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Welcome

The Dave Butcher Black and White Photo Library contains tens of thousands of images as archivally processed silver gelatine film negatives, mostly medium format 7x6cm and 6x6cm. These can be printed directly onto traditional darkroom materials or scanned for use in many different applications.

Working exclusively in black and white with Mamiya 7 film cameras and Ilford film to produce stunning landscape photographs and striking city shots his work is widely published in books and magazines. He is the author of 6 books. His images can be seen in numerous advertising and PR projects, and Dave’s original black and white pictures are popular with interior designers, businesses and homeowners alike.

Black and white prints available through this website are hand printed from film negatives by Dave Butcher in a traditional darkroom using silver gelatin paper. High quality prints to last a lifetime!

Our website shopping cart system uses the secure PayPal payment system, or we can take payment using BACS transfers.

All payments are shown in UK Pounds Sterling but we can also take payment in Euros. If you wish to pay in Euros we will calculate the equivalent value for your order at the exchange rate on the day you place the order. A PayPal Euro Payment Link will then be emailed to you for payment to be made.

about dave butcher

Dave Butcher has over forty years experience in photography and the photo industry, including working for Ilford between 1981 and 2002. He combines this photographic expertise with his chemical background – a PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge and he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry – to make the highest quality darkroom prints using traditional chemical processes.

As an Ilford Master Darkroom Printer, and probably the last active professional darkroom printer trained by Ilford Photo, he combines his creative talent with an in-depth technical knowledge of the processes involved in black and white film developing and darkroom printing to produce distinctively unique prints using traditional darkroom methods and materials.

Dave passes on his expertise through darkroom workshops, landscape photography courses and lectures, as well as through free tutorials, illustrated articles and demonstrations on his DarkroomDave.com website and DarkroomDave YouTube channel.

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Browse the Photo galleries

uk cities

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uk landscapes

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world cities

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world landscapes

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Courses

landscape Courses

dave butcher runs black and white landscape photography courses for film camera users, with his wife Jan, in the beautiful English countryside of the Peak District National Park.

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darkroom workshops

Come on one of Dave’s darkroom workshops to learn the easy way to make black and white prints. Particularly suitable for beginners and those wanting to improve their skills…..

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masterclasses

Dave is an Ilford Master Darkroom Printer and gives black and white darkroom printing masterclasses to colleges and universities on behalf of Ilford Photo…..

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Dave Butcher is supported by Ilford Photo and Harman Technology to encourage the use of Ilford film and paper products for photography courses using film cameras, darkroom workshops, professional masterclasses, lectures and exhibitions.

Recently added images

Newsletter

You can read the latest edition of my “News in Black and White” newsletter and sign up to recieve them in future as emails by using the form below.

You can also read all my previous email newsletters as PDFs from the archive.

Blog

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  • Berwick Cheswick Sands, Northumberland

    Jan and I walked the Northumberland Coast Path in May 2019. It runs from near Ellington in the south to Berwick upon Tweed in the north and we took 6 days to walk the 75 miles. I posted a series […]

  • Whernside and Ribblehead Viaduct from Ingleborough, Yorkshire

    I’ve created a web page from the log and photos that I took on a trek that I did with good friend Al from Gloucester in 2019. The trek was based on the Dales Way but between Kettlewell and Dent […]

  • Buxton Grin Low Trees in Winter, Peak District

    I have been catching up with scanning my negatives and have added several new Peak District images to my davebutcher.co.uk website. Included this time are Buxton, Hartington, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Tideswell, Mam Tor, Robin Hoods Stride and the Roaches.    

  • Schladming Reiteralm View, Austria

    We visited Schladming in Austria for the first time to ski there for 6 days from 12th and 17th January. There hadn’t been fresh snow for just over a week when we arrived and there was no fresh snow during […]

  • Helvellyn Snowy Descent

    Saturday 22nd February 2020 Jan drove us to Bradford (actually closer to Bingley) where we parked at our hotel and walked 4.3 miles in 1h 10mins to meet friends at the Bradford Beer Festival in Saltaire. We raced along a […]

Testimonials

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  • Dave, Many thanks again for a brilliant day last Saturday. Got home at 8.30 and relieved I did not have to attend the bowls club social as Christine was at least as tired as myself! I had a flash of inspiration about the lost negatives and found them where I guessed, still held in the contact printing box where last used. I wonder if you can comment on my enlarger, as I recalled it is indeed a Durst F30 with 75 watt bulb, (can take 150), condenser lens and F 4.5 x 50 mm Minolta lens. I have attached a few pics. The negative tray looks straightforward. The condenser lens is removable and it looks like there is provision for a filter above it in the holder. Does this make sense? The filter would be 65 mm square to fit. i.e. your style of filters with the projecting handle would not fit. Saw some filters like yours on eBay( new, £55) but looks like I need to research further options. Very best regards to Jan and thanks again to her for a tasty and attractive lunch. Regards”,
  • Hi Dave, Just a note to thank you and your wife for the day I spent with you on Sunday. Best wishes”. JD, Northants, 30-April-2014
  • Hi Dave, I just wanted to say a big thank you for a fabulous weekend. When I book courses blind, I am never quite sure that they’ll deliver what I originally had in mind. I have to say that I got exactly what I needed from you and a whole lot more! I now have the confidence to start up at home and I understand the basic process well enough to experiment. I suspect that I’ll take some time to master the basics and then come back to you for the next stage… I’ll certainly keep in touch. It was so kind of you to give me enough equipment to get going with. You’ll be pleased to know that I have also invested in a Leica M4 (it was that or the M6 and I liked the classic look of the M4 a little more!) after some heavy research last night, so I’m well on the way! Also, please thank Jan again for her kindness and hospitality. She’s very understanding to have strangers invade her home like I did! You both were so welcoming and I’m glad we’re no longer strangers ?All the best and take care”, AGB, Cambridge, 11-July-2016
    DB
    Marketing Manager
  • Hello Dave and Jan. Thank you both very much for my darkroom day. You provide, as always, great hospitality, a relaxed atmosphere and a great deal of helpful tuition, just hope I can retain a high percentage of it. I also found that turning over negative holder, as yours, made it sit down better and eliminated the bit of stray light that I was having to block out. The small bits like that all add towards a smoother workflow. Thanks again,
    BF
    -
    Creative Space Inc.
  • It is a good thing as an artist to continually train, push forward, develop and improve, so I set myself a challenge to book a course with an Ilford Master Printer. Dave Butcher, who is based in Derbyshire, worked for Ilford Photo for 21 years, including running the photographic printing department and more recently has become a genius teacher. The course was split over two full days and time was spent working from my own medium format 6×6 negatives and included using all four different enlargers in the darkroom. The experience of using this range of equipment, although confusing at first, was invaluable. Now it is time to put all I’ve learnt into practice and disappear back into my own darkroom enlightened and much improved.”
    APT