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 by Les McLean
Written by an acknowleged master of fine black and white photography, in "Creative Black &White Photography", Les McLean takes the reader step by step through the thought processes and technical procedures involved in producing a high-quality image. At the core of the book is McLean's belief that it is impossible to separate the picture-taking from the printing stage: the best black-and-white prints are those in which the photographer has visualised from the outset the effect that he or she wants to create, and has thought from the outset about how to achieve that effect in the darkroom. Renowned both as a photographer and as a fine photographic printer, Les McLean is uniquely qualified to emphasise the importance of this link. Packed with inspiring images and insights, "Creative Black & White Photography" is essential reading for all photographers who appreciate the aesthetic qualities of black and white, and want technical and creative guidance to enable them to create the images they have in their mind's eye.
Published by David & Charles, hard cover
Price £19.95 (no VAT)
The size and weight (1.3kg) of this book make overseas shipping expensive. It also means that the shopping cart won't necessarily give you the correct idea of the costs which are (for one copy of the book alone):
UK, Royal Mail Standard Parcel service (approx 2 - 3 days): £5.00 Europe air mail printed paper rate: £8.10 Rest of the world air mail printed paper rate: £15.50 Surface mail all destinations (outside UK): £10.00 - note this can take up to 8 weeks!
If you're ordering this item together with others please contact us for a shipping quotation.
Contents
Introduction The Basic Film Test Pre-Visualisation The Expressive Negative The Fine Print Case Studies Digital Black and White Acknowledgements Index
Some comments on this book from the APUG forums:
I was at the local Barnes and Noble last evening and picked up Les' book. I have got to say it is a really good book. Not a basic darkroom book, those are dime a dozen. This one starts out with testing for your own personal film speed and ends with Printing a fine print. The N+/- development is explained much simpler than Mr. Adam's book. I just picked it up as well this evening. Brian's description is right on--a fine book for someone who knows how to make a basic print and wants to do the next thing. One thing I particularly liked was that most of the prints are accompanied by a straight image of the negative. It's hard enough to learn what a good print looks like, but I think it's even harder to learn what a good negative should look like, and Les has included variations on certain images that show both good and problematic negatives from the same scene. Les is also working mostly with rollfilm, so one doesn't have to get the sense of "I'm not shooting large format, so I don't really have any control," that most of us have had at one time or another I bought this book last year, and found it to be much better than a basic photo book. Then I tracked Les down to ask some follow-up questions to things I read in the book. He wrote long, detailed, instructive answers and then asked for more questions. I have never had such attention from an author before. So yes, it is a great book. More informative than most in its genre. I told you so. I got it for Christmas and it has helped me a great deal. Not only is it a great read, it is a must read. One of the bigger things I got from the book was a very good explanation of the split-grade printing technique. I have been reading Les' articles in the UK Black & White magazine - which are very good. They are in fact one of the best elements in what I consider to be the best photo magazine ever. I too am a fan of splitgrade printing and find that overall there is an imrovement in my prints since adopting this technique.
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