The Print (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 3)

• #20 in Best Photography Books

12 Reviews

Sort by: Most Helpful ▲ Date Rating

Despite the heavy emphasis on chemical and paper, this book's essentially about cropping, contrast control, and presentation. These are the core topics you'll need to master even if you only do digital photos. All the better if you use PhotoShop, because it recreates the controls (like burning and dodging) of a darkroom.

One thing that may be disappointing is the focus on black and white. Color control is crucial in making color prints and intimately tied with contrast.

The three books in this series can be read independently, but together provide a complete clinic from positioning the camera to displaying a final print.

Stop using this from the library... Just buy it and get it over with!!

Ansel's fantastic images and stories combine with his technical discussions to provide the perfect insight into how to become the necessary craftsman. His uncompromising approach into printmaking and photography are clear and simple examples that any novice should at least start with. There are other books out there - but no better start than this. Enjoyable and instructive at the same time!

The last of a three book series, this volume provides comprehensive instructions detailing the developing process. Chapters on mounting and displaying photographs are at the books end completing the readers education. This book written by Ansel Adams, made famous for his B&W photographs, will disapoint any reader interested in the art of color photography. This three book collection is a must for any B&W photographer.

The book is excellent. Although these techniques are not widely applied today, with appropriate experience and thinking this knowledge can be applied and transferred to modern software like Adobe Photoshop. It can help relate modern and classic photography printing processes (traditional vs computerized).

One little remark would be for the publisher. The paper the book is printed is gloss with quite a high reflectance index. This results in making reading the book at certain angles quite impossible for your eyes.

In this book, Adams said Expression is more important than reality, idea more important than fact, the print more important than its subject. For it is only in the print that such magnificence can be unfailingly orchestrated. Those words made me think that what is good photograph. The book opens with a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, history of photography before getting down to explain printing techniques.

The majority of the text concentrates it's efforts in educating the reader in the art of B&W photography. This book tells readers that what are good prints making techniques. After reading this book you will feel like that your printing skills are very improved. The reader will see many wonderful pictures as examples, that will surely create a better impression as to what type of pictures Adams takes.

This is one of a few books in this Ansel Adams series. He discusses a number of aspects of the print, it's limitations, and many techniques that can be used to exploit print characteristics. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is at all serious about B&W photography whether developing your own prints or not.

In this third part of Adams' technical writings, you'll find a guide to go from what a camera recorded (it talks about a negative, but can be well applied to a digital raw file) to a fine print delivering "what you saw and felt" to the viewer.

Even if it applies to B&W, I find that much of the content can be applied to color work if you think a bit more about it - mostly now, in the digital age with separated luminance and chrominance controls.

You'll also read some good ol' kitchen recipes about developers and toning... These will be less and less useful, but can bring back the smell of the darkroom to your memory ;o)... And quite often, the principle that based the recipe can be applied to another media.

A reference, whether shooting film, digital or glass plates (and of invaluable interest for the two former).

Ansel Adams is the master of photography, black and white, but still photographic principles and concepts have been throughly tried and tested by him and he teaches you so much in his series starting with "The Camera" and ending up with this book which focuses more on the final piece. The 2nd book in the series is also so very crucial because it outlines and describes his "Zone System" in great detail. A must have for any avid photographer and a great shelf reference for any professional. Now go out and shoot.. waste some film for crying out loud and get some awesome shots :)

If you long for the days when photography, real photography, was black and white on film, then you will love this book. Of commercial necessity it has been years since I maintained my own darkroom and printed my own prints . . but how I miss the magic! This book brings it all back and in so doing opens some new creative channels in my mind as to how to get beautiful prints in the digital age. If you're a purist, you will love this book. If you are a pragmatist you will find ways to correlate traditional methods to digital processing and printing (even though the book does not address the topic of digital at all.) If you are serious about b/w get this book then work with your own shots and in your own workflow until you can emulate the look of this master.

That Adams' "The Print" is a landmark in photographic processing instruction is indisputable.

But while the visual objectives that Adams illustrates are as valid today as ever the bulk of this book is strictly for film printers. Digital photographers will go very hungry looking for any genuinely practical and useful tips here. For them, I recommend looking at the several excellent books on digital b&w printing that are available today. The best embody precisely the same visual objectives but present the solutions in terms of contemporary digital tools and techniques.

This book though dry and technical has plenty of information that is a must have for any aspiring photographer who wishes to push their black and white print skills further. Given that digital camera sales are now out stripping analog cameras will this book still have relevence?

This is the third and final book in Ansel Adams photography series. I really cant stress enough the importance of reading all 3 of these books and reading them in their proper order. Ansel talks about a lot of techniques and many of these techniques build upon previous knowledge. If your serious enough about photography to have an interest in these books then you should want to do it right and doing it right is buying all 3 books and reading them in order.

Its important to note that these books mainly deals with black and white and rightfully so. Ansel's passion was Black and White and it would have been a huge mistake to have included a serious teaching of color into these books. If you are interested in color I recommend buying a separate book that specializes in color and to read it after you have finished these 3 books.

I wont bother going into much detail in regards to what this book teaches. That would take too much time and it would make this review way too long. Ill simply say that this book will put you on the road to becoming a master printer. As you most likely already know Ansel is one of the best black and white printers in the history of photography, in fact most people would credit him as being not one of the best but THE Best printer ever. His prints are magical and there is a reason for this. He was absolutely obsessed with quality and his skills in the darkroom were amazing. This book teaches you the techniques that made Ansel Adams one of the best printers ever to pick up a camera.

The bottom line - This is hands down the best 3 book series on photography ever made. If you are serious about photography and want to learn how to master shooting and printing in black and white then look no further. By the time you get finished with this series you will be a completely different photographer and will have a much better understanding of the skills required to become a master. With that being said if your a beginner you might want to think about starting with something a little less demanding. These books are a bit much for beginners.

5 stars and then some.