Customer Reviews

Darkroom to Digital: Black and White Photography with Photoshop - The Art of Transition

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

 

 

If you are looking for a book with nuts and bolts techniques on how to print high quality black and white prints from digital images this book is NOT for you. It is a journal of one man's journey from the world of black and white film photography to black and white digital. The book is eloquently written, with beautiful, artistic images, printed on high quality stock. It is thoughtful, creative and confirms the notion that black and white digital can be just as good if not better than film.

This book has very little actual information about producing digital black & white images. Mostly it's a discussion of the author's transition from film to digital, and the benefits/differences of digital. There isn't much actual information on Photoshop techniques and other means of producing digital B&W photos, and what there is is very basic and can be found in countless other books/magazine articles/web sites. As well, the photos are not very inspiring, and certainly do not illustrate anything specific to digital photography. A much better choice for an introduction to digital B&W photography is Barry Thornton's "Elements of Transition."

Despite my high hopes for this book and the fact that Mr. Epharums is a talented photographer and print maker, and I trust had the best of intentions, this book is just not very good. The approach the author takes is inconsistent and confusing: at times he's rambling when you want simplicity and clarity; at other times he's sparse when you're hoping for detail.

For starters, the sections covering how to work with Photoshop are not very clear. And the figures and much of the text are so painfully small that they're almost useless. This is especially obvious when he covers duotones. I like what he's achieved, but he doesn't give much to learn from.

In another part of the book he offers his "guiding principles," a series of one-liners that I assume are supposed to convey a Zen-like teaching about his approach. Instead they left me baffled. Consider the phrase "A precision of feeling." It sounds nice, but what does it mean, (speaking of precision)? Or the phrase "Let the accident participate" which is accompanied by photos of boats beached at low tide. Again I was baffled: does he mean an accident in something he did in taking the photo or in working on it in Photoshop, or did he mean the "accident" of the beached boats (which were beached on purpose)? Again, a nice Zen-like sentiment (and believe me, I can get down and cosmic with the best of them), but not useful in learning about photography or about digital black and white image-making.

This touches on the essence of what's wrong with this book. It is trying to be both a guide to digital black and white printmaking and at the same time, a book about Mr. Epharums' approach and philosophy to image-making. Not that this can't be pulled off, only that he doesn't do it in this book.

I think that this book could have worked, if the author had partnered with a good Photoshop teacher, and if he had worked with a compassionate but ruthless editor, to keep the book on track and the ramblings at bay, and if he was committed to clear examples of how to make these types of images. But that's a lot of if-ing on my part.

What redeems this book somewhat are the images: they are wonderful, and do give one inspiration as to what is possible with digital image-making; just don't look to this book to show you how.

Regards, David

As the reviewer below says, it's not a book on the nuts and bolts of how-to. For the most part I liked it, some for it's unique approach, but also did not like it for the same reasons. I found it a little of a frustrating read. The writer discusses how the book evolved a bit from his original intention but overall I had a feeling of rambling and lack of clear and concise direction. It's more like the writer spilling his thoughts as he wrote the book---like it took a life of it's own and he just followed. I can appreciate that it's not a how-to book and more a book on the philosophy of what it means to change over, or transition, or even straddle from traditional to digital darkoom. However, I would have appreciated and gotten more from the book if it had a more solid direction, purpose and conveyance of solid ideas rather than a rambling set of essays on what it means to him to make the change. I was more frustrated than entertained or enlightened. Also, the book's layout, while interesting, is a bit too "artsy" and esoteric for my liking. Almost like the writer was experimenting there too and allowing it to "flow" rather than end up with a tight, well-organized and purposeful lay-out.

I agree with the earlier reviewers. This is a very personal account of one man's transition from the traditional darkroom to digital. It concentrates on the effect of that change on the process of making black and white photographs. It is not a "how-to" manual, and, after some initial exploration of this transition myself, I don't agree with some of the author's statements about Photoshop and what he did and didn't find useful. A really good "how-to" is Amphoto's Guide to Digital Black and White Printing by Schaub.

First off let me say that there should be 4 Stars up there and not 3, but it won't let me change it. This book is not a manual of how to do B/W photography in photoshop. Instead its about the options, and new roads that being able to do such things, creates. This should be required reading before anyone enters that tired old, digital vs. film debate. This book shows how digital is really just another tool to the photographer and how it can liberate the photographer and expand their horizons. It challenges you to think rather than opinionate and at the same time offers many good photos that might help inspire your own work.

A few books come my way which have a story, some technical relevance, and a soul. I read somewhere else (sorry, can't recall) that sometimes we don't find good books, they find us. This is a good book that found me. I like it. The style, the contents, the production, the concept - the 'soul'. If you are moving to that 'analog to digital' phase in your photographic life, buy this book. And see what develops.