Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised Edition [Paperback]

Henry Horenstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2004

BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY is a comprehensive instructional book that covers every element of photography. Henry Horenstein's books have been widely used at leading universities, including Parsons School of Design, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT as well as in continuing education programs. Horenstein is a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY is a real bargain among photographic how-to books.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Horenstein is a widely published and exhibited professional photographer and the author of more than two dozen books, including the classic texts Black & White Photography, Beyond Basic Photography, and Color Photography. His work has appeared in Life, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and Town & Country. He lives in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 3rd Revised edition (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316373052
• ISBN-13: 978-0316373050
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Black & White
  • #4 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Equipment
  • #6 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Reference

More About the Author

Henry Horenstein is a widely published and exhibited professional photographer and the author of more than two dozen books, including the classic texts Black & White Photography and Beyond Basic Photography, and monographs such as Honky Tonk, Animalia, Show, Close Relations, and Racing Days. Horenstein is professor of photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. You can see his work at www.horenstein.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A requirement for beginners!, January 12, 2006

By 

I. Momcheva - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised Edition (Paperback)

I picked this book on recommendation by my darkroom teacher and I loved it!
Henry Horenstein covers everything you need to know in order to make good quality black and white pictures from start to finish and well beyond just pressing the button. He discusses how to use different cameras and films that you might come across as well as different types of lenses and their pro's and con's. His discussion of exposures and appertures is very informative and beautifully illustrated with lots of examples. The sections on film and print developping are filled with numerous practical tips and step-by-step guides I found enormously useful - so much that after reading them I was able to set up a darkroom by myself on a minimum budget (and avoided buying a separate darkroom book altogether). The section on using multigrade filters was particularly good. The last few sections deal with toning and some creative effect and are just opening the door to unconventional photographic methods. (The goal of the author was deffinitely not to review all creative movements in photography which is another book by itself.)

The book is printed on heavy paper and all illustations (black and white of course) are of excellent quality. There are numerous examples of beautiful photographs with a short explanation of how they were made.

Overall, I was enormously satisfied with the book and find it to be an excellent B&W photography textbook. The book is very complete and full of important facts and tips of the "wish someone told me that" type. It is very exhaustive in covering the basics but goes well beyond the bare minimum. Despite my previous experience, I learned an awful lot by this book and now I am even more inspired by B&W photography and more confident in the darkroom.

I would recommend this book to every beginner and slightly experienced aficionado of B&W photography.

PS: This book does not address digital photography in any way. There are tons of other very good book which do that.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, March 7, 2007

By 

William R. Croninger "bill_croninger" (Alfred, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised Edition (Paperback)

A Basic Manual, 3rd Edit Revised is an excellent resource for the new (film) photographer. I'd also argue its not a half-bad general resource for the more experienced photographer. I used his previous version in an introductory course in black and white photography that I taught for a number of years. Of late I have been using Mastering Black and White Photography by Bernhard Suess but will now switch back to this text. Student response to both texts has been overwhelmingly positive however I feel Horenstein's writing style is easier for them to follow. The sequence, illustrations and figures of the Horenstein book seem both logical as well as well done. Particularly useful are the illustrations of common negative faults, something I had missed after moving to the Suess text. Highly recommended but please note that this is a book heavily weighted to using film cameras as well as processes and procedures in the darkroom. There are other works more suited for digital photography and for those who are looking for a reference on the "art" of photography.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horenstein's Black and White Photography, April 24, 2006

By 

Robert Torchia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised Edition (Paperback)

I just want to add come comments to the previous reviews. Horenstein's manual is geared for the beginner and covers all of the basics and then some in a clear and precise manner. The book is extremely well illustrated with great shots that explicate the techniques that the author discusses. When I began to experiment with photography I came to regard this book as an absolutely superb resource, the ideal beginning point from which one can proceed to more sophisticated things.

One reviewer noted that there is nothing in the most recent edition concerning digital photography. If you are a traditionalist who wants to stick to film, and all the complexities of developing film, this deficiency surely does not present a problem, and in fact may be an asset; even an earlier edition will be tremendously useful. This is a great book at a fair price and I very strongly recommend it.