A question for those who print from 135 film ...

Alan9940 said:

Back in the "ye old days" I would make a contact sheet or contact print (for LF film) for every roll/sheet shot. Then, if I saw something I felt worth printing I'd head into the darkroom. Nowadays, I use a dSLR scanning setup to scan each roll, import those images into LR, flag potentials, then head into the darkroom and/or work the image up via the desktop. For sheet film, I still make "contact" sheets, but it's via a flatbed scanner.

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I find a contact sheet indispensable if any darkroom prints are planned for negatives. They tell me important information about exposure, density and contrast and give me a good idea where to start when I do print in the darkroom. Darkroom paper will see things differently than scanners. Scanners can make wonders of thin and thick negatives. My darkroom papers don’t like thin negatives, or overly thick negatives.

That said, I too scan all my negatives and mess with the scans in PS to get an idea if an image will even make sense to take in the darkroom. If so, the negative and contact sheet go with me into the darkroom.

I'm cheating.

Almost everything I have shot on either 135 or 120, for the last four years and for the foreseeable future, I have or will eventually get around to printing. Or at least attempting to.

Most of what I've been shooting since my daughter was born has been a never ending series of 365 projects (escalating in format size) of her, and subsequently her brother when he was born. The intention to have albums for them and us when I'm done. So I'm cheating.

Discounting those projects, sadly I don't get to shoot enough to have many options for printing, of late.