Let Us Now Praise Contact Proof Sheets

[Doremus Scudder]

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.

Ah! The old proofing service!

 

[hiroh]

I specifically, deliberately, and in particular never never do contact sheets. Instead I print every negative, blanks and disasters aside, to the best of my ability even if it takes a bit of extra darkroom time.

This way of thinking emerged from my background in large format photography where every negative starts off being expensive and after exposure and processing becomes a commitment.

In recent years I've shot more roll film but I still ask myself the same hard question:
"Do I like this subject, this composition, enough to take the trouble to get the camera work right, to get the processing right, and to do the darkroom work in full?"

If the answer is no or maybe then I just don't take the shot. If the answer is yes then it stays yes all the way to the final print.

The obvious advantage to me is to get a better quality return for the amount of film shot and effort invested. The downside is due to a personal shortfall in talent, energy, and imagination that deceives me into passing up pictures I now regret not taking.

This was my enthusiastic idea when I started with darkroom printing two months ago, but I quickly realized it was far from reality given my current level of experience. It would take an enormous amount of paper just to print a single roll, and I have hundreds. I assume you shoot large format and print fewer images than you would if you were shooting 35mm.

I’d still like to print all my images, but I’m not sure if that will ever happen. One roll of 37 exposures would require at least 100 sheets of paper, and a box of 100 ILFORD MG FB WT 5x7 costs over $120. Not to mention the time it would take to print hundreds of rolls, which would also mean less time to take new photos. The more I write, the more I realize how unrealistic this is!

 

[snusmumriken]

This was my enthusiastic idea when I started with darkroom printing two months ago, but I quickly realized it was far from reality given my current level of experience. It would take an enormous amount of paper just to print a single roll, and I have hundreds. I assume you shoot large format and print fewer images than you would if you were shooting 35mm.

I’d still like to print all my images, but I’m not sure if that will ever happen. One roll of 37 exposures would require at least 100 sheets of paper, and a box of 100 ILFORD MG FB WT 5x7 costs over $120. Not to mention the time it would take to print hundreds of rolls, which would also mean less time to take new photos. The more I write, the more I realize how unrealistic this is!

Buy yourself a cheap LED light box and teach yourself how to spot the faults that make a negative a reject and not worth printing. Things like missed focus, camera shake, under-exposure, bad composition. Then you’ll have very few to print, maybe 1 to 4 per roll, unless you are outstandingly good or very uncritical!

Alternatively, buy a scanner and use that to check whether you’ve captured what you intended. You’ll still need to examine negatives directly though, because scanners don’t capture everything.

 

[hiroh]

Buy yourself a cheap LED light box and teach yourself how to spot the faults that make a negative a reject and not worth printing. Things like missed focus, camera shake, under-exposure, bad composition. Then you’ll have very few to print, maybe 1 to 4 per roll, unless you are outstandingly good or very uncritical!

Alternatively, buy a scanner and use that to check whether you’ve captured what you intended. You’ll still need to examine negatives directly though, because scanners don’t capture everything.

I scan all my negs for years so I have them all in Lightroom. Of course, if I'm being critical, maybe 10% is worth printing. If I'm being very critical, that ratio is even lower. But there are many family snapshots, kids, travel, street photos, that are not masterpieces by any means, but would be cool to have them printed. What I end up printing is some abstract work, that I love, but maybe nobody else would care about it

My point is: I'll probably not ever print most of these negs in silver just because it's time consuming and expensive, even though I'd like to have them all printed, it's not worth. I’ve printed a lot of inkjets on the highest quality archival paper, calibrated everything to perfection, but they just don’t resonate with me. To me, inkjets are more like physical alternatives to screens—they don’t feel the same as my silver or platinum prints. But that’s okay, we’re not living in an ideal world.

 

[JPD]

Never done contact sheets since I thought I was good at telling what a negative would look like as a positive. But scanning old negatives I never printed have given me a couple of surprises.

 

[Laurent]

I like them, even if 35mm makes difficult to read contacts. The issue is they take time, and suck lots of the energy I can dedicate to darkroom work.

So I try to print them consistently, but the backlog is a real issue for me.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I scan all my negs for years so I have them all in Lightroom. Of course, if I'm being critical, maybe 10% is worth printing. If I'm being very critical, that ratio is even lower. But there are many family snapshots, kids, travel, street photos, that are not masterpieces by any means, but would be cool to have them printed. What I end up printing is some abstract work, that I love, but maybe nobody else would care about it

My point is: I'll probably not ever print most of these negs in silver just because it's time consuming and expensive, even though I'd like to have them all printed, it's not worth. I’ve printed a lot of inkjets on the highest quality archival paper, calibrated everything to perfection, but they just don’t resonate with me. To me, inkjets are more like physical alternatives to screens—they don’t feel the same as my silver or platinum prints. But that’s okay, we’re not living in an ideal world.

I make digital slide shows for family and vacations rather than printing. Something like this.

 

[snusmumriken]

I scan all my negs for years so I have them all in Lightroom. Of course, if I'm being critical, maybe 10% is worth printing. If I'm being very critical, that ratio is even lower. But there are many family snapshots, kids, travel, street photos, that are not masterpieces by any means, but would be cool to have them printed. What I end up printing is some abstract work, that I love, but maybe nobody else would care about it

My point is: I'll probably not ever print most of these negs in silver just because it's time consuming and expensive, even though I'd like to have them all printed, it's not worth. I’ve printed a lot of inkjets on the highest quality archival paper, calibrated everything to perfection, but they just don’t resonate with me. To me, inkjets are more like physical alternatives to screens—they don’t feel the same as my silver or platinum prints. But that’s okay, we’re not living in an ideal world.

Ah yes, my situation differs in that I leave the family snapshots to my wife, and am generally seeking something whackier.

How and when you will view the result also comes into it, don’t you think? I am content to view family snapshots on screen, but of course silver prints are much more beautiful. I haven’t ventured into platinum (admire you for doing that), but from exhibitions (eg of Irving Penn) I know it is the Cat’s Whiskers/Holy Grail.

 

[George Collier]

If you have a 4x5 enlarger, you can mount 3 strips (9-up) in a carrier and print an enlarged version on 8x10 paper. So 4 prints for a set. Yes, some curling and overlap of the rebate in the carrier, but much larger and more useful images in a contact sheet.

 

[Daniela]

If you feel like enjoying some contact sheet storytelling:

 

[snusmumriken]

If you feel like enjoying some contact sheet storytelling:

Thanks for that, Daniela!

 

[Saganich]

I make digital contact sheets in photoshop from scans and print to my office copy machine and keep them all in large binders by year...I'm 2 years behind at the moment. I like to have everything through time in this reference book form for easy leafing.

 

[warden]

I make digital contact sheets in photoshop from scans and print to my office copy machine and keep them all in large binders by year...I'm 2 years behind at the moment. I like to have everything through time in this reference book form for easy leafing.

Impressive!

 

[Alex Benjamin]

If you feel like enjoying some contact sheet storytelling:

Thanks Daniela !

Funny you posted that today. I have 5 hours booked in the darkroom, with just contact sheets on the menu. Rhythm is about 5 an hour. Tedius, but necessary (for me, at least). Got to see more clearly why there are some film/developer combos I'll never try again.

 

[MattKing]

Thanks Daniela !

Funny you posted that today. I have 5 hours booked in the darkroom, with just contact sheets on the menu. Rhythm is about 5 an hour. Tedius, but necessary (for me, at least). Got to see more clearly why there are some film/developer combos I'll never try again.

You need a darkroom assistant Alex to speed up the production! .
If I've got a bunch to do, I do 4 - 6 at a time and put them into a paper safe after exposure.
Then I develop them together, shuffling them in the tray.
It is easy enough to remake any with adjusted exposure if required.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

You need a darkroom assistant Alex to speed up the production! .
If I've got a bunch to do, I do 4 - 6 at a time and put them into a paper safe after exposure.
Then I develop them together, shuffling them in the tray.
It is easy enough to remake any with adjusted exposure if required.

I do enjoy doing them. Mostly because I love being in the darkroom. I haven't been sleeping well — too much work, and some personal matters that are causing stress. I'm too tired for the type of concentration and attention needed to work on a print, but since just being in the darkroom is a balm, churning one contact sheet after the other is pure joy, even if I do take the work itself quite seriously.

It's also quite healthy, in that there is no exercise more humbling. So many mistakes! Focus is wrong, framing is wrong, exposure is wrong, too much agitation, right film, wrong developer, wrong dilution, over-developed... list is endless, and it pops out at you all at once. Making contact prints is a wonderful way to make peace with the fact that photography is the art of accepting failure.

Yet... so many possibilities. There are some photos — some failed photos — you look at and say: I have to go back. There is a possibility there I wasn't really aware of back then. The 35mm was wrong, maybe 6x6... and not stand there... or another film, another developer... I need to make sure...

The contact print makes you aware that the possibilities for failure are endless, but also that the one possibility for success might not be an impossibility.

 

[malligator]

Hello, everyone. I'll piggyback on this thread to introduce myself and ask a contact proof question.

First an introduction. Hi, I'm malligator and I live in the Pacific NW. I've been shooting film for 4 or 5 years. It's been a journey. I think everything is finally in place for me to really start learning.

The journey has been...

Got a film camera.
Got B&W developing gear.
Added a temp controller for C41.
Bought a Pacific Imaging film scanner. Don't really like digitizing my film.
Took a darkroom course at a local photo school.
Used their public darkroom for a while.
Finally built my own darkroom in my basement.

So, now I'm making (perfect) proofs for a lot of my negatives following Fred Picker's book. It's going well, but my question is...why doesn't the rebate info and frame numbers show up for my Tri-X proofs? I see it on my negs. Every picture I see of Tri-X proofs shows the info. My HP5+ prints definitely slap you in the face with the rebate info.

Beseler V-XL
Beseler 45 condenser with 75W bulb
50mm Rodenstock @ 5.6
30" above Paterson proof printer
8.5x11 MGRC with a 2 filter
Tri-X 400 EI 400
HC-110B 6 min @ 68F
RH Designs Stopcock Pro for about 9 sec
Dektol 1 min (might be a little warm in ambient basement around 72F)

Edited to Add:

In keeping with the spirit of the thread--I *love* making contact proofs. Is it absolutely necessary? Don't know. Don't care. I file them in sleeves right next to the negatives. I can't seem to break my chronic underexposure issue so my habitually dark proofs give me the necessary push to keep working on it.

 

[john_s]

........... I haven't been sleeping well — too much work, and some personal matters that are causing stress. I'm too tired for the type of concentration and attention needed to work on a print, but since just being in the darkroom is a balm, churning one contact sheet after the other is pure joy, even if I do take the work itself quite seriously.

......................

I would call that a meditation.

 

[rippa_the_hutt]

Reviving a bit of an old thread but was wondering about contact sheets myself a few days ago.
I definitely don't enjoy making them, it's what I found to be the most tedious darkroom work, but for me they are next to necessary, and a good activity when I am too tired to delve into some more involved print.
When I started again to shoot film in 2017 after thinking it was done for around 10 years earlier (zero distributors in my area) I took on the habit to scan them, and after 3-4 years I found myself with more than 80 rolls that I could only inspect on the PC.
I decided that was way too uncomfortable so ditched the digital flow altogether and in around an year and a half (whilst shooting more and more film rolls) I managed to cover ALL of my rolls with contact sheets.
In the process, as already mentioned by others, I found a number of photos I totally overlooked, and really loved to print those anew, it was like rediscovering photos that I liked, or that reminded me of some moment I almost forgot.
Moreover, now I have a very comfortable "book" (a bag filled up with contact sheets) that I can conveniently "read" while having a tea to refresh my memory while looking for some photo to print.
I have standardized the process, so make all contact sheets at contrast grade 2, unless there are difficult mixed exposures on the roll at hand and so either switch to contrast 1 or make two prints to have the complete... Picture. I usually tolerate slight over/under exposures but all of the frames need to be good enough for inspection, otherwise I redo the print.
Albeit everything is visible in contrast 2, this is still way closer to what I would get by enlarging a single frame (even with my condenser enlarger) with respect to the extremely flat previews I had when scanning the pictures, there's way less dust to worry about and all in all, the process is way less boring (for me) than the scan one.

Btw this is the first post after a long lurking period. Nice to meet ya all!

 

[Alex Benjamin]

When I started again to shoot film in 2017 after thinking it was done for around 10 years earlier (zero distributors in my area) I took on the habit to scan them, and after 3-4 years I found myself with more than 80 rolls that I could only inspect on the PC.
I decided that was way too uncomfortable so ditched the digital flow altogether and in around an year and a half (whilst shooting more and more film rolls) I managed to cover ALL of my rolls with contact sheets.
In the process, as already mentioned by others, I found a number of photos I totally overlooked, and really loved to print those anew, it was like rediscovering photos that I liked, or that reminded me of some moment I almost forgot.

Thanks for your input. Your experience is almost exactly like mine.

Btw this is the first post after a long lurking period. Nice to meet ya all!

Benvenuto sul sito di Photrio ! (if you forgive my Italian)

 

[rippa_the_hutt]

thx!
Excellent Italian

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Contact sheets are the most amazing tool for "scrolling" through photographic archives. I've been going through an archive of some 3,000+ contact sheets since my PhD, and they tell so much more about an artist than just their best prints.

You see all the outtakes, all the context, the shots that were taken for no specific reason but that, half a century later, show something incredibly rare or meaningful. You see people fooling around, waiting for the camera to be ready. You get to know what film was used, and how people worked.

They're also amazing mixed-media documents, because unlike prints and negatives, people wrote on them, scratched them, tore them, touched them, and circulated them without care. An old contact sheet is almost like a medieval manuscript, showing layers and layers of interactions with people, commentaries, commentaries on the commentaries, and so on!

I'm working on putting together a photobook with these materials, which I hope to see in press later this year.

 

[hiroh]

Contact sheets are the most amazing tool for "scrolling" through photographic archives. I've been going through an archive of some 3,000+ contact sheets since my PhD, and they tell so much more about an artist than just their best prints.

You see all the outtakes, all the context, the shots that were taken for no specific reason but that, half a century later, show something incredibly rare or meaningful. You see people fooling around, waiting for the camera to be ready. You get to know what film was used, and how people worked.

They're also amazing mixed-media documents, because unlike prints and negatives, people wrote on them, scratched them, tore them, touched them, and circulated them without care. An old contact sheet is almost like a medieval manuscript, showing layers and layers of interactions with people, commentaries, commentaries on the commentaries, and so on!

I'm working on putting together a photobook with these materials, which I hope to see in press later this year.

I'd say they were the most amazing before the digital era. Now, I have my entire archive of negatives scanned and organized by binders and rolls. I keep everything in Lightroom, tagged with keywords, so within seconds, I can pull up all photos from a specific film stock, developed in a certain batch, shot at a specific ISO, or pushed by a certain number of stops, or I can combine these criteria to further refine my search. I can’t even count how many times I’ve shot a film stock that I don’t use often, and I would just go back and review how it looked developed in different developers and times.

I can also instantly find images/rolls by location, person, subject, and more. The best shots are labeled and rated, so I don't have to scroll through tens of thousands of negatives. I can easily filter down to those I've rated 1-5 stars, which represent about 10% of my entire collection.

Another feature I find incredibly useful is that, with just one click, I can revert my photos to the original negative. I can then place it side by side with another negative, allowing me to easily determine the starting grade and exposure time for the first test print just by comparing them visually on screen.

 

[BobUK]

I use up my boxes of out of date paper for making contact sheets.
A test sheet is made, then the enlarger lens aperture, head height and exposure time are recorded. All subsequent contact sheets from that box of paper have the same exposure. Saves on valuable time.
The purpose of my contact sheets is just to locate a particular roll or shot, and record locations plus film developing information.
They are rough and ready I must admit due to the one exposure fits all. I can still tell what is good to print though.

One odd thing I do is to keep the contact sheets in separate files to the negatives. In the back of my head I have a vague memory of somebody saying it's best that way as they did have trouble occasionally with contact prints that had not been thoroughly washed, contaminating the glassine sheet of negatives pressed up against it for many years.

 

[prado333]

I have not a darkroom so i visualize the negatives in a fujifilm fv machine conectes to an old Sony monitor . I would like the contact sheets and the lab make them when i shoot in negative color . I like too the enlarged contact are a bit expensive but are gorgeous