I am very interested in black and white photography; it is my hobby - it started when I took a class where I processed my own film, etc... I want to set up a personal dark room and learn more about black and white photography. Does anyone have any advice (books, reading materials, discount equipment distributors, etc.) for me???

-- Christina Marie LaMere (cmlamere@smumn.edu), August 02, 2001

Answers

This forum is for sure a good source of information. Go to this link for starters:

http://www3.telus.net/drkrm/main.htm

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), August 03, 2001.

Ok, Christina. A good basic book for starters is Basic darkroom and photography techniques, by Tom Grimm. Read this book and don't be too much in a hurry to read everything that is out there, as in most things in life if you become an expert in the basics, the more difficult techniques will be easier for you to master. Once you are comfortable AND competent with your technique you can start exploring greater control in the darkroom by reading the photographer's Master Printing Course by Tim Rudman. Alternatively if you wish to do all your work in a "lightroom" as opposed to a "darkroom" you might start looking into digital techniques for picture capture and processing. Since you are starting, now is the time to explore wether you would like to work with digital or traditional methods. Once you have become experienced it is difficult to cross over since the investement in equipment and learning time is too great to start over again. Good luck and come back to this forum any time you get stuck, we all do one time or another. :-))

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), August 03, 2001.