Let Us Now Praise Contact Proof Sheets

Your approach to contact sheets can be described as...

  • Waste of my time, waste of my money, don't need them to judge a negative

    Votes: 11 15.1%

  • Do it for some negs, ballpark exposure is OK, as long as I see what's on there

    Votes: 3 4.1%

  • I do them conscientiously for most of my negs, to the best of my abilities, not all are good

    Votes: 35 47.9%

  • I work on them with as much dedication I would on a print

    Votes: 8 11.0%

  • I scan my negs, what's a contact sheet?

    Votes: 6 8.2%

  • Other... (please elaborate)

    Votes: 10 13.7%
  • Total voters
    73

Doremus Scudder

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I make proper proofs of all my negatives (except those that are never, ever going to be printed because of damage, not closing the preview, etc.). All my negs are 4x5 these days, so proofs are big enough to view easily without magnification.

Proper proofs (min exposure time to max black for the film rebate) help me keep an eye on my exposure and development as well as other process variables. I also use the proofs for deciding which negative to actually print and the cropping (I use a pair of cropping Ls).

Proofs are filed in binders along with the negatives and the exposure information sheets. When looking for a negative from years ago, the proofs help a lot as well.

Best,

Doremus
 

Pieter12

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I scan the print file page and make a print of that, filing it with the negative page. This way I have both a physical contact sheet and a digital one that I can refer to on the computer. Of course, any chosen negative is wet printed to 8x10 or 11x14. Once in a blue moon 16x20.
 

DREW WILEY

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I've never done proof sheets, never will. Have better things to do with my darkroom time.
 

Paul Howell

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I made contact sheets for all formats, 1/2 frame to 4X5 (not that I have than many 1/2 frames), first for organization. I keep the contacts paired the with negatives so I can quickly find a particular frame by date, time, and scene I am looking for. Second I alway print grade 2, (I know that modern grade 2 papers and VC filters do not always match older papers) so I that get an idea if I want to increase or degree contrast grade, or how much burning and dodging will be needed. From my old PJ days I will also use a contact sheet to edit a shoot, find the best frames that tell a story.
 

Don_ih

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There would be a real advantage to having a contact sheet for every archive page. I have a stack of binders and, while I can see and assess a negative when viewed on a light table, oddly enough no light table fits in the binder.
 

Vaughn

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When I was using a 4x5 (and before that with 120 film) I would make a contact sheet (four 4x5s) on a sheet and keep the negs and its proof together in a ringed binder. This ended when I started to use 5x7 (and then larger) and started to print primarily in alt processes. One of the reasons was that I was aiming for negatives with too much contrast for decent silver gelatin printing, and the alt process is too much work (and/or expensive such as Platinum printing) to print every negative for proofing.

Of course there are contact sheets and there are contact sheets. I have always been told (and it makes sense to me) that a good proof sheet for determining how a negative might print should be low contrast at the minimum exposure to get a black through the rebate (for example, this would be when the sprocket holes can no longer be seen). This is so one can see the detail, or the lack of it, in shadows and highlights...and compare contrast and exposure between negatives, too. A 'proof sheet' that is somehow generated to display each negative at the same contrast level and light value would not be as useful to someone who is picking negatives to print (but nice for clients and friends).

My negatives are in paper envelopes with exposure, development, and some printing history written on them -- not an easy way to quickly look for negatives (besides date and location). I occasionally come across a negative that surprises me -- perhaps that at that stage of learning carbon printing I could not have handled that negative, but I can now. After decades of studying my negatives (up to 11x14), I sort of see them as positives...my brain just accepts that less silver means less light in the print. In working closely to get the contrast of the negative to match various processes, I have had to pay a lot of attention to contrast in the front end, since I do not have easy contrast control in the back end of the process (printing). It's been fun!
 

Pieter12

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I like contact proof sheets because I can peruse them and mark them up while sitting outside sipping a cappuccino or a glass of wine.
 

Vaughn

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Pieter12 said:
I like contact proof sheets because I can peruse them and mark them up while sitting outside sipping a cappuccino or a glass of wine.
Click to expand...
When I solo-bicycled in NZ for 5 months with my 4x5, I took a collection of my favorite 4x5 contact prints -- as many as I could fit into a 25 sheet box of 4x5 film. A traveling portfolio I could share. Images of the Redwoods, other National Parks, and some closer to home. I spent a week in my tent in the heavy rain with the flu on the west coast of the South Island. I kept semi-sane by going thru that box of prints, looking at the composing of the light and such. I had already printed them all at 16x20, and knew how far I had taken them in the darkroom, so the straight contacts gave me an opportunity to approach them anew.

I am sure it affected how I thought about the images I had already taken in NZ and also the ones I was still to take...but subtle.
 

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MTGseattle

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I like @Pieter12 responses #27 and #35 It's almost logical enough to make me quit being a ninny regarding my digital workflow. The other benefit is if one is meeting another photographer one could throw a contact sheet at them and see if they would pick the same frames as you or different ones.
 

GregY

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Alberta
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Vaughn said:
After decades of studying my negatives (up to 11x14), I sort of see them as positives...my brain just accepts that less silver means less light in the print.
Click to expand...

Me too. I don't send contacts to an editor or show them to anyone, so it's not a step that's useful to me. Saves me both time & paper.
 
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Alex Benjamin

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This is how I used to work, and where I'm trying to go back.

Being back in the darkroom, I no longer see the need for any digital component in my workflow. I'm enjoying the dialogue between negative and contact sheet, and later moving to work print from examining the contact sheet. It's a very organic process that way. And, as Vaughn mentioned, looking carefully at the frame on the contact sheet does start to give me clues on how I might approach the printing, something I haven't been able to do just looking at the negative, and not at all looking at a scan of the negative.

That said, I do get the "waste of time" aspect many have commented upon. I do struggle with it. It's a slow and tedious process. But then, I don't know of any process in photography that's fast and easy . Honestly, it's such a pleasure just to be in a darkroom for 5 or 6 hours straight that the sense that time might be wasted does not factor in.
 

Ben 4

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Sep 20, 2005
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This! When I began darkroom work, I made contact sheets simply as a readily accessible record of what was on each roll of film. But I quickly discovered how much useful information they contained about exposure and contrast. In the long run, I find that it saves more time than it takes!
 
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OP

Alex Benjamin

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Ben 4 said:
In the long run, I find that it saves more time than it takes!
Click to expand...

Same here. Scan of the neg really doesn't tell me how I might want to print it, and, apart from the basics (overexposed, underexposed, etc.), I have never been able to develop the ability to read a negative in such a way that I get a sense of what it might look like printed. I really admire those who do. It just wasn't how I was trained, which is going back and forth between negative and contact sheet.
 

Doremus Scudder

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Eugene, Oregon
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My time making contact proofs is more than made up for by the time I save 1) not printing negatives just to find out if I want to print them, 2) being able to get really close to the contrast setting I want right away and 3) being able to refine exposure and development so that my negatives are always more easily printable.

Plus, I have an easy-to-peruse archive (40+ binders now).

Best,

Doremus
 

Vaughn

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Without knowing what a carbon print looked like in the flesh, I spent a couple years learning the carbon printing process and doing the first refinement of my use of the process.

It took me two years because I was happily experimenting with two big variables (negative exp/dev and carbon formula) at the same time under variable light conditions without a known outcome. I would take the 5x7 out into the redwoods (mostly), find some nice light and make several exposures...and note the range of light of each scene. Based on my last negs/prints and how much relief the prints had (and contrast, etc), I would figure what changes in negative development I could make -- and what changes I could to make in the pigment load of my carbon/sugar/gelatin mix -- to improve the next print. My apologies to scientists everywhere and to the scientific method. I did keep good notes so I could repeat the successes.

All this to say; I spent a lot of time with a negative on a light table and its latest print next to it, visually relating the light values of the negative to the light values and relief of the print and planning my next changes. It was a very helpful process for me which I continued when I learned platinium/palladium printing (thankfully less variables) and it's probably why I like looking at negatives so much.
 

MattKing

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Apr 24, 2005
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The contact proof print certainly doesn't replace the light pad and loupe for me. They complement each other.
The truly complementary "trifecta" occurs when I can examine side-by-side the contact proof sheet, the negative via light pad and loupe, and a final or near final print. If there are any notes accompanying that combination, that is a bonus.
 

snusmumriken

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Salisbury, UK
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Reluctantly, I have to admit that contacts are on their way out for me. I scan everything that looks promising, and print it if convinced. I’ve always found it pretty easy to read a negative, and contact prints frustrate me because they have their own look that I find impossible to achieve in a larger print. I don’t think I’ll be buying any more 8x10 paper just for the contact printer.
 

MarkS

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Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
503
For decades, I've made a Proper Proof sheet from my negatives. It's the only accurate way to find out what you've actually got on the film. And they are a great help in both editing images and retrieving them from the files when needed.
 

Sirius Glass

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Jan 18, 2007
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Southern California
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I no longer have the patience to print out every negative on every roll of C41 film, so I just send them off to be processed and printed for me so that I can look through all the prints at my own pace.
 
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