The Darkroom Cookbook

392 Pages·2008·3.011 MB·English

by  Steve Anchell

The Darkroom Cookbook
Henry and Steve, 1999. © 2008 Donna Conrad. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.
The DARKROOM COOKBOOK
Third Edition
Steve Anchell
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON
NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO
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ISBN: 978-0-240-81055-3
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the selfl ess photographers who have shared their experience
and darkroom discoveries. To these photographers, known and unknown, we owe a debt of
gratitude.
I believe the function of the artist in all media is a creation of affi rmations; the search
for and the realization of beauty.
The function of art includes an establishment of communication, at the imaginative
and constructive level, and placing the emphasis of thought and emotion in relationship
to an ideal world.
The glorifi cation of decay, fi lth, disease, despair, and evil succeeds only in blunting our
necessary awareness of these negative qualities . . .
I believe the artist can accomplish most on the agenda for survival by creating beauty,
by setting examples of beauty in order, by embracing the concept of the essential dignity of
the human mind and spirit.
—Ansel Adams
Table of Contents
PREFACE ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
INTRODUCTION xv
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS xix
LIST OF FORMULAS xxv
1. Planning a Darkroom 1
2. Equipment 15
3. Developers 19
4. Film Development 33
5. Monobath Film Developing 54
6. Pyrogallol and Pyrocatechin 58
7. Print Developers 71
8. Printing Methods and Techniques 77
9. Stop Baths and Fixers 103
10. Toning Prints 109
11. Photographic Reduction and Intensifi cation 123
12. Development by Inspection 134
13. Reversal Processing and Enlarged Negatives 138
14. Printing Out Processes 147
viii CONTENTS
APPENDIXES
1 Safety in Handling Photographic Chemicals 159
2 Chemicals 163
3 Pharmacopoeia 169
4 Proofi ng for Maximum Black 197
5 Archival Print Procedure 199
Formulas 203
Conversion Tables 323
Material Sources 336
Bibliography 340
Index 343
Preface
The Darkroom Cookbook is based upon a series of articles originally appearing in Camera &
Darkroom magazine. The articles were inspired by a brief encounter at a camera store. I was
browsing the chemical section searching for potassium bromide. When I found it, a young
woman inquired what it was used for. I pointed to the paper developer she was holding and
said, “An ounce of 10% bromide solution in that developer will improve the highlights in your
prints.”
“Oh my goodness! That sounds too technical to me!”
This made me realize that one photographer’s basic craft is another photographer’s “oh
my goodness!” Yet, I have never considered myself to be technical. Even though I learned the
Zone System in 1976, half the time I do not use light meters and have no use for a densito-
meter. To me, adding bromide or carbonate to a developer is about as technical as exposing
for the shadows. Every photographer should know that!
Since the fi rst columns appeared in Camera & Darkroom, The Darkroom Cookbook
has taken on a further signifi cance. As a photographer, educator, and writer, I put great impor-
tance on the future of the silver-based process. I have a strong desire to keep the fl ame alive,
to pass on experience and technique to new generations of photographers.
At the turn of the last century, platinum/palladium printing was the most popular print-
ing process among professionals. It was not until well into the 1920s that silver printing
became widely accepted. When it did, platinum/palladium all but disappeared.
Today platinum/palladium is enjoying a resurgence of interest among fi ne-art photogra-
phers. Unfortunately, though there have continued to be a number of practitioners through
the years, the wealth of information and techniques developed by thousands of platinum/
palladium printers has been lost. The publishing and, specifi cally, “how-to” book industry was
not what it is in our time, and most photographers either abandoned the process or simply
took their skills with them to the grave. Today’s practitioners are in the position of having to
rediscover, or reinvent, techniques that were often considered standard practice.
The purpose of this book, then, is twofold. The fi rst is to enable photographers to create
images in the darkroom which refl ect their emotional state and response to their subject. The
second is to preserve and share the knowledge and techniques that have been so arduously
developed by creators in silver.
For those reading this who are already familiar with the fi rst and second editions of The
Darkroom Cookbook, I hope this third edition will add to your knowledge and enjoyment
of the traditional black and white darkroom process. For those of you just starting to work
in a black and white darkroom, or just discovering The Cookbook, you are in for a pleasant
surprise.