Contact sheets without a darkroom

Charly

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I use a hybrid workflow, scanning with a film scanner. This is a slow process if I were to scan every neg.

I want to produce chemical contact sheets from my 35mm negs in order to select what to scan. The problem is that I have no dark room equipment. Is it possible to contact print using a standard household lamp of some sort or would I be better off getting a cheapie flatbed for such a task?

Thanks for your help

charly
 
As long as you have a dark room, all you need is a light bulb and a piece of window glass to put on top of the negatives. No need to complicate things!
 
Charly said:
I use a hybrid workflow, scanning with a film scanner. This is a slow process if I were to scan every neg.

I want to produce chemical contact sheets from my 35mm negs in order to select what to scan. The problem is that I have no dark room equipment. Is it possible to contact print using a standard household lamp of some sort or would I be better off getting a cheapie flatbed for such a task?

Thanks for your help

charly

Not only for tests you can contact print large negative and get beautiful prints with a bare bulb, I think Weston used this technique to produce some of his works. I use the same way for all my pinhole work (I just feel it is nice to use as little technology as possible sometimes) and it works fine.

GLF
 
Light bulb works.

So does my Epson scanner. 4 strips 6 frames each. In the prescan box check thumbnails and I get 24 small pics all separated. In photoshop, go to file -automate- contact sheet. It puts them all on one page. This takes 20 min depending on resolution used.

If I scan with enough resolution, I can blow up the sheet to see the individual pics in sufficient detail to make a 4x6 screen image. Then i pick the best for a final scan on the Minolta 5400.
 
I do believe I read somewhere that Ansel Adams used a light bulb on the ceiling for contact prints.
 
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