Stopped making them, too. Good to read I am not alone. 5x7 RC prints are my contacts after reviewing negatives on a light table.
Lars
Lars
I HATE HAVING TO MAKE CONTACT SHEETS!
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Of course each one his own ways !
But
if you take photography serious, you should not hate anything about it. We need all these steps, also contact sheets. Not only to view expressions, or other things that won't show looking at the negatives. But also to have the time to think, to think things over, to see possibilities. That in the end will save you more paper than today's hasty ways.
Analogue photography, when you don't love everything about it, becomes like digital photography.
But
if you take photography serious, you should not hate anything about it. We need all these steps, also contact sheets. Not only to view expressions, or other things that won't show looking at the negatives. But also to have the time to think, to think things over, to see possibilities. That in the end will save you more paper than today's hasty ways.
Analogue photography, when you don't love everything about it, becomes like digital photography.
I don't understand the problem with seeing subtleties in facial expressions viewing negs with a loop. I never had a problem with that. Nor did I ever have a problem seeing shadow detail (or lack of it) and estimating overall contrast. When I first became serious about photography I did make contact sheets but I soon dropped that step in my processes.
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I wasn't talking about a problem. You are right, there isn't that if working without contact sheets works for you. But for me, if I have several portraits, I need contact sheets.
Maybe here more about it: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
When I taught, all of my students learned how to make a proper proof. Same enlarger height, same f-stop, same exposure, same development time. Once learned to do correctly, a contact sheet can alert you to sloppiness/changes in your development technique, poor metering, as well as problems with your camera/lens. (I'm not quite as religious about it for myself, unless I have a ton of new negatives.)
There are many good reasons to make contact sheets, but the operative word here is "supervisor." If you're trying to find support here for your viewpoint in an argument with an instructor or superior, maybe you'd better rethink
Making a "proper proof" as eddie mentions, is not only a good teaching tool (that will help with your "varying exposures" if you pay attention) but also save time and paper when it comes to making enlargements. First of all, it should give you and idea of which contrast grade to start with. Secondly, despite what many say, there are small defects and details that are simply easier to see in a positive contact than on the negative, often keeping one from wasting time printing a worthless neg. I might add that a "proper proof" is one in which the clear film edges are printed to just barely match the black of the exposed paper not covered by the film. Once you do that, under and overexposure as well as under and over development become readily apparent.
I make proper proofs of every negative I make, and file them together with the negatives in ring binders. Without them, I wouldn't easily be able to review and reprint my more than 30 years of negatives.
Don't get me wrong, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and there are other solutions than making a wet proof sheet. However, since it seems you are compelled to make them, you might as well make the most of the experience and learn how to use them to refine your exposure and metering techniques, developing times, and to save time and paper when printing.
Best,
Doremus
Nope.
I welcome the contact sheet. I like to see how consistent or inconsistent I am so I can adjust accordingly. Also, later on when thumbing through my negative binders it makes it MUCH easier to see at a glance what's on a set of negs.
Embrace the contact sheet...print a proper one; to D-Max. Once you have that standardized...you don't have to futz in the darkroom...just throw the plastic sleeve on the base, adjust the height of the head and the aperture, and expose for the required number of seconds. It never changes (as long as your paper and film/dev doesn't change)
There's things about photography I'm not happy with too, same as with the wife. It's unrealistic to like everything! It's all about the end result anyway, not the means.
I find it impossible to get enough information from a small positive to know whether it's an image that I might wish to enlarge. At one time I used a non analog method to see the image real big on the monitor w/ all it's flaws, but that became a PITA too.
I'm w/ the op, just make a small print and be done w/ it. My system is to sacrifice a piece of the same fiber paper I'll be using for enlargements and make test strips and small test prints from that. This gives the best results because then you know exactly what the big print will look like. I don't like surprises when taking the time and expense to make large fiber prints.
I find it impossible to get enough information from a small positive to know whether it's an image that I might wish to enlarge. At one time I used a non analog method to see the image real big on the monitor w/ all it's flaws, but that became a PITA too.
I'm w/ the op, just make a small print and be done w/ it. My system is to sacrifice a piece of the same fiber paper I'll be using for enlargements and make test strips and small test prints from that. This gives the best results because then you know exactly what the big print will look like. I don't like surprises when taking the time and expense to make large fiber prints.
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Well I shoot mostly 6x6 medium format, and I print very little. So I find the time, paper, and use of chemicals just to make contact sheets an annoyance. I do use "other technology" to get a visual record of what's there and use an indexing system with spreadsheets to keep track of what I have. I did do contact sheets of a couple of rolls a few years back when I was doing some other contact printing (8x10 pinhole shots) and don't deny it can be useful, I just don't view it as useful enough to be worth my effort to do it.
In regard to the OP, he is facing one of life's lessons -- unless you are your own boss, you have to do what the boss wants -- or find another boss!
In regard to the OP, he is facing one of life's lessons -- unless you are your own boss, you have to do what the boss wants -- or find another boss!
I make contact sheets because it is a way to find the right negative on the roll and to pick out the best negatives to print first.
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I did the same with my images from my trip to Turkey. I shoot them hi res and import them into Adobe Bridge. From there, I put the meta data in the image file. I'm not natural in organizing and putting in keywords will help me organize. I'm also slowly creating a numbering system for my file cabinets to file my negs. But I have to get into the habit of putting negs back after I'm done printing them. I love printed contact sheets, but I hate making them.I stopped doing them. I photograph them on my daylight balanced light-table digitally, reverse the values in the computer and
then edit, and wet print. I know it's not kosher around here, but you said you hate doing them...there are other options.
Most of the time, I can tell a good neg/shot from the neg alone. That's how Robert Frank did it.
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Though I hate making them, I hope this will inspire you to appreciate them.
http://hyperallergic.com/256109/see-the-contact-sheets-from-13-legendary-photo-shoots/
http://hyperallergic.com/256109/see-the-contact-sheets-from-13-legendary-photo-shoots/
I had a drawing teacher that was like that. Everything had to be her way, whether it worked or not. Finally told her to take a long walk off a short pier (it was a little more colourful and explicit than that, regarding where she could put that pencil) and dropped the class. This was after she told me to do it her way or drop the course, LOL.
It's a sign of a bad teacher, making everyone do things exactly like them, or else. No room for discovery or different ideas. If it were an etching class it would have been different, as you need to know the standard way to do it before trying something new. But an advanced drawing class should emphasize each individual's unique talents and perspective. The only reason I ended up in her class to begin with was that the guy I really wanted had a full class.
It's a sign of a bad teacher, making everyone do things exactly like them, or else. No room for discovery or different ideas. If it were an etching class it would have been different, as you need to know the standard way to do it before trying something new. But an advanced drawing class should emphasize each individual's unique talents and perspective. The only reason I ended up in her class to begin with was that the guy I really wanted had a full class.
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In the time it takes me to [censored] one roll of film (which I hate, hate doing) I can make a dozen contact sheets. When it comes time to select negatives for printing I'm much happier with a contact sheet and a china marker than I am with a bunch of digital files. Plus I just like looking at my contact sheets, especially when I go back a few years I often find frames I didn't print that I want to see as a print.
YMMV of course.
YMMV of course.
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Good Evening,
I can't go quite as far as the OP in regard to hating the contacting process, but I don't really enjoy doing it, especially with 35mm which requires fiddling with six or seven strips of film. I do, however, regard contact sheets as almost a necessity. Since they serve the double purpose of being a record and revealing which exposure(s) may be worth printing, it's something I'll continue to do. The back of a contact sheet is also a very handy spot for recording printing information.
In addition to Eddie's excellent comments in response #17, I would add also 1)same lens and 2)same paper. Everything must be done as consistently as possible to be really useful. Sometimes a change will be necessary; years ago, I contacted on Kodabrome RC, but since that's no longer available, I've been using Ilford Multigrade RC in the 8½ × 11 size. The extra space compared to 8 × 10 paper is very useful because negative placement is not quite as critical and since an inch or so at the top of the sheet can sometimes be blocked during exposure and left white, giving a convenient place for Sharpie-written information.
Konical
I can't go quite as far as the OP in regard to hating the contacting process, but I don't really enjoy doing it, especially with 35mm which requires fiddling with six or seven strips of film. I do, however, regard contact sheets as almost a necessity. Since they serve the double purpose of being a record and revealing which exposure(s) may be worth printing, it's something I'll continue to do. The back of a contact sheet is also a very handy spot for recording printing information.
In addition to Eddie's excellent comments in response #17, I would add also 1)same lens and 2)same paper. Everything must be done as consistently as possible to be really useful. Sometimes a change will be necessary; years ago, I contacted on Kodabrome RC, but since that's no longer available, I've been using Ilford Multigrade RC in the 8½ × 11 size. The extra space compared to 8 × 10 paper is very useful because negative placement is not quite as critical and since an inch or so at the top of the sheet can sometimes be blocked during exposure and left white, giving a convenient place for Sharpie-written information.
Konical
Heaps of good advice here. Even at my age, I always learn something new from these threads. Good one, this!
Making contact sheets is a waste of paper, chemicals, and time.I can afford the first two, but prefer not to use them to minimise my environmental impact and, as I'm somewhat of a miser, remove myself by that small bit from the consumer chain. The third point is most important to me - TIME. At almost 70, I have less of it left, not more. Many many more important things beckon, like photographing, time with my partner and our cats, enjoying good lunches and dinners with wine with my friends and family, and especially travel. Making tiny prints on sheets of paper in the dark is, to me, a monumental waste of time, paper, and effort.
There is a simpler way to make good sort of contact prints, and save time. Unfortunately, it involves using equipment we aren't supposed to talk about here. So that's that.
Let me share a small technique with you. When I've accumulated a few uncut rolls of film, I set up my small 1960s Durst 66 enlarger and other darkroom things, select my best negatives (not all pass this test), and then make two half size prints on sheets of 3.5x5 inch Multigrade paper. I have thousands of sheets of undated Multigrade 3 left, and it's often all but given away on the internetany. I use a good loupe to quickly inspect the negs and determine what I decide will be the best exposure. I then make two prints on a sheet of 3.5x5, sometimes two prints of the same neg (to give one away), at other times of different negs. Minimal use of paper and chemicals and a good enough print to determine what is on the neg and how to best print it in future if I decide to (most often I don't). People like these small prints and I often give these away, thereby reducing my enlarging time.
For larger inspection prints, I cut 8x10 Multigrade 3 paper into two sheets and do borderless 5x8s. Everyone, even my clients, seems happy with a 5x8. Very few people ask for a larger print.
As for the APUGer who stores negatives in glassine envelopes, I gave up on those in the '70s, after all my stored negs since 1961 soaked up humidity when I relocated to Australia, and got firmly stuck to the glassine. I had many months of soaking negs in distilled water and detergent to remove most (not all of it came off) of the glassine guck. Ditto those plastic envelopes, which are archivally suss, also collect moisture and are too expensive anyway. For the past 30+ years, I've bought unbleached writing paper by the ream, folded the sheets into three accordions, and stored a row of negs in each fold. I can write data (in pencil of course) on the paper, which is then stored in an archival box. One box for every year. They add up, but no more so than all those books of negatives you have in cupboards and closets anyway, THE two most unsafe places to store anything photographic.
So there you are. In the darkroom, as in everywhere else in life, a little lateral thinking goes a long way.
Making contact sheets is a waste of paper, chemicals, and time.I can afford the first two, but prefer not to use them to minimise my environmental impact and, as I'm somewhat of a miser, remove myself by that small bit from the consumer chain. The third point is most important to me - TIME. At almost 70, I have less of it left, not more. Many many more important things beckon, like photographing, time with my partner and our cats, enjoying good lunches and dinners with wine with my friends and family, and especially travel. Making tiny prints on sheets of paper in the dark is, to me, a monumental waste of time, paper, and effort.
There is a simpler way to make good sort of contact prints, and save time. Unfortunately, it involves using equipment we aren't supposed to talk about here. So that's that.
Let me share a small technique with you. When I've accumulated a few uncut rolls of film, I set up my small 1960s Durst 66 enlarger and other darkroom things, select my best negatives (not all pass this test), and then make two half size prints on sheets of 3.5x5 inch Multigrade paper. I have thousands of sheets of undated Multigrade 3 left, and it's often all but given away on the internetany. I use a good loupe to quickly inspect the negs and determine what I decide will be the best exposure. I then make two prints on a sheet of 3.5x5, sometimes two prints of the same neg (to give one away), at other times of different negs. Minimal use of paper and chemicals and a good enough print to determine what is on the neg and how to best print it in future if I decide to (most often I don't). People like these small prints and I often give these away, thereby reducing my enlarging time.
For larger inspection prints, I cut 8x10 Multigrade 3 paper into two sheets and do borderless 5x8s. Everyone, even my clients, seems happy with a 5x8. Very few people ask for a larger print.
As for the APUGer who stores negatives in glassine envelopes, I gave up on those in the '70s, after all my stored negs since 1961 soaked up humidity when I relocated to Australia, and got firmly stuck to the glassine. I had many months of soaking negs in distilled water and detergent to remove most (not all of it came off) of the glassine guck. Ditto those plastic envelopes, which are archivally suss, also collect moisture and are too expensive anyway. For the past 30+ years, I've bought unbleached writing paper by the ream, folded the sheets into three accordions, and stored a row of negs in each fold. I can write data (in pencil of course) on the paper, which is then stored in an archival box. One box for every year. They add up, but no more so than all those books of negatives you have in cupboards and closets anyway, THE two most unsafe places to store anything photographic.
So there you are. In the darkroom, as in everywhere else in life, a little lateral thinking goes a long way.
It also makes it easier to look for a photograph or groups of photographs.
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On the BW negs from my trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, I got the negs on my light table inverted it in photoshop and did a few tweaks. I sent them to shutterfly to get 11x14 contact sheets. I really like them.
Years ago I made contact sheets in the wet darkroom to verify my technique ensuring proper exposure, etc. Nowadays, I use contact sheets for filing purposes because I like having a page of negative size prints along with the page of actual negs, but I no longer do 'em in the darkroom; rather I scan the entire page of negs and print on the desktop. Works great and I still have my contact sheets!
I suppose my perspective is different than many others. When I first began photography I used my dad's old Kalimar Reflex 6x6cm and the negs were easy to see, though I did need to learn how to interpret what I saw. I didn't make contact sheets of those but I didn't shoot a lot of images either. After that I switched to 135 format. That's when I went through a phase of shooting lots of film. I did contact sheets of my 135 films for a year or so. After that, I didn't need contact sheets anymore because I could evaluate negs without contact sheets and had quit burning so much film anyway. So contact sheets didn't serve a purpose for what I was doing. Not long after that I bought a used Bronica ETRs and was very selective about my exposures. I soon added 4x5in and was extremely selective about exposures. After I made satisfactory prints I just filed an extra print with the keeper negatives. I haven't done a contact sheet for my images in forty years and never will again.
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To me that's like saying "hey I'm such a good guitar player that live I don't need to hear myself thru a "wedge" speaker when I play a gig. I know when I'm good".
Well to me that's fantasy. CS are the most important creative step of the photo process. It gives you a feedback if you're creatively right or not. Plus as Eddie said it can give you a feedback on the tech side of things (especially with Ilford RC paper which is super precise, if you suddenly get grey-ish CSheets you know sth's wrong : "underdone" films or dead paper developer).
And without CSheets how can you look back on your previous years? By handling each neg from a particular year? C'mon...
It's a matter of organisation. I make them primarily to see what's on a sheet of negatives. I shoot medium format. I also gain a better memory of which frames are where, what I've got. I see the neg, I see the contact print and I remember what I've got. I also live with the contacts for a while before deciding what to print. That way there is minimal handling of the negatives.
It used to be a pain until I built a darkroom. Now I can wait until I have however many rolls developed and then I pop into the darkroom and make the contact sheets. Honestly, to make them goes very quickly once you get the production line going
It used to be a pain until I built a darkroom. Now I can wait until I have however many rolls developed and then I pop into the darkroom and make the contact sheets. Honestly, to make them goes very quickly once you get the production line going
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well, if it wasn't your employer who wanted you to make contact sheets i'd say free yourself from
what seems like a type of bondage. otherwise keep doing it, and eventually you won't even realize
that you are doing it.
i used to make contact sheets, i eventually stopped. then i worked for someone and i needed to proof the work
so i did, and after i stopped working there i stopped, until i started to do a lot of contact printing and i started doing it again
but for final-product work, not proofing.
i can't stand cutting negatives apart, i find that to be the biggest pain, especially 35mm with small in between clear bits ...
i don't proof negative sleeves much, unless it is using the sun.
what seems like a type of bondage. otherwise keep doing it, and eventually you won't even realize
that you are doing it.
i used to make contact sheets, i eventually stopped. then i worked for someone and i needed to proof the work
so i did, and after i stopped working there i stopped, until i started to do a lot of contact printing and i started doing it again
but for final-product work, not proofing.
i can't stand cutting negatives apart, i find that to be the biggest pain, especially 35mm with small in between clear bits ...
i don't proof negative sleeves much, unless it is using the sun.
It's a lot more practical for third-parties to look at contacts than it is to have them be able to understand negs, but that assumes that one can consistently expose and develop the film too of course. Overall, less unnecessary handling of the negs, when selecting a particular shot, must improve their chances of remaining pristine.
Long ago, working commercially, it would quite often be requested that I make an 'enlarged' contact-sheet from 135 negs. They would go in the double-glass holder of the 8x10" enlarger and be projected on to 16x20" paper. Many of the lab clients found this simpler to use for their own customers to choose shots from, and it gave a more 'professional' impression than a films worth of small enprints
Long ago, working commercially, it would quite often be requested that I make an 'enlarged' contact-sheet from 135 negs. They would go in the double-glass holder of the 8x10" enlarger and be projected on to 16x20" paper. Many of the lab clients found this simpler to use for their own customers to choose shots from, and it gave a more 'professional' impression than a films worth of small enprints
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