Author Topic: The Art of the Contact Sheet (Read 5290 times)

Nigel · « **on:** November 11, 2011, 08:37:24 AM »

Here's an interesting little article by BBC Picture Editor about contact sheets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15672930

I keep meaning to check if in aperture I can produce a digital contact sheet from my scans?

WARNING: For those of a sensitive disposition there are unexpected photographs of Margaret Thatcher as UK Prime Minister.

LT · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2011, 09:28:17 AM »

Quote from: Nigel on November 11, 2011, 08:37:24 AM

WARNING: For those of a sensitive disposition there are unexpected photographs of Margaret Thatcher as UK Prime Minister.

Oh No! I was looking forward to looking at that, but you have put me off Nigel. There is nothing worse than seeing the queen of british neoliberalism whilst eating my muesli (and no, that is not a euphemism).

Mike (happyforest) · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2011, 10:41:57 AM »

Being mostly self taught and not having the wonderful resources like this forum to provide advice, I didn't discover the usefulness of contact sheets until my later years in the darkroom.

Now that I used digital, instead of the wet route for my final part of the process.
I miss the contact sheet.

I briefly looked at peoples comments on the article and thought this one was quite telling:

'Even as a photographer, I also have very little interest in the subject.'

Mike

charles binns · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2011, 01:36:24 PM »

They had an interesting piece on it on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday as well.

Dave Dunne · « **Reply #4 on:** November 11, 2011, 02:03:14 PM »

I still make contact sheets but of the digital variety. I scan the strips of negatives while they are still in the negative preservers. Since I can't scan all the strips in one go, I make two scans and join them in Photoshop.

I then use this contact sheet to decide which negatives I will scan at higher resolution.

'Even as a photographer, I also have very little interest in the subject.'

The Robert Frank book "Looking In: The Americans" which accompanied an exhibition at the MOMA had a chapter with all of the contacts sheets from "The Americans" project. It was interesting to see the finally chosen photograph in the context of the others taken at the same time.

Flippy · « **Reply #5 on:** November 11, 2011, 02:51:12 PM »

I'm fairly certain I will not make another contact sheet in my life. At least not from 35mm negs anyway. Although the article almost makes them look neat.

LT · « **Reply #6 on:** November 11, 2011, 03:07:03 PM »

I must admit that I don't make contacts sheets either. too time consuming. I can see by eye whether the neg is properly exposed and developed, and provided there is shadow detail, I can get a reasonable print out of it. I also scan the negs and mess in photoshop to work out my printing plans before I take it into the darkroom.

Jon Butler · « **Reply #7 on:** November 11, 2011, 03:33:03 PM »

I don't do contact sheets and haven't for 30 years. I pick a negative that takes my fancy and just print a full size work print. This give me all the imformation needed to create the the final one.
J.

Mike (happyforest) · « **Reply #8 on:** November 11, 2011, 05:15:11 PM »

Quote from: davedunne on November 11, 2011, 02:03:14 PM

I still make contact sheets but of the digital variety. I scan the strips of negatives while they are still in the negative preservers. Since I can't scan all the strips in one go, I make two scans and join them in Photoshop.

The epson scanning software that I use produces a set of thumbnail images on screen in the scan preview.
I then choose which to scan from here.

Quote

The Robert Frank book "Looking In: The Americans" which accompanied an exhibition at the MOMA had a chapter with all of the contacts sheets from "The Americans" project. It was interesting to see the finally chosen photograph in the context of the others taken at the same time.

Yes it is interesting to see which image was chosen. Sometimes the reason is obvious others not so. The contact sheet of Margaret Thatcher for example there are equally good images of her on this sheet but I guess the one chosen best represents 'The Iron lady\this lady's not for turning' image.

However in the interest of enquiry, I'll show you mine.

This contact sheet comes from a young peoples holiday camp where I was a leader and participants came from a wide area. The images were used for publicity for future events.

Mike

original_ann · « **Reply #9 on:** November 11, 2011, 06:29:22 PM »

I have to say... there's something beautiful about seeing a contact sheet all marked up with a grease pencil

Miles · « **Reply #10 on:** November 12, 2011, 01:15:29 AM »

I'm with Ann on that one, it's like looking at a reel to reel turning or a discarded oil palette. Beautiful transient work in progress and the promise of something, Possibly never fulfilled.

Jeff Warden · « **Reply #11 on:** November 12, 2011, 02:34:24 AM »

I'm feeling weird now - I always make contact prints. Surely I'm not alone?

Sandeha Lynch · « **Reply #12 on:** November 12, 2011, 07:34:20 AM »

I never do. I can only judge a negative under a loup.

samantha · « **Reply #13 on:** November 12, 2011, 09:46:13 AM »

I love contact sheets - the story they tell of how you were thinking as you worked, which is often not evident in the selection of the final images and prints. But I confess I don't make them when printing medium format in the darkroom. I like to work straight from viewing the negs.
Weirdly though, I nearly always print digital contact sheets from my digital shoots, using Bridge. These go into my sketchbook, to show my working process (all part of the requirements for the Fine Art degree course I'm doing at the moment).

fwank · « **Reply #14 on:** November 13, 2011, 02:17:14 AM »

i find some interesting contiguous pieces when i look at contacts.

Karl · « **Reply #15 on:** November 14, 2011, 12:21:50 PM »

I make contact sheets and find the valuable as I still can't read a negative and need to see a positive image to check scene details and contrast. They are much quicker than scanning. I can produce c 10 contact sheets in a 3 hour darkroom session (RC paper). That's a much better return than the scanner and I have something I can look over anytime rather than being stuck at a PC.

mickld · « **Reply #16 on:** November 14, 2011, 02:40:56 PM »

@Nigel
I'm not at my Mac right now, but would the light table feature in Aperture allow you to create a contact sheet of scanned negs?

mickld · « **Reply #17 on:** November 14, 2011, 03:04:58 PM »

Ah. Yes, you can make contact prints. Although, to be honest, I don't have a need to.
http://www.apple.com/aperture/how-to/#video-prints

I think you can create quick contact sheets using Snow Leopard/Lion's Quick View feature in Finder. Select all the files you just scanned, hit the space bar. The scans will present themselves as a contact sheet, and then you can choose to print them from this preview. Less control than using Aperture, but quick and convenient. And when printing you can also choose to save the contact sheet as a PDF instead of actually printing.

Nigel · « **Reply #18 on:** November 15, 2011, 08:29:00 PM »

Thanks mickld, that looks easy enough for me I'm going to try that.

CarlRadford · « **Reply #19 on:** November 16, 2011, 07:24:33 PM »

Sometimes a contact sheet is worth ore than a single image

Mike (happyforest) · « **Reply #20 on:** November 16, 2011, 07:47:27 PM »

Carl

Very nice.

Mike

Soap · « **Reply #21 on:** November 16, 2011, 11:36:49 PM »

Well instead of investing in an enlarger I shine a light through my negs and angle it so i can trick my eyes into seeing the positive its

when it works but an enlarger is still out of my reach with this unemployment situation $:-\$

sapata · « **Reply #22 on:** November 17, 2011, 11:10:31 AM »

I used to do contact sheet back in college and I'd probably do again if I had a chance.

I find Adobe Bridge quite useful when scanning negs wich I normally keep them in folders, one for each film (when I have the time...).

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #23 on:** November 17, 2011, 01:15:05 PM »

Quote from: davedunne on November 11, 2011, 02:03:14 PM

I still make contact sheets but of the digital variety. I scan the strips of negatives while they are still in the negative preservers. Since I can't scan all the strips in one go, I make two scans and join them in Photoshop.

I then use this contact sheet to decide which negatives I will scan at higher resolution.

I'm with Dave on this one - mostly. I scan the strips of negs while they're still in their protective sheet (I can fit 2 x 6 frames of 35mm on my scanner), but don't join them up afterwards. However, I do love looking at other people's contact sheets. Didn't one of the Sunday supplements in the UK run a series for years about this subject? One famous shot per week alongside the other snaps taken in the same session? It always fascinated me.

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #24 on:** November 18, 2011, 09:58:06 AM »

Quote

Didn't one of the Sunday supplements in the UK run a series for years about this subject?

That was the Sunday Times. It was a great feature.

Dave Elden · « **Reply #25 on:** November 20, 2011, 02:46:12 AM »

Nigel, thanks for posting this, nice little article. Personally I always make contact sheets for 35 & 120 film, it is a just part of my process I can't do without and I try and persuade my darkroom students to do likewise. The problem there is just the enthusiasm to start making enlargements willy nilly, something I am not entirely immune to!

Wensleydale Blue · « **Reply #26 on:** November 20, 2011, 12:27:07 PM »

For the seemingly few of us above that love the humble contact sheet you might like to know that Magnum have a new book out on the very subject looking at contact sheets produced by many of their famous photographers. As well as the standard edition, there's also a group of ten special editions, each with a 16"x12" contact sheet featuring a famous image by some of their best known photographers. However, deep pockets or understanding partners/relatives will be required as even the admittedly huge basic edition costs £95 (£54 via Amazon and others) and the specials are around £300. Go to the publisher's website at http://www.tandhhighlights.co.uk/9780500543993.html for a good preview of the book.

Also, there's a tie-in event looking at contact prints in London on 26th Nov - price of tickets is £45 (or why not just buy the book!). Details at http://events.magnumphotos.com/symposium/magnum-contact-sheets-symposium

Graham

Late Developer · « **Reply #27 on:** November 20, 2011, 02:01:03 PM »

When I had a darkroom, I used to do a contact sheet with every film processed and I'd keep the contact sheet in a transparent document holder and place it on top of the negatives as an "index". Now that I scan stuff, I've got out of the habit and I haven't really got sorted with tags or metadata, so I've got a bit of catching up to do - gulp!