Importance of the contact sheet

Peter Schrager · Mar 2, 2019

Spent some time in the library last week and came across a copy of Lustrum press Contact Sheet book. this was an interesting take where x amount of famous photographers discuss their take on their contact sheets; methodology for such and why they chose a certain negative. It was great to see I'm not the only one who does this habitually and out of the need to see what is on the film
For me I couldn't exist without my contact sheet books all stuck into 3 ring binders with my negatives. I have a pretty good idea of what a good negative should look like but still rely on the contact sheet to make decisions about what gets printed and what doesn't. I'm curious what others have to say about this. I've done photography for over 50 years and still consider the contact sheet to be one of the most important steps in the chain of producing a fine print
love to hear everyone's thoughts and input on your contact sheets!!
Best, Peter

trendland · Mar 2, 2019

Peter Schrager said:
Spent some time in the library last week and came across a copy of Lustrum press Contact Sheet book. this was an interesting take where x amount of famous photographers discuss their take on their contact sheets; methodology for such and why they chose a certain negative. It was great to see I'm not the only one who does this habitually and out of the need to see what is on the film
For me I couldn't exist without my contact sheet books all stuck into 3 ring binders with my negatives. I have a pretty good idea of what a good negative should look like but still rely on the contact sheet to make decisions about what gets printed and what doesn't. I'm curious what others have to say about this. I've done photography for over 50 years and still consider the contact sheet to be one of the most important steps in the chain of producing a fine print
love to hear everyone's thoughts and input on your contact sheets!!
Best, Peter

Well Peter "contact sheeds" are easily made at home darkrooms! This procedure just need no darkroom at all (with a little "talent" to improvise).
Of course it is still made of some (if you find the time to do)!

But from its origion it was most to press photographers (and other profs) from commercial labs.
Such guys gave 20 or more 35mm roll for development and ordered contacts inaddition!

This procedure (why you are asked about) have changed dramatically!

1) press photographers and other profs are shooting digital (>95% of them).

2) the pricing of commercial labs are "horrable" increased.

3) a New class of "layout prints" is established (smalest prints)

with regards

David Allen · Mar 2, 2019

Personally I have never found the need for contact sheets.

I can 'read' my negatives easily and contact sheets also can (if you are not very careful) introduce dust onto your negatives.

However, if you, and many others here, find them useful that is great.

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

mgb74 · Mar 2, 2019

It's easy to mark up a contact sheet and, when too marked up, print another.

Ian Grant · Mar 2, 2019

David Allen said:
Personally I have never found the need for contact sheets.

I can 'read' my negatives easily and contact sheets also can (if you are not very careful) introduce dust onto your negatives.

However, if you, and many others here, find them useful that is great.

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

Totally agree, I've done contact sheets for others to select which negatives they want prints off. Like David I can actually read a negative and get far more information this way than a contact print would give me,

Ian

gorbas · Mar 2, 2019

I too like to have contact sheet. As for dust issue, my negatives become almost dust free when I switch to make contact sheet with negatives already arranged in transparent negative pages. Way faster process too.

winger · Mar 2, 2019

I always make contact sheets. It isn't so much to see which frame I want to print, though that does happen at times. For me, it's much easier to flip through my contact sheets to find the shot I'm looking for rather than having to hold a bunch of negatives up to the light to find the right roll. All my contact sheets are cross-referenced with the Print-file sheets holding the negs.

ic-racer · Mar 2, 2019

Since the 1980s I use Philip Perkis' version in that book.

jim10219 · Mar 2, 2019

I use digital scans as contact sheets. I'll scan a roll and look through the scans to see if I missed a good negative (using photoshop's batch file processing). From there, I might even attempt some further software manipulation to see how difficult any issues are to correct. That way, I also have a digital scan of the photo and pretty good idea of what I can expect from a wet print. Plus, I don't have a permanent darkroom, so this method takes a lot less time (having to setup my makeshift darkroom) and saves me the money of paper and chemistry. Plus it gives me a convenient way to archive and look through my negatives and find one from my past. You can use programs like Google Photos to locate files with names, places, or things that aren't even embedded into the digital file. It has logarithms to recognise images on it's own. So if I want to find pictures of my wife or tractors, I can type that in and it will find her/them. I store both the digital file and film in chronological order separated by folders/binders, so if I can find one, I can find the other rather easily.

Doremus Scudder · Mar 2, 2019

I contact print everything: four 4x5 images to a sheet of 8x10-inch paper. Yes, I can read the negatives too, but reading a contact sheet has some advantages for me.

First, as mentioned above, I can find the negative I'm looking for faster with the contact sheet than without.

Second, small defects, which would render a negative unusable, often show up on the contact sheet more obviously than on the negative. I had an image with a processing or film defect on it just last week. It was a stripe of lighter density in the sky that for the life of me I could not detect by looking at the negative. It was there, however, on the print. I even contacted it again just to be sure...

Third, since I proper-proof all my contact sheets, I get information about exposure and development from them, which acts as a control on my processing and technique. I make small adjustments to my developing time based on trends in the contacts from lots of negatives that I would otherwise not take the time to print. I can also use them to track down light leaks, etc. more easily than if I had to sift through the negatives. I had one holder that had a cracked darkslide. After seeing the same defect twice on the contacts, I was able to easily track down the offending holder and replace the slide. I don't think this would have been so easy with just the negatives.

Finally, I get a handle on the contrast I need and potential print manipulations and whether or not I want to split-contrast print from my notes and my contacts. Since I start with 11x14-inch paper as my standard size, this can save me a lot of paper in the long run.

Best,

Doremus

Vaughn · Mar 2, 2019

My negatives tend to be very high contrast (for alt printing). They look especially ugly as contact prints on silver gelatin paper and do not provide needed info.

Looking at large negatives on the light table is cool...and eventually one gets decent at judging negatives and how they'll print in different processes, even pyro negs.

slackercrurster · Mar 3, 2019

I lost all my old contact sheets from my film years. Love contacts sheets, very useful. Wish I knew how to make digital contact sheets from my files.

Here are Robert Frank's sheets from the Americans.

https://danieldteolijrarchivalcolle...bert-frank-the-rejected-americans-you-choose/

Even Frank litho prints of his contacts are worth $$

https://www.danzigergallery.com/exhibitions/robert-frank-american-contacts

https://www.harpersbooks.com/pages/books/23766/robert-frank/the-americans-81-contact-sheets

Patrick Robert James · Mar 3, 2019

I scan everything into the computer and because of that I kind of think contact sheets are a waste of time and money. Before I started using a computer I occasionally made a contact sheet, although i generally thought that the time could be better used for actual printing. The exception was for larger film sizes, but those were done as a final print.

I like looking at them though. I have some old ones and they are fun to look through.

Maris · Mar 3, 2019

No contact sheets ever, at least in the physical sense. I do try to make mental "contact sheets" by comparing alternative visualisations of available subject matter. The choice of what to keep and what to reject is done before exposing film rather than after. It helps that I shoot essentially static subjects using roll film and sheet film cameras mounted on a tripod.

The idea of using large quantities of precious film to shoot out-of-control subject matter while having no firm end point in mind seems wasteful. In the old days Henri Cartier-Bresson was reputed to shoot, on occasion, a hundred rolls of film over a weekend and when the lab sent up the contact sheets on Monday morning he could find nothing on them to proceed with. That was the technology then and there was no practical alternative. Now there is a no cost, no waste (except wasted time) digital alternative to the contact sheet. The "shoot first, pick the winners later" style of image gathering need not consume valuable materials.

Sirius Glass · Mar 3, 2019

I have done contact sheets for years, but I have not found them as useful as I would like them to be. I find that 35mm contacts are hard to see will enough and end up enlarging some negatives to get them large enough to be useful. 120 negative are more useful but still not as useful as other would have use believe. 4"x5" contacts I find are much more useful.

removed account4 · Mar 3, 2019

IDK years ago i used to make contact sheets and i think it is kind of fun to look back at them and if i can't find the negatives or they were destroyed now, at least i have the contact sheets i was smart enough to make, but my exposures have never been very good at least for roll film so i might have some under exposed and some over exposed so contact sheets ended up being kind of useless...nowadays i will scan negatives in the electric box so i still have contact sheets but they are modern ones

Vaughn · Mar 3, 2019

In theory, contact sheets should be printed low contrast -- so that one can see if there is detail in the highlights and/or shadows. They should be exposed so that the film rebate is still slightly lighter than paper black. And if printed consistantly, one can learn to judge the effects of exposure and development on each negative from the contact sheet.

Traveling in New Zealand by bicycle (and 4x5), I carried a 25-sheet 4x5 film box that contained a set of 4x5 contact prints. Nice way to share in the pre-iPhone days, and gave me something to look at and think about when I was stuck in my tent for many days.

Hilo · Mar 4, 2019

I have done contact sheets since 1978 and still do them now. I appreciate those here who know how to read negatives and who then decide which negative to print. But for me contact sheets have a function before that: they serve as a visual diary to come back to over the years. We change, so we will see different things as the years go by. Contact sheets are also about what one did not chose to begin with.

Perhaps in the beginning I left certain negatives because of mistakes visible in them. Now I couldn't care less about that. In between that beginning and now, there's my changing perception and I always find something when I look again at work made years ago.

MattKing · Mar 4, 2019

I'm fairly proficient at reading negatives.
But that doesn't mean I don't value having a concise, positive representation of each image in each roll available in a single sheet for review and analysis.
And for me, preparing contact sheets is far faster than scanning - if I am going to be printing anyways.

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 4, 2019

Made them with 35 and 120 years ago, but never for large format. I teach my students how to make them, though.

David Brown · Mar 4, 2019

MattKing said:
I'm fairly proficient at reading negatives.
But that doesn't mean I don't value having a concise, positive representation of each image in each roll available in a single sheet for review and analysis.
And for me, preparing contact sheets is far faster than scanning - if I am going to be printing anyways.

Could not have said this better.

Andrew O'Neill said:
... I teach my students how to make them, ...

As do I. For many of my students in the beginning darkroom workshops, the roll they bring to class is not only the first roll of film they ever develop, but often is the first roll of (at least black and white) film they have ever shot! I don't know how many of them would ever pick a negative for their first print without the positive visual reference. Once they learn how to "read" negatives, down the road, I couldn't care less if they make contact sheets. I still do it, however.

Fin · Mar 4, 2019

For B&W negs, I always make a contact sheet. For me it's nice to have a positive representation of all the shots of a film, even if they are at a singular exposure.

<Hybrid / Digital warning!>

Yeah, I also use Snap2IMG to make contact sheets for my C41 negs for the same reason as above.

For my E6 films, absolutely no need. I'm sure that we can all agree that a sheet of E6 positives on a lightbox is an absolutely beautiful sight to behold!

Arklatexian · Mar 5, 2019

Peter Schrager said:
Spent some time in the library last week and came across a copy of Lustrum press Contact Sheet book. this was an interesting take where x amount of famous photographers discuss their take on their contact sheets; methodology for such and why they chose a certain negative. It was great to see I'm not the only one who does this habitually and out of the need to see what is on the film
For me I couldn't exist without my contact sheet books all stuck into 3 ring binders with my negatives. I have a pretty good idea of what a good negative should look like but still rely on the contact sheet to make decisions about what gets printed and what doesn't. I'm curious what others have to say about this. I've done photography for over 50 years and still consider the contact sheet to be one of the most important steps in the chain of producing a fine print
love to hear everyone's thoughts and input on your contact sheets!!
Best, Peter

Fred Picker convinced me, years ago, just how important it was to make, what he called "a proper proof". It was not just to show you which negatives would make usable prints but also would show you if you had a problem with any part of your film exposure, film developing,, enlarger exposure, print processing, the whole routine. It tell you far more than just a record of your shooting. And I don't care how "calibrated" you eyes are, a proper proof can show you errors that you would probably miss........Regards!

John51 · Mar 5, 2019

My darkroom isn't set up yet.

I'm looking to establish an efficient workflow including a contact sheet of each (B+W) roll. I'll ignore the poorly exposed negs at first and only print from the negs that gave good contacts. If not enough good negs, then I'll shoot more film rather than wrestle with difficult negs. My theory being that it is better to become a competent photo taker first. The extra darkroom expertise needed for difficult negs can come later. If ever I get good enough that I can make good prints from lesser negs, I'll have plenty of those lesser negs to play with.

Another aspect of contract printing I want to get into is making contacts from entry level mf cameras. People often bought these cameras to make contact prints for the family album. I'd like to make some albums like that.

CMoore · Mar 10, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
I have done contact sheets for years, but I have not found them as useful as I would like them to be. I find that 35mm contacts are hard to see will enough and end up enlarging some negatives to get them large enough to be useful. 120 negative are more useful but still not as useful as other would have use believe. 4"x5" contacts I find are much more useful.

Regards 35mm...that has been my experience as well.
The contact DOES make it easier for me to identify what the negatives are A Picture Of.....but when i put them on my little light box, and look at each frame with a loop, the fidelity is pretty lousy.
It seems like the light, shining through the paper does not do much for the quality of the little picture.
Maybe i am making them wrong.? ....... but the contacts from Robert Frank, at first glance, look very good.
I raise my enlarger head just enough to make a light that is a bit bigger than 8x10.
I shoot through the plastic Print File neg sleeves, with a piece of glass on top.
I expose until the sprocket holes are just barely visible.

Importance of the contact sheet

Peter Schrager

trendland

David Allen

mgb74

Ian Grant

gorbas

winger

ic-racer

jim10219

Doremus Scudder

Vaughn

slackercrurster

Patrick Robert James

Maris

Sirius Glass

removed account4

Vaughn

Hilo

MattKing

Moderator

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

David Brown

Fin

Arklatexian

John51

CMoore

Importance of the contact sheet

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