To make a contact sheet HELP PLease

[Aine46]

Hi

I am new to APUG and to dark room techniques. I love Black & White photography and I am currently trying to develop my own.
My question is in order to make a contact sheet of my negatives which aperture should I choose to begin with and also for how many seconds should I expose for?
:confused:

Aine

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Make a test strip. Set the enlarger height to cover an 8x10" sheet and mark that height on the column so you can use it in the future. Start, say, at f:8, and take one neg to make a test strip, say with 6 patches at 3 second intervals, develop, and see which spot on the strip is the minimum time to give you the maximum black in the unexposed parts of the film, and use that time for the whole sheet. If the whole test strip is off base, change the aperture or time interval and try again.

Now you might find that a proof sheet at minimum time for the maximum black doesn't give you good proof images--that's telling you that you need to adjust your exposure technique in the camera or film development time. Make a note of it, make another proof sheet so that you can see the images as best you can, and think about what you have to do to get good images on your next roll, if you expose your proof sheet for the minimum time for maximum black, because if you can do that, your negatives will be easier to print.

 

[Bob F.]

Hello there Aine - welcome aboard.

The late Barry Thornton wrote an article that is essentially an expanded version of what David suggests. Look for the article titled UnZone from the list of articles at the bottom of the page here: www.barrythornton.com. It does waffle on a bit for the first page () but bear with it - it is a very good method...

Good luck, Bob.

 

[jeroldharter]

I can't say that my contact sheets are the best, but they work OK. tomorrow, I need to print 10 contact sheets for some 120 film that I processed today.

I leave the negs in their transparent plastic sleeves. I use the top of an 11 x 14 photo paper box, so that it is a bit larger than 11 x 14. I use an 11 x 14 piece of plexiglass, although I think regular glass would be better. I put the paper box lid on the easel upside down, then put in a sheet of 11 x 14 RC glossy paper from Freestyle (i.e. the cheapest they have), then put the sheet of negatives on top so that the emulsion side of the film faces the emulsion side of the paper, register the paper/negative sleeve/plexiglass to one corner of the upside down paper box, and then make a test strip. The 11 x 14 RC paper is larger than the negatives so I cut various sizes of mat board to place over the empty areas so that they are bright white in the final print. That way I can use a marker to write notes. Trying to make contact prints on 8 x 10 paper is always annoying because there is not enough real estate for everything to fit. For 4 x 5, I have some 4 x 5 mat board to use if I want to cover an empty frame in the negative sheet; I also use it ito place on top of a negative that is obviously thin midway throught the exposure so that it is not overexposed.

Sounds a bit complicated but works better than using my fancy Zone VI mahogany 8 x10 contact printing frame.

Some suggest printing contact sheets at the lowest contrast so that you can see all the detail available. I tried that but did not like it because they look so pale. Now I print them at about grade 1.5 or so, moderately low contrast but not so weak that I don't like looking at them.

 

[Aine46]

Thanks Bob I will check this site.
Aine46

Hello there Aine - welcome aboard.

The late Barry Thornton wrote an article that is essentially an expanded version of what David suggests. Look for the article titled UnZone from the list of articles at the bottom of the page here: www.barrythornton.com. It does waffle on a bit for the first page () but bear with it - it is a very good method...

Good luck, Bob.

 

[Aine46]

Thanks Jerold

I will try the contact sheet with grade 1.5 and see what happens.

Aine46

I can't say that my contact sheets are the best, but they work OK. tomorrow, I need to print 10 contact sheets for some 120 film that I processed today.

I leave the negs in their transparent plastic sleeves. I use the top of an 11 x 14 photo paper box, so that it is a bit larger than 11 x 14. I use an 11 x 14 piece of plexiglass, although I think regular glass would be better. I put the paper box lid on the easel upside down, then put in a sheet of 11 x 14 RC glossy paper from Freestyle (i.e. the cheapest they have), then put the sheet of negatives on top so that the emulsion side of the film faces the emulsion side of the paper, register the paper/negative sleeve/plexiglass to one corner of the upside down paper box, and then make a test strip. The 11 x 14 RC paper is larger than the negatives so I cut various sizes of mat board to place over the empty areas so that they are bright white in the final print. That way I can use a marker to write notes. Trying to make contact prints on 8 x 10 paper is always annoying because there is not enough real estate for everything to fit. For 4 x 5, I have some 4 x 5 mat board to use if I want to cover an empty frame in the negative sheet; I also use it ito place on top of a negative that is obviously thin midway throught the exposure so that it is not overexposed.

Sounds a bit complicated but works better than using my fancy Zone VI mahogany 8 x10 contact printing frame.

Some suggest printing contact sheets at the lowest contrast so that you can see all the detail available. I tried that but did not like it because they look so pale. Now I print them at about grade 1.5 or so, moderately low contrast but not so weak that I don't like looking at them.