Customer Reviews

Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised Edition

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you're interested in black-and-white *film* photography, this is a good book, particularly for beginners. It is focused primarily on equipment and technique, including developing and printing. There is a lot of discussion of basic principles, which will be of little interest to intermediate or advanced photographers who already know this stuff. There isn't really much discussion of the creative side of photography, but there are several very good example photographs throughout the book (I discovered a couple of photographers that I had never heard about before).

Despite what the description on amazon.com says, there is almost no mention of digital photography in the 3rd edition, even though the copyright date of the 3rd edition is 2005. The discussion of digital photography is limited to a couple of pages, and doesn't say much more than "digital cameras and digital backs exist, and you also need a computer with Photoshop."

I have another book on the same subject. It covers more and it offers more detail in almost every subject it handles.
And, it made me feel helpless when I tried to read it. I said, "no, I cannot do this whole processing, printing and whatever thing"!
Now, after reading Horenstein's book, I think I CAN do it! I must do it! That, I call a big difference.

In short: This is a beautifully prepared, detailed guideline for entering into the conventional B&W photography world.
It has almost nothing that could be useful for digital photography.
I say "almost" because there are many beautiful photographs by some leading photographers within (all related to the subject matter, by the way).
Watching those can be inspiring even for those shooting digital only :)

In fact, its title says it all (this has become a rather unusual event, lately): "A Basic Manual".
It handles every imaginable subject with, authority and care; from film ISO to mounting prints.
Suitable even for those who have started photography just recently.
I recommend this book without any reservation to the small, specific subset of B&W film photographers who intend to print their own images in a darkroom.

This was a great book. I was taking a BW darkroom class and this was the required text. Good choice by the instructor. Also a good book to help digital only folks understand some of the settings and functions of thier cameras.

Although I am a digital photographer, this book still explains in detail about the black and white process. It talks about exposure, shutter speeds, f stops... even developing your own film. I myself don't want to limit myself just because I do digital photography, this book helps to explain another part of photography that I very much want to get involved in.

I liked the condition of this book for its price! Really inexpensive and it will definitely we used again :)

Took a class intro to b&w photography class two summers ago and this was a requirement to have, gotta say it was very helpful.

Bought the book for my college age daughter. It is beautiful and she loves it. Hope it gives her the incentive to actually do her homework!