Contact Sheet Glass

[MattKing]

I just put masking tape around the edges and haven't figured out a way to cut myself yet.

Hockey tape would probably be even better than masking tape - sorry if that is too Canadian .

 

[faberryman]

Hockey tape would probably be even better than masking tape - sorry if that is too Canadian .

Haven't had any hockey tape around the house since my youth. I remember it being kind of gooey, so it wouldn't be my first choice.

 

[Kilgallb]

Haven't had any hockey tape around the house since my youth. I remember it being kind of gooey, so it wouldn't be my first choice.

Hockey tape was gooey when Orr was tops, but now that Sid the kid is tops it is no longer gooey.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

If you simply use....Paper - Negs - Glass....to make your contact sheets.
Where did you buy your glass and how thick did you Make/Buy the glass.?
Thank You

I bought mine at a local window glass fitter (glazier)6mm thick(1/4").

 

[darkroommike]

Why not do it right? Get an edged piece of 4mm or 5mm thick anti-Newton glass from Focal Point. Costs less than a box of paper, esp after you throw out half the prints due to ring patterns. Just depends. Some sheet films these days are rather slick and prone to rings. Go to Cheapo Depot when you're building a doghouse instead. If you gotta go cheap, you could try textured non-glare acrylic sheet. Nonglare glass is fragile and just too frosted, but quite cheap.

ANG is not needed for proofing but may be needed if you are contact printing LF negatives, but photographers have be contact printing for a long time and this is the first time I head that recommendation. Newton rings may be less noticeable on contact prints and more noticeable on enlargements, not enough data at this point, but I will keep it in mind.

For proof sheets I now use a proofer, for many years I used a Paterson 10x12, even replaced the foam on it once. I just picked up a brand new, in box, Printfile brand proofer so I'm good.

If you buy glass, get the thicker stuff with polished edges. One place I worked we used a sheet of flat automotive glass. I have also seen people use sheets of tempered safety glass. There's a grade of glass called "float glass" that is flatter, might be a good thing.

 

[pentaxuser]

Darkrooms need not look like a red-spattered crime scene.

True but just in case I usually have Weegee on stand-by

pentaxuser

 

[jim10219]

Home Depot - window pane glass.

An added benefit to this is if you ever break a sheet, which I've done more than once, it's really easy and cheap to replace it. I built my contact frame to accept their 11"x14" sheet glass, and on two occasions I've broke them. When that happens, I just vacuum up the broken glass, buy a new sheet, drop it in and get back to work. I don't have to have it cut, wait for internet shipping, or go to a glass specialty store across town. I can be up and running again in under 30 minutes (assuming it didn't happen after 8 p.m. on a Sunday). Plus, it's less than $5.

I'll often see Newton rings in area between the glass and negative. Though it hasn't ever been a problem for me. For whatever reason, the Newton rings never show up on the print. And that's a nice change from all of the other times I see Newton rings, which have a long running habit of ruining my day.

 

[CMoore]

True but just in case I usually have Weegee on stand-by

pentaxuser

It is comments like these that make me wish APUG had that ...Thumbs Up/Like... option. You can just click on that rather than make a useless post to say that you "Like" what the member said.....Just like i am doing now.

 

[faberryman]

Hockey tape was gooey when Orr was tops, but now that Sid the kid is tops it is no longer gooey.

Yeah, I played when Orr was tops, so my tape was gooey. That was a few years before I began making contact sheets, so it goes back a really long way. As I remember, PrintFile sleeves weren't yet invented. We used glassine negative sleeves and a contact printing frame that had embossed slots to hold your negatives straight and evenly spaced. Completely unnecessary; a sheet of glass does fine, but like a lot of things, it seemed indispensable at the time.

 

[AgX]

If you buy glass, get the thicker stuff with polished edges. One place I worked we used a sheet of flat automotive glass. I have also seen people use sheets of tempered safety glass. There's a grade of glass called "float glass" that is flatter, might be a good thing.

In theory polished edges could give issues in certain círcumstances. Ground edges would be fine anyway.

All glass panes should be from float-glass today. This includes automotive-glass, which is the same as tempered-glass.. If that could get warped during that tempering proces, I never experienced such. Also windows for underwater cameras are made from safety-glass (not for the safety but for the strength).


(Recently I saw a brand new building with large panes warped that way that I saw the distortion from a distance. I shall have to investigate on this.)

 

[guangong]

Looking through older glass windows you will see wavy distortions (spent quite a bit of time in grammar school looking out the window studying this phenomenon) but modern flat glass is flat. The glass in my several contact frames is rather thin. Springs on back of frame keep everything flat. I don't understand why you don't simply use a contact printing frame since it keeps everything in place.

 

[removed account4]

I bought mine at a local window glass fitter (glazier)6mm thick(1/4").

+1

and if you get fancy you can go on ebay or look throughthe classifidesand find
a contact frame, they come in all shapes and sizes from 2x3 to 20x30

 

[AgX]

Some Dunco easels could/can be turned into a frameless one by means of a glass pane.

 

[paul ron]

double thickness glass has the weight to hold everything flat. Its 3/16" thick. A glass shop would probably just give you a scarp he has in the bin.

To take the sharpness off the edges, use emery paper to sand it smooth.