Elizabeth Allen - The Manual of Photography

Front Matter

Copyright 2011 Elizabeth Allen & Sophie Triantaphillidou. All rights reserved.

Copyright

Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier

The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK

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First published 1890

Fifth edition 1958

Reprinted eight times

Sixth edition 1970

Reprinted 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975

Seventh edition 1978

Reprinted 1978, 1981, 1983, 1987

Eighth edition 1988

Reprinted 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995 (twice), 1997, 1998

Ninth edition, 2000

Tenth edition, 2011

Copyright 2011 Elizabeth Allen & Sophie Triantaphillidou. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The rights of Elizabeth Allen & Sophie Triantaphillidou to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933573

ISBN: 978-0-240-52037-7

Printed and bound in China

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Preface to the tenth edition

Although there are many textbooks, monographs and manuals that are available today dedicated to what has now become imaging, The Manual of Photography stands out as a significant and unique publication. It was first published in the very early days of photography in 1890 under the editorship of C.H. Bothamley at the request of the then Ilford Company as The Ilford Manual of Photography. The preface to this first edition has set the scene for all later editions:

This firm foundation has persisted throughout all subsequent editions under the guidance of a number of editors leading to this tenth edition.

It has been revised and reprinted many times under only five editors during its 120-year period of publication. Forty years after its initial publication, George E. Brown provided a complete revision and started the tradition of using a number of specialist authors. This reflected the changes in photography that no longer could be fully understood and explained by a single author. The second edition appeared in 1942 under the editorship of James Mitchell, and the third and fourth editions rapidly followed in 1944 and 1949 respectively.

Alan Horder edited the fifth and sixth editions. The sixth edition of 1971 saw the move away from publication by Ilford Limited when it was acquired by the present publishers and the name Ilford was removed from the title. This edition also saw contributions for the first time by two of the contributors to this edition: Sidney Ray on the camera and Geoffrey Attridge on colour photography. In 1978 Ralph Jacobson became the editor for the seventh edition, followed by the eighth edition in 1988 and the ninth edition in 2000. He continued with the specialist contributions from these two authors and others at the then Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster). The ninth edition of 2000 and certainly this tenth edition must make it one of very few books to have a presence in three centuries. It has come to be valued by many generations of photographers for the straightforward account it provides of both the theory and practice of photography as the technology has evolved.

Sophie Triantaphillidou and Elizabeth Allen are the joint editors of this edition and under their guidance have ensured that the manual remains true to its traditions. In the 10 years since the last revisions were made to the manual there have been many significant technological developments. This edition remains absolutely up to date with explanations of the principles of modern imaging techniques. Like their predecessors they have enlisted the help of their colleagues with specialist knowledge that ensures that the explanations remain both accurate and authoritative.

The previous edition saw a move away from traditional chemical-based photography to the now widely practised electronically based imaging methods. This was in the era of hybrid imaging. Today this is even more apparent with digital camera sales outstripping conventional analogue cameras by around 100 to 1, excluding camera phones and one-shot single-use (recyclable) cameras. In order to provide a balanced basis of modern photographic practice and keep the size of the book within reasonable limits, the editors have been faced with difficult decisions on what to keep, what to discard and what to add. Fortunately much of the core information applies as much to modern electronic systems as it does to analogue chemical systems. Optics and the basic physics of imaging are examples of core areas which also appeared in previous editions. These core areas have been considerably expanded to provide a sound basis for the understanding and practice of digital imaging. Surprisingly, explanations of colour photography were only introduced in 1971, but since then have become a significant topic in subsequent editions. This edition has four chapters devoted to this topic and aspects of colour are of course embedded in other chapters where appropriate.