I'm looking for some ADVANCED darkroom books. I already bought the two essential "cookbooks" which have helped me a lot improving my technique. Now I'm interested in somrthing more advanced, dealing esp. with photographic chemistry. I found this obscure book at Amazon.com which seems to be the only book available dealing specifically with photographic chemistry, it's called "Chemistry of Photography" by Roger K Bunting. ISBN 0961672404. Has anybody read it?

Also in the list: 1- Gradient Light : The Art and Craft of Using Variable Contrast Paper

2- The Variable Contrast Printing Manual by Steve Anchell.

3- Darkroom Dynamics : A Guide to Creative Darkroom Techniques by Jim Stone.

4- The Elements of Black and White Printing by Carson Graves.

I'd appreciate any suggestions or feedback regarding these books.

Much regards Xosni

-- Xosni (xosni@gega.net), October 03, 2001

Answers

'Darkroom' by Lustrum press is excellent. There's also a volume called 'Darkroom 2', which to me seems simply a catalogue of the equipment that a few famous and not-so-famous photographers have in their darkrooms. It might interest some, but I'd avoid that one, personally.
I also recently picked up a volume called 'Basic photographic chemistry', which despite the title, is far from basic, and tells you more than you ever needed to know about,...well..., photographic chemistry, if you hadn't already guessed.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), October 04, 2001.

The book on my shelf is "Beyond Basic Photography" by Henry Horenstein

It has formulas for making your own solutions. It's a first step in departing from commercial solutions.

-- ted (ted@elfintrader.com), October 29, 2001.

Try to find a copy of the "Zone Six Workshop" by Fred Picker. It's a skinny little book, with more information than you will ever want to use about making what he terms a "fine print" My wife gave it to me for a birthday, and I read it about a half-dozen times before I figured out what he was doing. A good book. CC

-- Carl Crosby (humminboid@aol.com), October 30, 2001.