Contact Sheets

R

Rich Silfver

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I've always been oddly intrigued by contact sheets - other people's subjects, the sequence they shoot in, hits and misses, how different angles are used, etc, etc, etc.

Here is a contact sheet for a few months ago using an Olympus 35LC camera and Trix-400.

Would love to see others :)
 
i love contact sheets, but to the date i've only done a couple of them (that will be here today if if find time), or maybe i can compose some "digital" ones directly scanning the negatives... hmmm...

btw, the first picture seems great, and the last row looks really promising, with that "shot taking" process :) what camera does she have? i think i see a white rf patch but not sure...
 
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I like contact sheets in 120/220 sized film. Can't see 'em in 135- can't tell if something is out of focus unless it was grossly so. Turned out to be uneconomical at my lab to do contact sheets, though, as they were $8, where the $.55 for each 5x5 print was better priced for bigger picts.

I also use printing out paper to make my own contact sheets, mostly 4x5 work, but occasionally smaller 6x7/6x9 "jewels" I'm willing to do.
 
Great link. Loved looking at Diabe Arbus' contact sheets - and I agree that it tells a lot about how the photographer 'thinks'.
 
Oscar that's a fantastic link. These people are so dedicated that they take many many shots to get an outstanding one.

I need to take more photos. I need to take more photos. I need to take....
 
I'm curious Richard, do you scan the negs on a flatbed or is this a real contact sheet ? I tried scanning them all together in flatbed mode but got awful results, there must be a way though.

Yes I can scan two whole 6 neg. strips at once but I'd miss the film brand and frame numbers, and they look cool ;)

BTW it's nice to see the whole sheet and your keepers (well known by now :D)
 
It's a real contact sheet that I just dumped on the flatbed scanner. There's a great site out there somewhere about how to scan negatives on a flatbed scanner to produce 'digital contactsheets' - but I can't seem to find it.

Here are some other references though;
Luminous

photo.net

another photo.net

cafe ilford

Good luck - I'd love to see a digitial contact sheet of yours! ;)
 
I came across that site once and have tried doing contact sheets on two different flatbeds and they just look like cr@p. I don't think the technique works with all flatbeds.

Now what I do is scan the entire roll and collect the jpgs in a directory to create a contact sheet with Photoshop. Looks a little different but each image has my filing system prefix plus frame number on it. I often make them large (16x20) so I can zoom in on frames and see them well onscreen.

Here's an example of one, shrunk way down -- you won't be able to see the detail well but at large size it's very clear.
 
I like it. Out of curiosity what's the photo in 2003040041.12.jpg?
 
Rich Silfver said:
I like it. Out of curiosity what's the photo in 2003040041.12.jpg?
Click to expand...
Frame 12 is a 50th birthday banner hanging in a window (shot vertically). The roll was devoted to some of the preps for my sister-in-law's surprise 50th birthday celebration and shots of various extended family members. Of interest only to the family, but I like recording these kinds of events. Good ol' RF snapshooting :)

Gene
 
You'll know some of the shots in this one, made via PS contact sheet.

Let's see if we can get more people to show theirs ;)

Edit: good point of digital contact sheets, you can adjust exposure for each single frame and mark your favorites. We only need digital sprocket holes for our fav. films now :D
 
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Nice - are they all from the same roll - in the order they were shot?
 
That is what I was thinking Richard as I don't scan all my shots. I am also in awe of all you organized people, I don't have any of my shots organized in any way. I pull out the ones I like best, and their negatives, but nothing more than that.
 
Here's a page of thumbnails of the scans from my latest roll of film, shot at the Saturday morning farmers' market on 28 Aug 04, captured from the Mac shareware program GraphicConverter. This shows all shots on the roll in order.
 
Yes Richard, it's made from the CD I ordered with this roll, same roll and in order. I don't usually scan all my pictures that's why I was interested in making contact sheets of a roll in a single scan. Oh and thanks for the links !

Will keep trying though, I had pretty decent results with an old HP flatbed at work, but can't manage to do the same with my Epson :confused:

Nice thread btw, keep 'em coming ! :)

Edit: organized ? you should see both my real and 'virtual' desktops ;)
 
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Here is a index print that I get with each roll at my Fuji lab. Shot with a FED2/J12/XP2 in Melbourne earlier this year. They are handy when looking for a shot on really mixed up rolls. I must admit I'd really like to have a proper 8x10 contact sheets (with the sprocket holes :D) of all my B&W stuff in a file but that would be a lot of work :(
 
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