And which one are you ? 1, 2 or 3 ?

==
    John S. Douglas
    Photographer & Webmaster
    www.legacy-photo,com
    www.xs750.net

I would not wish to judge the readers of this newsgroup. I wonder how many
there are all together. There seem to be some autoresponder bots that make a
lot of posts, and some real people.

I would guess that Richard Knoppow has read Mees & James. As have I. So that
is two. It is not easy reading, but I think if you have a good high-school
knowledge of chemistry and physics and are willing to work, you could get a
very good knowledge of photochemistry from the third edition of TotPP.

You may be right that most of the readers of this newsgroup do not care to
reed Mees and James, and I would not blame them. But the O.P. does seem
interested in this stuff, and perhaps for more reason than just doing a high
school paper.

I guess a simpler explanation could be found in Photography: Theory and
Practice by L.P.Clerc, but this is probably more difficult to find that Mees
and James. And, IMAO, less satisfactory.

  While Mees's book is written at a fairly high level it is
very clear writing and much of it will make sense to a non
specialist. It is certainly not casual reading but also not
grad school stuff. The caviet with Mees is that the book is
very old and both the understanding of chemistry and
commercial practice have changed. Mees does not discuss
emulsion making beyond a fairly elementary level because he
was one of the very few people at Kodak to be familiar with
the complete process there, one kept very much under wraps.
  For those who don't know who we are talking about C. E.
Kenneth Mees wrote one of the classic texts on photgaphic
chemistry _The Theory of the Photographic Process_. Mees was
directly responsible for two editions. the first was issued
in the mid 1940s, the second (called the "Revised Edition"
in the mid 1950's. There are later editions but they were
edited mainly by Thomas H. James, who took over the Kodak
Research Laboratories after Mees retired about 1960.
  C.E.K.Mees was something of a genius in chemistry. He was
born in England, and after graduating and studying in
Germany, went to work for Wratten and Wainwright, a firm
making photographic plates. Mees developed sensitizing dyes
which allowed W&W plates to have unusually good color
sensitization. He also was insrtrumental in developing the
dyes used to make color filters. He became a partner in the
business. In the early 1900s Mees was approached by George
Eastman who wanted him to set up a proper research lab for
Kodak in Rochester. Mees agreed provided that Eastman would
buy out his partners and keep W&W going with the Wrattens
running it (Wainwright had died much earlier). Eastman
agreed and, in 1912, Mees established the Kodak Research
Laboratories.  It was decided at the outset that research
and technical papers published by the Labs would be
published in esteblished, peer-reviewed, journals, rather
than in a house organ. This gave immediate status to the
work there. Eastman believed in educating people about
photography so Kodak was a prolific publisher of scientific
paper, technical papers, books, and popular articles, along
with extensive literature for customers and users of Kodak
materials.
   While one of the primary reasons for establishing the
Labs was to find a practical method of color photography it
turned out that this was a much more difficult problem than
was believed the beginning. Agfa, in Germany, beat Kodak to
a multi-layer film that could be processed by the user
(Agfacolor). This was released about 1935, about the time
Kodak released Kodachrome. Kodachrome was easier to make but
required an extremely complicated and fussy procedure to
process. It took several years for Kodak to catch up to
Agfa. Agfa also beat Kodak, and everyone else, to the
discovery of gold sensitizing. This allowed Agfa to about
double the speed of its films without consequent increase in
grain about the early 1930's. Again, Kodak eventually caught
up.
   Mees was a great man and probably had more to do with
the personality of Kodak and its success than anyone else
after the death of George Eastman (1935).
   Because photographic chemistry has become so advanced
and complex no truly comprehensive book covering it all has
been published since the second edition of Mees. While Mees
and James (the third edition) and later books cover much of
the field they are more like collections of journal articles
than a book with some sense of unity. Probably the closest
is Grant Haist's book but he did not have the support Mees
did. There are certainly other books on the photographic
process. L.F.A. Mason's book (mentioned by "Nailer)is a very
good one, but rather hard to find. Another is the book by
Glafkides (sp?) also somewhat hard to find.
  Many of the researchers at Kodak Labs also published
books, ranging from fairly elementary (Mees himself
published one) to medium level and very technical. Many of
the technical papers still repay reading although they may
be hard to find. In particular I recommend the work of Loyd
A. Jones, who researched tone rendition very thoroughly. One
of these days, if I ever get a web site up, I will try to
have copies of some of these papers available on-line.
  In the meanwhile, don't be afraid to dig into some of
these books. Mees is advanced but much is understandable.
Haist is much newer, much is quite technical but there is
also a great deal of practical information: Haist is a
photographer as well as a scientist (and another alumni of
Kodak Research Labs).
  There is a great deal more but if I go on I will be
writing a book right here.

E6, C41, K12, platinum, palladium, carbro, POP, ziatype, etc, etc,....
Or maybe just plain ol' Polaroid.

Hmmm, it does get a little complex doesn't it. Simple questions get
simple answers. Detailed questions can get detailed answers.

==
    John S. Douglas
    Photographer & Webmaster
    www.legacy-photo,com
    www.xs750.net