Is Ansel Adams' The Print a good beginner's bible?

[Peter De Smidt]

I would start with Way Beyond Monochrome. It's the most current serious work. Some things advocated in otherwise good older texts don't work so well anymore, such as light selenium toning to enhance image permanence. Mind you, Adams' books should be available at most libraries. Tim Rudman's book is also excellent: http://www.amazon.com/The-Photograph.../dp/0240803248

[Mark Sampson]

Adams revised this series of books, with help, c.1981. Even though they are now 30+ years old, they are still quite useful, and are a definite improvement in readability and usability over the earlier 1950s-60s editions. I treasure my early editions, but in some senses they are artifacts like his 1934 'Making A Photograph'. Of course there are many good suggestions in the thread; I would recommend my old teacher David Vestal's "The Aart of Black-and-White Enlarging";
it's relentlessly practical and doesn't try to impose the author's vision on the reader.

[John Koehrer]

Heartily agree. Ansel's books are good but they are a bit arcane. I would definitely NOT recommend them for beginners. The Craft of Photography by David Vestal is also an excellent guide and well within the reach of a beginner.

This is a much more easily understood book for the beginner. Vestal taught photography and has a much more readable style.
The Adams series Is really dry reading. Buckets of information from either.

[David Karp]

I was thinking about your post. I purchased The Print first. Read it and had to re-read it. I was focused on printing in the darkroom, because that is more fun. But later, after I read The Negative, and re-read The Print, I had a better understanding of the importance of a good negative in making a fine print and the relationship between the two.

[riooso]

The whole series of Ansel Adams' , The Camera, The Negative, and The Print are very good. Do yourself a favor after you read them and take a beginning college photography class that deals with shooting, developing, and printing black and white. The professor will guide you through all of it and the connection that you will have with photography will be an eyeopener. Photoshop is just a digital darkroom and what you learn in the darkroom will help you become a better photographer.

Later,
R

[Darin Boville]

While I have, in fact, both the earlier and later editions of AA's series, I found them hard going when I was a beginner. A much more accessible book might be Fred Picker's "Zone VI Workshop." While it is probably long out-of-print, I took a quick peek on Amazon, and they have something like 25 used copies available (and cheap!). I would ignore Picker's equipment suggestions in the back of this thin (110 page) book, but the chapters on metering, film processing, and printing are very good. The only proviso is that you really need to do the exercises to get the benefit, but most of us have done these (or similar) to determine film speed, development times, and so on.

Edit: A quick addition. In the Ansel Adam's "mode," his book "Examples, the Making of 40 Photographs" is also worth a look, in terms of how he visualized and thought through photographs before he actually tripped the shutter.

Just to underline what Peter wrote. The older versions are terrible, hard to make sense of. The 1980s versions were written with the help of a technical writer. Oh so much better.

Read that then ask questions here. You are good to go.

--Darin

[John Kasaian]

I found Ansel Adams' Examples, the Making of 40 Photographs more basic, more inspirational, and more enjoyable to read. The best though, is a purple mimeographed dark room instruction sheet I was given in High School. It's around here somewhere.

[neil poulsen]

Get all three books. If need be, at least get The Print and The Negative; and, get The Camera later. Might as well begin with the books that are most authoritative.

My only caution is using his books to understand the zone system. I think a better first book is The New Zone System by White, Zakia, and Lorenz. Then after digesting the zone system from this book, return to the Negative for a more philosophical understanding.

[Regular Rod]

in my opinion, yes. However, it is necessary that a reader/student:

• have good language comprehension skills
• be persistent and willing to make prints, think, re-read and try again
• not expect an internet chat-type experience where "answers" are spoon fed.

in other words, if you're ok with work, i know of no better book about printing to start with.

+1

rr

[Will Frostmill]

I've borrowed and read The Print, The Camera, and The Negative cover to cover a half dozen times. But I only bought The Making of 40 Photographs, and David Vestal's The Craft of Photography. I gave away or sold my copies of Stroebel, and the Illford Manual of Darkroom Practice.

Think about which books I spent money on.

The Print taught me a great deal that I now apply to my current digital work.