Photographic Possibilities, 3rd Edition

Photographic Possibilities, 3rd Edition

by Robert Hirsch
Released December 2008
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136090615

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Book description

Photographic Possibilities, Third Edition provides a reliable source of techniques and ideas for the use of alternative and contemporary photographic processes that photographers have come to depend on. Professional photographers and advanced students seeking to increase their skills will discover modern and classic methods of creating and manipulating images.

This practical guide bridges technical methods with aesthetic outcome. It offers readers concise and accessible instructions regarding both historic and contemporary processes and includes the technical information within a context that emphasizes concept, content and using photographic materials and processes expressively.

This updated edition includes two new chapters linking digital photography to analog photography, including a discussion of digital negatives. Throughout the book, manufacturing information and resources have been refreshed to provide the latest methods and means for acquiring the products needed for these processes. Above all this complete reference provides encouragement, inspiration and a compendium of the many possible possibilities and styles to pursue and discover.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Halftitle
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Contributors to Photographic Possibilities
  8. 1. Essential Moments in Photographic Printmaking
    1. The Language of Photography
    2. Concepts and Technology Affecting Photographic Printmaking
    3. Extending Photographic Boundaries
    4. Electronic Imaging: New Ways of Seeing
    5. Possessing a Sense of History
  9. 2. Predarkroom Actions: Imaginative Thinking and Personal Safety
    1. Establishing a Personal Creation Process
    2. Photographic Origins
    3. Thinking within a System
    4. Purposes of Photography
    5. Essential Safety Guidelines
    6. Contact Allergies, Chemical Sensitivities and Poison Control
    7. Disposing of Chemistry
    8. Darkroom Ventilation
    9. Water for Photographic Processes
  10. 3. Image Capture: Special-Use Films, Processing and Digital Negative Making
    1. Film and the Photographer
    2. General Film Processing Procedures
    3. Infrared Black-and-White Film
    4. Extended Red Sensitivity Film
    5. High-Speed Black-and-White Films
    6. Heightening Grain and Contrast
    7. Ultra-Fine Grain Black-and-White Film: Ilford Pan F Plus
    8. High-Contrast Litho Films
    9. Orthochromatic Film
    10. Paper Negatives and Positives: Contemporary Calotypes
    11. Reversing Black-and-White Film
    12. Instant Positive and Negative Film
    13. Film for Classic Cameras
    14. Processing Black-and-White Film for Permanence
    15. Digital Negative Making: An Overview
    16. Scanners
  11. 4. Formulas of One’s Own
    1. Prepared Formulas or Mixing Your Own
    2. Basic Equipment
    3. Chemicals
    4. Preparing Formulas
    5. US Customary Weights and Metric Equivalents
  12. 5. Black-and-White Film Developers
    1. What Happens to Silver-Based Films During Exposure and Processing?
    2. Image Characteristics of Film
    3. Components and Characteristics of Black-and-White Developers
    4. Basic Developer Types
    5. Postdevelopment Procedures
    6. Film Developer Formulas and their Applications
    7. Is All this Necessary?
  13. 6. Analog Fine Printmaking: Equipment, Materials, and Processes
    1. The Analog Fine Printmaking Process
    2. Printing Equipment
    3. Standard Printing Materials
    4. Print Finishing
    5. Special Printing Materials
    6. Processing Prints for Permanence
  14. 7. Black-and-White Paper Developers
    1. Paper Developer and Developing-out Paper
    2. Components of Black-and-White Silver Print Developers
    3. Additional Processing Factors
    4. Controlling Contrast During Development
    5. Matching Developer and Paper
    6. Developer Applications and Characteristics
    7. Other Paper Developer Formulas
  15. 8. Toning for Visual Effects
    1. Processing Controls
    2. Basic Types of Toners
    3. Processing Prints to be Toned
    4. General Working Procedures for Toners
    5. Brown Toners
    6. Blue Toners
    7. Red Toners
    8. Green Toners
    9. Toning Variations
  16. 9. Special Cameras and Equipment
    1. What Is a Camera?
    2. The Pinhole Camera
    3. Custom Cameras
    4. Plastic Cameras
    5. Disposable Cameras
    6. Changing the Angle of View
    7. Panoramic Cameras
    8. Sequence cameras
    9. Obsolete Special-use Cameras
    10. Stroboscopic Photography
    11. Underwater Equipment and Protection
  17. 10. Historic and Alternative Processes: Beauty, Imagination and Inventiveness
    1. Paper and the Image Viewing Experience
    2. Exposure
    3. Salt Prints
    4. Cyanotype Process
    5. How the Process Works
    6. Ambrotype Process: Wet-plate Collodion Positives on Glass
    7. Kallitype and Vandyke Brownprint Processes
    8. Chrysotype Process
    9. Platinum and Palladium Processes
    10. Gum Bichromate Process
    11. The Bromoil Process
    12. Gumoil
    13. Mordançage
    14. Lith Printing
    15. Electrostatic Processes: Copy Machines
  18. 11. Transforming Photographic Concepts: Expanding the Lexicon
    1. Hand-Altered Work
    2. Photograms
    3. Chemigram
    4. Cliché-Verre
    5. Extended Camera Exposures
    6. Postcamera Techniques: in Search if Time
    7. Multiple-Exposure Methods
    8. Fabrication: Happenings for the Camera
    9. Composite Variations
    10. Processing Manipulation: Reticulation
    11. Hand-Coloring
    12. Airbrushing
    13. Transfers and Stencils
    14. Cross-processing: Slides as Negatives
    15. Pictures From a Screen
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Photographic Possibilities, 3rd Edition
  • Author(s): Robert Hirsch
  • Release date: December 2008
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136090615