Customer Reviews

The Film Developing Cookbook (Darkroom Cookbook, Vol. 2)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who is developing black and white knows that there are a lot of conflicting opinions out there. Kodak wants you to agitate the film a certain way, Ilford says to do it another way. Which developer do I use, and why? This book gives very logical and satisfactory answers to these questions. It allowed me to figure out how I was going to standardize my technique for the films that I am going to use. Don't be mislead by the title. This book does go into details of the effects of metol, phenidone, etc., but it is not a cookbook in the sense that you will come out designing your own developer. It does contain many recipies for developers, for those who mix their own. But, my aim was to figure out what the characteristics are of the developer that I am using, and how to maximize it. The book really excels in this area.

I've run through about 75 feet of Tech Pan film trying out how to develop it using Xtol. Following Ansel Adams' advice in his book "The Negative" turned out to be a mistake, in this case. I was making my negatives way too dense. Anschell and Troop explained why this is, in their chapter on "Document Films". This covers Tech Pan, amongst other similar films. After having read through the book, I revised my working temperature, diluted Xtol to 1+5, changed my agitation style, changed from an acid stop bath to water, and got the fantastic results that I had sought for so long! It's also worked for other offbeat films like Kodak 5302 Positive release film for the B&W slide fans like myself (using Polymax 1+2). If you REALLY want to know what you're doing, and want to save tons of time and money from wasteful trial and error, get this wonderful book. It's really improved my results!

This book is what the name suggests - a book of recipes for photographic chemicals. I personally won't be mixing my own developers in the near future, but found the book helpful in choosing my own film and developer from those commercially available. The margin notes are full of informative tidbits (such as the suggestion that tabular grain films only benefit the profit margin of the manufacturers.) The bulk of the book discusses developers, but also includes a chapter on other chemicals, such as stop and fixer. I will, in fact, probably try using the alkaline fixer in the near future.

A background in chemistry would be helpful, but not necessary, but without it, you may glaze over a bit in places.

My biggest criticism with this book is its complete lack of figures. A photo demonstrating grain and acutance like Adams includes in "The Negative" would be helpful, as well as density curves indicating the effects of different developers. Because of this ommision, I would recommend that someone read "The Negative" before reading this book to fill in the gaps.

Here is the long and the short of it: This is a wonderful book. I have looked at dozens of photography books, and what seems like hundreds of magazines, and I am positive that none of them contain the wealth of information that Steve Anchell (in collaboration with Bill Troop) puts in this book (or in Steve's other books for that matter). If you are interested in making the most of your black and white photography, you need to know what your film if composed of, what it reacts to, and how to achieve the effects that you want to get out of it. You don't have to be a darkroom guru to use it, you don't need a lot of equipment, and you don't need an elaborate setup. I think anyone will improve his or her results after reading and using this book. I have always believed that the magic in black and white takes place in the darkroom, and even if you don't have a darkroom, your control of the film development process will make you a better photographer. This is a great way to get it right.

I bought this book under the assumption and recommendation that it would teach me how to begin developing my own film... Unfortunately, this is NOT the book for that! This book has great historical value in describing the different formulas, their strengths and weaknesses, and contains charts that are probably valuable to those who ALREADY process their own film. This book is NOT for beginners looking into how one goes about processing their own film!

I bought this book as the other books I have are now a bit dated. As the understanding of film development is always evolving, I thought this book would give me the latest ideas and knowledge.
It does to some extent, but I could not help feeling the authors did not take the time to fully research and comprehend the details. Where they have quoted chemists / researchers the details are clear. However where they have tried to interpret or discuss aspects in some places it appears they do not clearly understand what they are trying to explain. The result is that they contradict themselves, fail to make things clear, or just plain get things wrong. They also only seem to address research by Kodak and a few independent researchers. The book thus misses out on research done by Fuji, Agfa, Ilford, etc. which is a significant omission in my opinion.

So is the book worth it ? I think that I would still buy it as there are very few sources of up to date information available. And to be fair, they seem to have taken care in reproducing the formula. However, I would be sure to read some of the older books on developers, and cross check the information before relying on it.

I bought and read every page of all three of Steve Anchell's black and white photo information books: The Variable Contrast Printing Manual, The Film Developing Cookbook, and The Darkroom Cookbook. Why? Because he gives a mix of an historical view plus tells what to pick of the best current chemistries. He does this without bogging down in the actual complexities of a college chemistry course keeping it at a usable technicians level. Since he also tells you why you are using various chemicals or paper his books do not dumb down but instead give you fascinating useful information. Anyone serious about darkroom work will appreciate his insights and commentary about chemistry use. He lists so many historical and current B&W chemical formulas and their use that any B&W experimenter will find the books useful. Beginners may get information overload but anyone who has already done B&W developing will appreciate the vast amount of information. These books could use an overall rewrite to make them a bit simpler to understand, in spite of this they are one of the few sources to accumulate this B&W information and are well worth owning as a reference and explanation.

I've been working with different films and developers for ages. Now, I can know why I got wrong results before. I also get The Darkroom Cookbook by Stephen, both make a good team.

Bill Troop has been very well connected to a lot of people in photography over the years and was heavily engaged with developers at Kodak in Rochester. He accumulated a significant amount of subjective information and has pretty much pushed it all right into this book. It's prefect for the darkroom enthusiast who is intrigued with historic processes and how they might effect ones creative options. Note that this is not an instructional book for beginners but something more targeted at the advanced enthusiast whose interest has grown beyond the use of commonly available processes.

just love it because it adds an extra dimension to the crafting of b&w photographic images.
Crafting is the key work for the images - especially in a world which values homogeneous-ness :)

Things you never knew about the developing process are in this. I was quite impressed, and am enthusiastic about re-reading it.