The Darkroom Cookbook, 3rd Ed.

[Steve Anchell]

I would like to let members of the Large Format Photography Forum know that the third edition of The Darkroom Cookbook is on the press.

For this edition I asked other photographers, many of them LF members, for personal contributions. These include Bruce Barnbaum, Rod Dresser, Jay Dusard, Patrick Gainer, Richard Garrod, Henry Gilpin, Gordon Hutchings, Sandy King, Les McLean, Saïd Nuseibeh, France Scully Osterman, Mark Osterman, Tim Rudman, Ryuijie, John Sexton, John Wimberly, and David Wood. Each has contributed some tip or technique on their area of expertise along with a representative photo.

The formulas were gone over with a fine tooth comb by Mark Booth of Washington, Paul Lewis of Canada, Ian Grant of the U.K. and Turkey, and Larry Hussar of Michigan. For example, in Kodak DK-15 I specified 5.5 grams of metol, they corrected it to be 5.7 grams! And that’s just one example.

In addition, the chapter on toning was thoroughly gone through by Tim Rudman; the chapter on Printing Out Paper was almost entirely rewritten by the Ostermans; Patrick Gainer shared formulas and information on glycol/TEA; Sandy King helped with the pyrocatechin section; David Wood of .dr5 Chrome Lab worked with me on reversal processing and even provided variations of the formulas he uses; and there were a number of other contributions.

The new edition includes:

1. A chapter on reversal processing and enlarging negatives.

2. Several unpublished pyro formulas.

3. Updated information on pushing film.

4. Expanded chapter on pyro and pyrocatechin.

5. Expanded chapter on printing.

6. Expanded chapter on toning (thanks to Tim Rudman).

7. Expanded chapter on Salted Paper and Printing Out Paper, including the formula and technique for Collodio-Chloride Printing Out Paper, which hasn’t been published for over 100 years. This was provided by Mark Osterman of the George Eastman House.

The real prize, for me, is new information on the Weston’s amidol formulas and a section about Brett and his working methods, including a rare photo of Brett with his 11x14” view camera, and two hand-written notes (reproduced) shared by Brett’s close friend, photographer Richard Miller.

In order to let publishers, magazine editors, and camera companies know there is still an interest in darkroom I urge everyone to purchase a copy. As John Sexton has said, we talk with our pocketbooks. If Focal Press sees there is an interest in traditional titles there is more likliehood that other books on the subject will be published.

You can order direct from the publisher, www.elsevierdirect.com.

[cjbroadbent]

Great news.
The earlier editions were all gone in Europe.

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

In order to let publishers, magazine editors, and camera companies know there is still an interest in darkroom I urge everyone to purchase a copy. You can order direct from the publisher, www.elsevierdirect.com.

This is great and I certainly hope that the book is sucessful enough to do that. Many people predicted that by 2005, no company would sell any products related to darkroom technology for fear it would no longer be profitable. I certainly hope that people will still be guessing that in 100 years from now. Darkroom technology needs to be preserved, it is the original form in which photography was intended to be. I know I know I'll be ordering my copy.

[David Karp]

Steve,

Is this book a sort of combination of the Darkroom and Film Developing books? Sounds like a lot more detailed information on film developers in this one.

[Ron Marshall]

Any plans to update The Film Developing Cookbook? It's a great resource.

[Richard Wasserman]

I've pre-ordered my copy! Thanks for all the hard work Steve, and everyone else who contributed. This certainly sounds like the best edition yet, I can't wait to see it.

[Richard K.]

Is there a URL direct to this edition? I was only able to find the 2nd edition....

[Richard K.]

Yes Richard, it's right here:

http://www.elsevierdirect.com/produc...=9780240810553

you pathetic excuse for a Googler...

[brandonjscott]

Great news! I just pre-ordered my copy.

[Ash]

I don't have any money left in my bank account right now, but I'll surely (pre)order it.

Thanks for the info.