Post your contact sheets please.

Eric Rose · Mar 3, 2005

There is some discussion around the 5 grain barns both Ian Greant and I have photographed (Standard Gallery). People have found it interesting how two different photographers have interpreted the same structures in their own unique ways. And of course this is as it should be. If there are two people with very different photographic views it's Ian and I. But even with this we do a far amount of shooting together and spend lots of time drinking coffee and mulling over each others prints.

I value Ian's input for many reasons but his very unique view on things forces me to look at my work in a different light.

I thought it would be interesting to post a copy of my contact sheet relating to these 5 barns. In that way you could see how I "worked" the scene. If Ian did the same then you could compare our different approaches. Now maybe he only took one shot. That is conceivable as Ian spends a lot of time thinking and not so much time shooting. Where as I shot a lot and think as I go. As I shoot new ideas come up and I try those approaches as well. For me this works and certainly keeps the film manufacturers in business LOL. I work the same way with LF, MF and minicam (35mm).

I would also like to see how you "work" a subject. Whether they are Thomas's nude studies, Cheryl's kids, John's seaside shots or whatever you do.

Please post a scan of your contact sheet(s) taken at one shooting in the Technical Gallery. Along with the contact sheet please describe what you were going for and the thought processes behind how you developed the subject.

I have always been fasinated with looking at contact sheets from HCB, AA, Newton, Cunningham and the like. They tell such a story.

Please participate in this as I think the discussion could be very interesting and instructive for all of us.

I have a show opening tonight (Mar 3rd) so will post my contribution tomorrow morning.

ian_greant · Mar 3, 2005

well.. I did take some 35mm shots (2 or 3) that I could dredge up and post.
you are right about the 4x5. I did essentially take one shot. (two sheets of film - one as backup)

heh maybe we could all post our pics of the church at Dorothy!

Eric Rose · Mar 3, 2005

Ya it doesn't have to be of the same thing as I shot. This is open to everyone so we can see how they work. Dorothy is a good idea for we Calgary folk. Hey even Les McLean could contribute to that one!

WarEaglemtn · Mar 3, 2005

So our 8x10 & 5x7 prints are OK? Contact prints are what some of us do much of the time.

Ole · Mar 3, 2005

I'm posting all contact sheets, too

Eric Rose · Mar 3, 2005

You guys are SO funny LOL. Anyway you could scan a bunch of your "contacts" and then combine them in PS to be a "real" contact sheet. Say 4 to a page. Come on work with us here!!

Les McLean · Mar 3, 2005

sorry Eric I never make contact sheets, it's the 2nd most hated photographic job after standing around shaking plastic tubes when developing film.

Eric Rose · Mar 3, 2005

think of it as a public service Les LOL.

SuzanneR · Mar 3, 2005

I'm with Les here, never found contact sheets helpful! I would rather scan, or make a small RC work print!

Did you shoot the barns at the same time?

VoidoidRamone · Mar 3, 2005

I don't make a lot of contact sheets either, so I just did a scan of my negative file. (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
-Grant

Eric Rose · Mar 3, 2005

Suzanne Revy said:
I'm with Les here, never found contact sheets helpful! I would rather scan, or make a small RC work print!

Did you shoot the barns at the same time?

Ian shot the barns probably a year before I did. I guess I grew up with contact sheets and find them very useful. Each to their own.

Chuck_P · Mar 3, 2005

I make a contact sheet for each roll I shoot, I find them helpful (old habit I guess).

bjorke · Mar 3, 2005

I usually do a bulk scan and print a 300dpi "contact sheet" as described here:

http://www.botzilla.com/blog/archives/000286.html

I'll post one. Film negs, computer collation. I like it both for ease and the fact that the space between frames is white and writable

(Click here to see 100% detail)

Thomassauerwein · Mar 3, 2005

Eric, I always do proof sheets and will dig through and find something. I'm not sure how useful it will be, as most my stuff is concept driven and by the time we get to film the shot only really leaves room for small variations. Polaroid is my tool to weed out the problems in an image then once the shot is complete we shoot film. It may be more interesting to keep all the polaroids from a session to show the changes and compromises through a session them the proof sheets.

Jeremy · Mar 3, 2005

Thomassauerwein said:
Eric, I always do proof sheets and will dig through and find something. I'm not sure how useful it will be, as most my stuff is concept driven and by the time we get to film the shot only really leaves room for small variations. Polaroid is my tool to weed out the problems in an image then once the shot is complete we shoot film. It may be more interesting to keep all the polaroids from a session to show the changes and compromises through a session them the proof sheets.

Thomas, I for one would like to see these!

Nicole · Mar 3, 2005

Bjorke, here's a doozy question for you.

Please teach me - How in PS (CS) do I collate a contact sheet from my negs with neg numbers as you have done?

I'm such a techo wizkid!

BTW, I like Nov03A-33 best

bjorke · Mar 3, 2005

Nicole Boenig-McGrade said:
Please teach me - How in PS (CS) do I collate a contact sheet from my negs with neg numbers as you have done?

Well as described in more detail here and here, I use a French program called XnView, which only runs on PC (I use both PC and Mac, an unstructured "system" of cross-purposed scanners and printers). Once the negs are scanned, I use XnView to build the proofsheet. Once the proof is made (as appropriate), I also use XnView to do some bulk rotations on the images, if they are sideways. Then I close XnView and launch PS-CS.

I sometimes also use XnView for running slideshows from rolls I like to select all the pix, start the slideshow on "random," and let it go for a while, just to sort of let the pictures percolate (sort of a computer equivalent to pinning up prints on the wall all the time). This is on the PC -- on Mac, I drop pix into a folder and set the screensaver to randomly cycle them. Sort of the same idea.

XnView does a lot of other stuff, but really those are about the only operations I use. Everything else goes through Photoshop. XnView, like PS-CS, is also able to read Canon RAW files but that's a different thread, heh

BTW, I like Nov03A-33 best

me too

Ole · Mar 4, 2005

When shooting MF, I make contact sheets every time. For 35mm TF I find the contacts too small to bother with, but 645 an up is big enough that you can actually see whether it's worth the trouble to enlarge that negative.

Since I only scan individual frames I have no need to make "electronic" contact sheets, but I do know that IrfanView does that nicely. Incidentally that's the same program I use for making html albums like my home pages, and also for all finishing processing such as resizing and colour adjustments before posting images here.
You reading this, Nicole?

Nicole · Mar 4, 2005

Ole, yes thanks for that. I have seen IrfanView before.
I've heard Compupic's quite good as well.
Sorry to hijack the thread Bjorke!
So, please post your contact sheets.

Eric Rose · Mar 4, 2005

Ok now that we have all the technical stuff out of the way, there is no more excuses! Lets see those contacts!! No matter how you produce them.

I have posted a set from one of my favorite haunts around Calgary. The contact is in the Technical Gallery and a couple of prints are in the Standard Gallery to show how I cropped a couple of shots I liked.

The joys of a square format as I can crop either vertical, horizontal or keep it square. Choices, I love it.

rbarker · Mar 4, 2005

While I often make contact sheets for ease of reference in the darkroom when doing enlargements, posting one wouldn't accomplish your goal, Eric. When doing LF, I usually "work" the scene with a Dead Link Removed first, and then set up only at the selected location(s).

Ed Sukach · Mar 10, 2005

Contact sheets are interesting, showing the "flow" of a particular session.. and possibly something of an insight into the photographer's selection process. Patric Demarchelier's web site includes a number of his contact sheets.

One word of caution - the images here are NOT "finished" and they are not meant to - and do NOT represent my "best" work -- they only illustrate "starting points" for the darkroom work.

In one of the critques posted to my "Untitled", in the Critque gallery, something was said to the effect of "an unhappy, tense model". I don't think so ... you might draw your own conclusios from the contact sheet -- one of eight from that session.

Eric Rose · Mar 10, 2005

Thanks Ed. That's jsut the stuff I'm looking for. Shows as you say the flow. If we could get people more involved in this thread I think it could be very instructional for the newbies. They could see our contacts and make suggestions ask questions and we could do the same for them.

There's a lot of talent on this board for sure.

As far as your contacts Ed, I like the middle row, second down and also the one just to the right of it. She looks very relaxed to me.

John McCallum · Mar 10, 2005

Great idea Eric. I'll be interested to see how others here arrive at their good images too.
I tend to use sheet film for landscape stuff, so I could get the contact sheets together from a day out. I'm a bit like Les about contact sheets on the 35mm, but I'll dig something out. My scanner is due to arrive within the next couple of weeks.

Thomassauerwein · Mar 10, 2005

I'm in on this! Just to many things going on to put it together. This thread could be the best one yet so ERIC, Hold on!

Post your contact sheets please.

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