books for LF..

Which are the must have books for LF beginner? (In terms of both shooting and darkroom techniques) Thanks in advance.

Ansel Adams' The Camera

I expect Ellis did not mean to leave out Adams' two other books in the series, "The Print" and "The Negative" (the older editions had five books, the other two being "Artificial Light Photography" and "Natural Light Photography," both of which were incorporated into the later edition of "The Negative." I like Schaefer's stupidly named "The Ansel Adams Guide to Basic Techniques of Photography," 2 volumes. Most people like Stroebel's books. I'm a huge fan of Merklinger's two books, "Focusing the View Camera" and especially "Ins and Outs of Focus."

But frankly the most useful books will probably be in the "other" photography section, and were done by people like Edward Weston, Berenice Abbott, Lartigue, Atget. . . you choose. Be sure to check out "LensWork Quarterly," a terrific magazine, and of course "View Camera." One hour of shooting is worth about 20 hours of reading in the beginning, and about 100 hours of reading after you get some practice.

Let us not forget the trusty Kodak series.

I recommend the following:

"Creative Large Format: Basics and Applications", by Urs Tillmans, published by Sinar AG

"View Camera Technique", by Leslie Stroebel, published by Focal Press

Together, these two tiles are pretty comprehensive.

Sean pretty well nailed it for actual techniques of using the camera. I didn't m ention the other two Adam's books because while very, very useful they can be a little overwhelming for a beginner. The Stroebel book is definitive. For further info i suggest you egt a subscripti on to "View Camera" which you can reach by clicking here In each issue there is a listing of useful books.

"Using the View Camera" by Steve Simmons is the best primer. If you've never picked up a view camera before.