Re: Book search


Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Fri, 09 Apr 1999 01:40:48 -0400 (EDT)


On Thu, 8 Apr 1999, Gary Miller wrote:

> Does anyone have any recommendations on a book that would contain
> information about bleaching prints, toning, and other effects that would be
> utilized in a fine art sense, probably mostly on silver prints, but possibly
> on alternative materials as well. I know that this is not strictly

Gary this certainly is alternative. Nowhere is it written that
"alternative" means only hand coating, in fact perish forbid.

The classic book that you describe is Photographic Facts and Formulas, now
needless to say out of print. There were many editions over the years (at
least 10, my earliest is about 1898, my latest 1968). For our purposes the
most recent would be the best. You can try a book search on one of the web
book sites, but that PF & F tends to be rather pricey.

We've long asked why they don't reprint... now Steve Anchell has a book
which I haven't seen, but which gets good marks all the way around. He
says it has 20 toning formulas, and since that's still in print (Artcraft
has it for $26) & has a lot of other good stuff as well, might be your
best bet.

And/or your VERY BEST BET, if we all live another few weeks... Issue #3 of
Post-Factory Photography has for technical feature, or one of them,
several articles on toning factory paper... We divulge a few *secrets*,
too, ie., "My secret formulas/their secret formulas." For better or worse
I got bogged down in Mortensen, dead artist of the month, well not the
month,to be precise, of the issue. A very interesting fellow,
incidentally, with a nice unhealthy fantasy life...

There are other sources, for instance, the British Journal of Photography
Almanacs of the 30s, which you can find around for maybe $35, had all
toning formulas extant as a rule... but I'd think that for modern
ingredients and modern papers the Anchell would be better, cheaper, too.
(The P-F, naturally, best of all, certainly cheapest.)

cheers,

Judy

> 'alternative' in the sense of non-silver mainstream techniques, but I know
> that the list is a great source of technical knowledge and I have not been
> able to find this type of info. Thanks for any help. You can e-mail me
> offlist if you think that that would be appropriate.
>
> Gary Miller
> gmphotos@earthlink.net
>
>
>



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