Epilonian Books

Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997

112
Exposure and Development and the Control of Black and White Negative Density Range and Print Tonal Scale for the Mathematically and Scientifically Disinclined, photograph 1 of 12

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Catalog notes

Description

Maelstrom, Ltd., St. Louis, Missouri, Published 1990. Wraps, 30 pp.; 23 cm; staple bound; illustrated with black-and-white photographs and sensitometric charts.

Condition & notes

In Very Good condition. Glossy pictorial wraps with mild shelf wear. Original Ansel Adams Gallery price sticker ($6.95) to the rear cover. Binding is tight. Pages are clean and unmarked.Self-published primer on the Zone System and the control of black-and-white negative density range, written by St. Louis photographer William Ames Bascom (1990). Bascom developed the booklet as a crash course in photographic technique for his nephew David, a visually gifted teenager visiting from Germany, and styled the resulting thirty-page essay "for the mathematically and scientifically disinclined." Chapter I covers the camera as an exposure-control device, light meters, the f-stop and shutter-speed compromise, depth of field, metering technique, reciprocity failure, and close-up exposure. Chapter II is a plain-language introduction to film sensitometry and the practical mechanics of expanded (N+2) and contracted (N-2) development, with full testing procedures for ASA index, normal development, expanded and contracted development, and the construction of a Zone Scale ruler. Chapter III works through two photographic examples in side-by-side comparison: a doorway shot under normal and N+2 development, and a Gothic-revival burial chapel shot under normal and N-2 development. Appendix details the author's own equipment preferences (Pentax Digital spotmeter modified by Zone VI Studios, Zone VI compensating developing timer, Photronix Delta III-B densitometer, Nikon F3 and FM-2, Hasselblad, Bronica, Deardorff 4x5 and 5x7 view cameras, primarily Tri-X with HC-110); the bibliography is anchored by Ansel Adams' Basic Photo Series and the trilogy The Camera, The Negative, The Print, plus Fred Picker's Zone VI Workshop and Minor White's Zone System Manual.