Best black & white photography books according to redditors

MA in Photo History and BFA in Studio Photography here. If I was teaching beginning photography, these would be the books I would use to illustrate the history, theory, and techniques behind photography:

• The History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall This book is a bit outdated but it is the seminal text for the history of photography
  
• On Photography by Susan Sontag A series of essays about the meaning of photography
  
• [Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes] (http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Lucida-Reflections-Roland-Barthes/dp/0374532338/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374024103&sr=1-2) A book that illuminates the standard theory of studium and punctum
  
• Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual by Henry Horenstein
  
  The two theory texts (Sontag and Barthes) are collegiate level so I would introduce them lightly - maybe use a section out of both to structure a project around. If you want to PM me I can email you a syllabus I created for when I taught 6 week adult course at a community studio. This will give basic gist of how it can be structured and what you will need supply-wise. Also- if you want - I'd be happy to review any syllabus you make.

I found the film developing cookbook to be a great primer on how to develop b&w film at home.

The definitive book on the subject is Mastering Digital Black and White by Amadou Diallo, although I did not find it particularly useful :)

By far the best thing you can do is purchase Silver Efex Pro (SFX).

Since you're used to the zone system you'll feel right at home in it. It even has a zone system histogram where you can highlight which areas of your photo fall into which zone. The individually adjustable highlight, midtone, and shadow settings for things like brightness, contrast, clarity, etc. are invaluable when you are used to thinking in terms of tones. The control points are a fantastic, fast, way to do local adjustments. They are much easier than little pieces of cardboard and your hand in the darkroom :)

You can use Lightroom or Photoshop to achieve similar results, but personally I find them immensely frustrating for B&W work and always, always, always, use SFX.

There are people who say that SFX is nothing more than a bunch of presets, but they haven't dug into the program. Yes, there presets you can apply to get started, but that's no different than presets in Lightroom. They're just starting points for your vision, which you then refine through tools dedicated to and designed for B&W.

All of the B&W images in my Southwest 2013 gallery were converted using SFX. Mesa Clouds, in particular, was one that took two weekends of work to convert using SFX to get what I wanted from the terrible, terrible, original. More examples can be found in my Washington Coast gallery. All the B&W/toned images from the Hoh Rainforest on were done with SFX, including the selectively-toned trees, which was all done using SFX control points.

One tip: Don't use SFX with Lightroom. Instead open your image in Photoshop and use SFX as a Smart Layer. That way you can go back and do infinite non-destructive re-edits of your B&W conversion.

Darkroom cookbook and developing cookbook maybe? Also Ansel Adams's "The negative" might be helpful

thanks for posting. I think you have a great attitude, and honestly, attitude counts for more than you think.

I'll not critique the website, but, knowing you're new to the fundamentals, try to share some more general thoughts.

1. do more. I think you're starting this already with some of your sketches for mini cooper. but always, always, do more. 50 iterations, 100 iterations. Keep pushing beyond the obvious, and use sketching as the tool to do that. I read an old design book, from the 70s, that said "only one solution is the symptom of an inflexible and untrained mind." /r/52weeksofdesign
   
   
2. Time to get up on the basics. That means the basics of drawing (if you so please). It's not a requirement as a designer (I'm a piss poor artist), but it definitely helps sometimes. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898682&sr=8-1&keywords=right+hand+drawing
   
   What sketching is important for is flexing ideas and testing compositions before going to the computer.
   
   
3. Learn the basics of typography:
   http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Graphic-Design-Communication-Courses/dp/0321934288/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898490&sr=1-1&keywords=stop+stealing+sheep
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898879&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+bringhurst
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898800&sr=1-2&keywords=typography
   
   
4. Grids
   http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898762&sr=1-1&keywords=kimberly+elan
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Graphic-Systeme-Visuele-Gestaltung/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898837&sr=8-1&keywords=grid+systems
   
   
5. Photography (if you like)
   http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photography-Manual-Revised/dp/0316373052/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898921&sr=8-2&keywords=black+and+white+photography
   
   and
   
   
6. remember that this is detail work. So things like spelling errors in this post, and on your website, should be resolved.
   
   Above and beyond the basics, I see your passion is impacting the world through design. So the question becomes HOW can graphic design impact the world, and does it at all? and what can you make or do directly? I think above all, a designer is an entrepreneur these days. Especially with that main driving passion.
   

I've decided to get back into film since I put it down after college.

Step 1: Camera, looking at a Mamiya m645 with 5 lenses for $550. The seller seems like a good guy and has sample photos, bonus is that he's a photographer who regularly posts content. So we're calling step 1 as "checked"

Step 2: I have no clue where to begin lol. I was planning on setting up my cameras side by side initially to get a feel for what to expect exposure wise, put my digital at whatever my film ISO is, pick a middle aperture and shutter speed and pull the trigger. Thoughts?

I still have this book and think it should be sufficient to get me out the gate, I assume it's still the same general concept. After all, light is light no? Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Paperback – May 30, 1983

Here is the desktop version of your link

I've got Tim Rudman's Master Lith Printing Course & his Photograher's Toning Book (via inter library loan) now. Just ordered his master printing course book. Nice enough to even reply via email to a question I had about expired papers & lithe printing.

Not sure why you're using TMaxRS developer. HC-100 Dilution B would probably be a better choice. I'd expose the Acros at ASA 50 and develop in HC-110B for about 5 1/2 min @68F.

Pretty much no film (or very few) will give you full ASA speed if you want to preserve shadow detail. (The only example I've found in he past 25 years or so was the Efke 100 which did just fine at rated ASA.) By rating the film at ASA 50, you get lots of shadow detail. Then you UNDER develop just a bit to make sure the highlights don't blow out. Hence my recommendation above - which is just a first estimate to get you going.

But you want to push - i.e., You want to severely underexpose the film by pretending it's faster than it really is. You can do this, but at a cost of grain, typically. See, development mostly affects the highlights (and exposure the shadows). So, since you are really underexposing the shadows, you REALLY have to OVER develop to get anything to show. The longer the film sits in the developer - usually - the more grain you build up. So, in this case (and I don't have times for you), I'd use HC-110 1:7 and see if you can figure out the required time.

If Kodak products are super expensive, you can get Ilford's ID-11 - which is just their own version of Kodak D-76, probably
the most used developer in film history. It can be used 1:1 for full strength (which might be a good choice for your push).

For more details, see if you can find a copy of:

https://www.amazon.com/Film-Developing-Cookbook-Darkroom-Vol/dp/0240802772


I will repeat the most important rule here:

• Shadow detail comes from EXPOSURE.
  
• Developing mostly affects HIGHLIGHTS.
  
  P.S. If Kodak stuff is expensive, you might also see if you can get the Ilford Delta films more reasonably and/or HP5+.
  

https://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Darkroom-Dataguide-Publication/dp/0879856025/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492160981&sr=1-2&keywords=Black+and+white+darkroom

https://www.amazon.com/Film-Developing-Cookbook-Darkroom-Vol/dp/0240802772/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492161106&sr=1-4&keywords=Black+and+white+darkroom

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Beyond-Monochrome-Traditional-Photography/dp/0240816250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492161323&sr=1-1&keywords=way+beyond+monochrome

And, of course, Ansel Adams trilogy, The Camera, The Negative, and The Print.

Here is the mobile version of your link

Black And White Photography: A Basic Manuel is pretty good, they use it in schools.

Go to the nearest public library and they will have several books on basic photography.

Or buy one for cheap since most of them are really old and you can buy them used. Like this one http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photography-Basic-Manual/dp/0316373141

After reading something like that, read the manual for the camera which you can find here http://www.butkus.org/chinon/canon/canon_ae-1/canon_ae-1.htm

The manual may not make much sense unless you have basic knowledge of photography and that's why I recommend you read a basic photography guide before the manual.

Never mind technical guides, digital allows for experimentation and lots of blogs out there will teach you the basics. If you want to take a good photograph, you need to know what good photographs look like. I'd advise he learn from the best.

Source is Yes Yes We're Magicians by Jonah Samson.