The Elements of Black-And-White Printing by Carson Graves (1992, Paperback)

I found this book in a rather peculiar way . The author has written The Zone System for 35 mm Photographers . I obtained this book in a lot with another excellent B&W Photo book called Post Exposure by Ctein . After reading Post Exposure I decided to take a look at Carson Graves Zone System book . It was fantastic ! I had never read such an easy explanation of the Zone System . It was a hands on book with examples and how to make your own tests . The pictures in the book give an excellent idea on how to work with the Zone System . Then I noticed that the book refers to a second book to which I am reviewing . And it was explained that The Elements of Black and White Printing showed you how to print in your darkroom what you had learned to expose in film in the first book (Zone System for 35 mm ) . The book explains everything with diagrams and photos . It even tells how to make your own developers in order to obtain certain results with your prints . Author Carson Graves is excellent in explaining every process step by step . This is a real gem for all those B&W darkroom fans who still print their own pictures . I wished I would have found these books years before now that silver halide photography is in its dawn . But it is always better late than never . These two books are in their second edition . I have bought all four of them . If you need to buy Elements of B&W I strongly recomend you buy The Zone System for 35 mm because they complement each other . As to the editions I would recomend to buy the second edition on both books . Since the first edition is a bit scarce . Finding Author Carson Graves books has been the end of a search for excellent B&W photo books that will make every student of photography an excellent craftsman of this hobby or art media .
Just one word of advice . The Elements of B&W Printing is only for people who print in their darkrooms . But those who print and buy this book I can only wish them many happy years working in their darkrooms .