This is a nice book for the amateur willing to give up "auto-everything" camera mode and go out into the wilderness of "manual" photography and the black and white darkroom.And it's certainly much more pleasant to read and use as a source than the long version, Langford's "Basic Photography".
Although clearly dated (the end of the 70s) this book presents still very much valid guidance into the manual camera, covering such topics as depth of field, manual metering, lighting, the use of a flash; filters; the film, be it black and white or slide; printing in black and white (not multicontrast, but believe me, it's easy when you get there), with dodging and burning and retouching; how to build your photo and film archive; special effects, composition and style, with lots of illustrations.
I could rate it as a book for the intermediate to advanced amateur. Twenty-so years later, I still read it (and use it!) with deligth.
