Photo Library
"If your photographs are not good
enough, you are not close enough…"
Robert Capa
B&W Darkroom Books
These are not randomly selected books on photo technique, but rather hand picked gems. I have read these books and reading them has made me a better photographer, so I highly recommend them to anyone with serious interest in the subject. Many more not so great ones are not included here.
After reading or browsing many, many books on the subject I have realized that there is no such thing as a technical manual for photography, because technical info by itself without application to some artistic goals is meaningless. You can read five hundred times that small aperture increases depth of field, but you will need to see (and make) good photographs to understand why you would ever want to change the depth of field, and how this technical control works to realize the photographic vision. So all the books here, however technical they may be, are also by necessity books on photographic ART (well, with the exception of Kodak Black-And-White Darkroom Dataguide).
VERY good book on advanced B&W printing techniques, goes into detail on many practical techniques. And btw the photographs are excellent
The author needs no introduction. I never thought that such technical area as darkroom procedures could be covered with such passion, inspiration, and insight. The book is beautifully written, reads like good science fiction, full of practical info, professional printing hints, and illustrated by extraordinary photographs. It almost radiates photographic enthusiasm and passion for picture taking.
Great photographs and details of how the printer brings out the best in each negative.
This is a bunch of pretty tables detailing technical info such as recommended development time for all combinations of film/paper/developer/temperature, etc. Useful to have if you do your own B&W film processing. Printed on excellent, water-resistant paper. Guess why?