© 2000 by Ralph W. Lambrecht, all rights reserved

Foreword to the First Edition

As I write this in the spring of 2002, many people are starting to believe that traditional, film-based, analog photography will soon be replaced by digital photography. However, as most people who take a close interest in these matters understand very well, the reality is likely to be rather different. We read about ever-increasing numbers of pictures being taken with digital cameras and how this is evidence of the replacement of film by the newer technology. Digital photography has clearly started to replace film in some areas, but only those where it offers overwhelming advantages. Two good examples are news photography because of the short deadlines, and catalogue photography because of the small image size and significant savings on film and processing costs. The arrival of the digital camera has meant that more pictures are being taken, and that’s a good thing. While many of these are very different kinds of pictures, they are often simply visual notes. Film, however, remains a highly portable and very high quality storage medium, which is also, at least from the point of view of someone involved in film manufacturing, excellent value for money. It provides human readable images with good storage stability, which are free from the risk of software and equipment obsolescence that tends to threaten the long-term survival of digitally stored images. For these reasons alone, film will no doubt be with us for many years to come.

Digital photography is currently more a threat to color film, which has replaced B&W film in those fields where digital capture is becoming popular. However, the options for producing high-quality monochrome prints from digital files still need to be explored further. In my view, there are some interesting parallels here with the earlier replacement of B&W by color photography. Color initially replaced B&W in popular applications such as weddings and portrait photography where desirability of color images outweighed their considerable extra cost. In other areas, like snapshot photography, it happened later where color photography became more affordable, and the price advantage of B&W began to disappear. However, it never came close to eliminating B&W photography altogether. This is because the photographers who choose to work in B&W are using it as a medium for personal expression and not as an inferior substitute for color. These photographers actively prefer it, and they value the very high degree of creative control that is potentially available at all stages of the process, from camera filtration to print toning. To exploit this fully requires a great deal of skill and experience in the art of photography. This can be, and often is, acquired by a process of trial and error, but a more reliable route is through a thorough understanding of the underlying principles involved. Without this understanding, it is very difficult to get predictable results and to make the leap from occasionally good results to consistently excellent ones.

In my own continuing journey to becoming (I hope) a better photographer, I have been very grateful for the counsel of more experienced and skillful practitioners. With the decline of photographic clubs and societies, this has come mainly from books written by respected experts.

This book, from Ralph and Chris, is a very worthwhile addition to the available literature as it offers a wealth of practical advice, which is based on a very sound grasp of photographic theory and practice. I certainly hope that it will help many technically minded photographers to make real improvements in the quality of their negatives and prints. I also expect that we can look forward to many more years of analog B&W photography, because I believe that reports of its imminent total demise are much exaggerated.

Mike Gristwood

ILFORD Imaging UK Limited
March 2002