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Thread: What Reference Books do you use?

  1. #1
    Lascassas, TN
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    What Reference Books do you use?

    What reference books do you find most useful? As I continue to downsize and declutter I am looking at my library.

    These books I use the most.
    Way Beyond Monochrome by Lambrecht and Woodhouse
    Beyond the Zone System by Phil Davis
    The Darkroom Cookbook by Steve Anchell
    The Ansel Adams Guide – Basic Techniques of Photography by John Schaefer
    Using the View Camera by Steve Simmons

    What other books would you add to the bookshelf?
    Bill Kumpf

  2. #2

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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    Controls in Black & White Photography by Richard Henry.

    He doesn't tell you what to do; he shows how to tell yourself what to do.

  3. #3
    Jim Jones's Avatar
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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    The Camera Repairman's Handbook by National Camera Repair School.
    An older edition of View Camera Technique by Leslie Stroebel.
    A tattered copy of Lenses in Photography by Rudolph Kingslake, my first book on photography, bought new in 1952.
    A World History of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum.
    The New Nikon Compendium by Simon Stafford, Hillebrand & Hauschild.
    Leica: A History Illustrating Every Model and Accessory by Paul-Henry van Hasbroeck.
    ---and many others.

  4. #4
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    All good reference books listed so far. My library is boxed up and includes most of them. Including the National Camera Repair School Manuals.

    The US Navy Photographer's Mate Manual from any year is fascinating. Many very good tips on practical usage of Speed Graphic.

    I have to include Google as it finds many great books and let's us read part of it, often the part I want! And often a very rare book.

    I recently received a gift SPSE Handbook of Photographic Science and Engineering.1416 pages of real data. Thanks, Jac!

    And in my move, i found my long lost Horseman catalog.

    I doubt the Mckeowns will issue another, Hove International Blue Book: Price Guide & Handbook for Collectable Cameras. Amazing tome, with little LF as they didn't consider them collectible at last issue. They reasoned LF was a working professional machine. Times have changed.
    Last edited by Tin Can; 10-Jan-2018 at 07:55. Reason: reading book pages on Google

  5. #5
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    Christina Anderson Book on Gum, William A Jolly document on Solarization, Stephen Livik Book on Gum, Tim Rudmans Books and Eddie Ephram's Books.

  6. #6

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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?


  7. #7

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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    Above cited books are essential

    But let me add a gem:

    http://www.blurb.com/b/6465389-the-light-farm

    http://www.thelightfarm.com/

    The Light Farm IMHO it is also an essential book. Yes, very technical books are very important... but TLF adds very fresh air to a learning process. I'm (sadly) very Lp/mm oriented, but TLF teached me how important can be the artisan process and directly handling the things, it not only describes the practice to DIY dry plates and film, but it also places the photographer in a pioneering context, this is beautiful. I feel that even in the case one is not to make a dry plate ever it is very interesting to know and feel how the basic process works.


    In the tech side I'd add Post Exposure (Ctein) http://ctein.com/PostExposure2ndIllustrated.pdf and Film Development Cookbook (Anchell again)

    Also IMHO Alan Ross has some pdfs than can be purchased, related to this http://phototechmag.com/selective-ma...onal-darkroom/

    This is a very serious way to go.

  8. #8
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    Pere, a great tip to Alan Ross. I quickly noticed Alan's plot from the link. "If I had only thought to replace the back sheet of glass in the negative carrier with a piece of opal-glass or diffusing plex, he could have taped a piece of mylar over the image, added a touch of pencil density and been master of his printing desires!"

    I will buy the Alan Ross masking PDF as soon as i finish breakfast.

  9. #9

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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    an old B&J Catalog

    a couple of old Calumet catalogs from the 70's

    the lens PDF deal

    a spiral bound book on large format lenses I picked up in the 80's

  10. #10

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    Re: What Reference Books do you use?

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Moe View Post
    Pere, a great tip to Alan Ross. I quickly noticed Alan's plot from the link. "If I had only thought to replace the back sheet of glass in the negative carrier with a piece of opal-glass or diffusing plex, he could have taped a piece of mylar over the image, added a touch of pencil density and been master of his printing desires!"

    I will buy the Alan Ross masking PDF as soon as i finish breakfast.
    Randy, I'm only started testing the selective masking as described in that article/pdf, but I feel this is a very serious way to get consistent local contrast control, what is surprising to me is that this technique has not seen universal usage, IMHO this is the technique that can make people return to darkroom, not a purist technique, but providing great control while still allowing manual burning/dodging, and this makes every print unique.

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