what's your favorite paper & chemistry to make contact sheets with?

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just wondering what yall would recommend for contacts, i've been doing my film developing & now i'm getting ready to jump into printing & want to start with contact sheets...

thanks for any info!

joe

-- Joe H (joe1013_@excite.com), February 18, 2001

Answers

If you're talking about making contacts as proofs, which means that they are only a means of getting a general idea of what you've got on film, then contacts can be done as quickly and effortlessly as possible. For me this means using my standard developer Ansco 130 and RC paper. Since I am using Ilford MGRC, I make sure to use the appropriate filter that will give me the same REAL grade as the fiber based paper that I use for my final print. This means first testing the Range Number (RN) of the Ilford RC paper and of the other FB paper, and matching them. A number two filter, for example, might give you a grade of 0 on one paper and of 1.5 on another, so I try to match the contrast. This however, is not essential at the beginning. Just make sure that your give just enough exposure so that you can no longer see the sprocket holes of the film (in 35 mm.). Good luck.

Raja

-- Raja A. Adal (d60w0635@ip.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp), February 19, 2001.


For contact sheets I use Ilford Multgrade IV RC glossy in 8 1/2"X11" size.This size allows a full roll of 36exp 35mm negs plus a few more to be printed on one sheet with enough room for notation.In addition the Ilford material comes in 50 sheet boxes vice 500 sheet boxes for the Kodak material. I use no filter, for speed, and try to get an average exposure. Develop in LPD or Dektol. Fix & wash conventionally but I use HCA because the resulting contact sheets are filed adjacent to the negs in a 3 ring binder.BTW I use the clear archival neg pages that hold 7 strips of 6 35mm negs.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), February 19, 2001.

OOPS! Make that 6 strips of 7 negs.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), February 19, 2001.

I can't use it myself because I shoot 35mm, but there's no question about what I'd use if I could: Kodak AZO in Amidol, just like Edward Weston and Michael A. Smith. See: www.michaelandpaula.com. Ansco 130 might be an excellent second choice, but for goodness sake don't use Dektol with AZO.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), February 19, 2001.

I seem to have answered the wrong question. For contact sheets (not individual contact prints) use any of the RC glossy papers and develop in Dektol or Ilford Multigrade developer. I like to expose with a #3 filter.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), February 19, 2001.


I think you have most of what you need, but would suggest #1 paper or filter. Contacts may be a little drab sometimes, but you are more certain to get all of the detail in the negative. If the negs are very contrasty, on higher filter grade you may not see on the contact detail that is in the neg. Actually, I've gone to a completely different approach. I put my digital camera on a copy stand, and the neg on light table, mask with matboard so only the neg shows, and photograph it. I then reverse the image (to a positive) in Photoshop, size it to fit my printer (cheap one for this) and print a paper 8x10 (actually about 7.5 by whatever). I use brightness and contrast controls to make it look halfway decent without losing any negative detail. Very fast and easy.

-- John Sarsgard (sarsgard@yahoo.com), February 21, 2001.

I respectfully disagree with a few of the previous comments. 1. I think that you should consider doing your contact printing on the paper that you will use to make your final prints. After all, one of the reasons you contact is to get some idea of how the photo might look as a larger print. 2. Most important, I do not think that you should change around your exposures to get "good" contact prints. Contact printing can be a very useful tool for judging whether your exposures were good in the field. But if you make em all lighter or darker you will never know. You need to set a standard by which to judge which negs you will print. that standard is very easy. It is the minimum amount of time it takes to make maximum black through the film base (zone 0). why? becasue those values do not change and therefore are a good place to put your foot on the rock. The film cant get any clearer than clear, and black is black, you cannot get any blacker. Its easy. take a clear negative. make a bunch of exposures on it in one or two second intervals. develop it. find the stripe in which the next darker stripe is not any blacker. use exactly the same exposure and development for your contacts every single time. same enlarger height, same exposure time, same developer temp, etc. If you do it the exact same each and every time, then if something weird starts showing up in your negs you will know to check it out, whereas if something weird shows up and you just change exposure or whatever to get a better contact then you will never address the problem on the neg such as overexposure, underexposure, overdevlopment, underdevelpment, camera problems, meter problems, etc. etc. etc. kevin

-- kevin kolosky (kjkolosky@kjkolosky.com), February 23, 2001.

Thanks Kevin, saves me from writing so much.

Also, using a mid grade, either graded or multigrade allows you to see what you may have to do with contrast for enlarging. You can see whether you will need more or less contrast, and get a head start on the adjustment without as many test prints.

So I agree with Kevin, same paper, same development, exposure for film base to just reach maximum black, mid grade.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), February 23, 2001.


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