contrast, and then turns

around and covers mothods of increasing contrast and using intensification

and toners as well. He also outlines testing procedures and making

comparsion patches to use to get the right print exposure. Part of the book

talks about developers and making your own. There are alot of photo

examples and other things I can't remember now that he covers. All in all I find

his book very informative. I think the price was $32.95.

Robert,

 

When I read the first edition of Carson Grave's book a few years ago, I found it informative. He offers a serious approach to darkroom work that includes methodical testing. Because what happens in darkrooms is repetitive, people sometimes have a tendency to let little problems drift without correction. Grave's addresses some of the subtle and not-so-subtle problems that can hobble good work. After being reminded to be mindful, I changed a few things and was more aware of what I was doing. In short, I found that the book was worth reading.

Yes. Though I have yet to incorporate everything in his book, I think it is an important book for black and white printer's. It is one of the best I've come across for black and white printing. He offers some very good approaches, methodical and straight forward. I have, as most do, the AA books, maybe more out of respect than anything else, and Anchell's books, which I consider excellent, except for the lack of recommended capcity information for the different formulas - that is, how many prints or how sheets of film per quantity of formula.

Thanks to all of you that responded to my question. I am now convinced this book should be added to my library. As a bonus, some of you also proposed some books that interest me. Thanks again.

I've found that the printing and toning books by Tim Rudman

have been very useful. "Way Beyond Monochrome" by Ralph

Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse, if your not afraid of simple

mathmatics and figures, is excellent for advanced B/W

techniques too.

The Carson Graves book is the only one I've found which really covers contrast control by changing exposure and development. Most books hint at it; Graves presents a detailed explanation and proposes a workable method. Very, very useful book.