How do you make CONTACT/PROOF sheets like traditional "WET" on this scanner set-up?

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How do you make CONTACT/PROOF sheets like traditional "WET" on this scanner set-up?

Greetings-

I have an EPSON V750 PRO scanner with PSCS3 & Aperture 2.0 that outputs to a EPSON 4880 PRO Printer.

I have all my B&W Leica Negs. in PRINTFILE ARCHIVEABLE NEG. HOLDERS W/ 7 strips of images each. I have a gazillion print files like these....

My question is.... How do you make TRADITIONAL, (like "wet" proof/contact sheets), PROOF/CONTACT SHEETS with this scanner?

I saw a traditional proof/contact sheet made by the same make as mine, but when I asked the gent. he simply replied, "RTFM!", (READ THE FOOKIN' MANUAL)... Oh well, that's life. I did read the manual, but to no avail., No info. pertaining to this type of procedure.

Any advise, or suggestions would be most welcomed & appreciated.

Best,

LV1 :bang:
 
I just have the V500, wish I had your 750 so I could scan my sheet film in one pass. But I don't know of a way to make contact sheets directly from the scanner, unless you just scan to the printer an entire page or group of negatives lying on the glass--a pretty crude method. Elements 6, where I store and organize my images, has a flexible and useful contact sheet function in it's PRINT menu--but of course the selected images to be printed on the contact sheet have already been individually scanned and stored beforehand, a step I assume you are trying to avoid.

I use VueScan Professional, which I like a lot, instead of the Epson-supplied software, and do my "contact sheet" proofing on the fly from the scanner previews as I work. It's a quick and easy process, but not the same as having a contact sheet, and also doesn't give you a printed contact sheet to store with your negative files, which I assume is probably your aim. It does allow a quick zoom to look at something closer before a "scan it or skip it" decision is made, though.

If you come up with a way I'd be interested in hearing about it.
 
I have tried making contact sheets using a flatbed scanner, an Epson 4490 with the standard paper copy function. Converted the resulting tones in photoshop.
The only difficulty is to align the cuts of film but otherwise it works.
 
I set up 4 marqes , one each for 6 frames. Then I SAVE those settings. 4870 then scans each strip of 6. Then I do the last two. Add onto an 8x10 blank page with photoshop and merge the layers.
 
You can do it with the "film area guide" and professional mode:

-Use the film area guide (see user's guide/index/Placing Film in the Film Area Guide)
-arrange your negatives on the scanner glass
-start epson scan, professional mode, -select:
document type: Film (with Film Area Guide)
film type: as required
image type: as required
resolution: 300 (is enough)
-click preview
-click and select the negatives area on the preview window
-scan
 
LeicaVirgin1 said:
Any advise, or suggestions would be most welcomed & appreciated.
Click to expand...

I simply do not bother with contact sheets but just lay the negs down on a cheap lightable. You can tell much more than by looking at a contact sheet because you have a first generation original. You can very quickly learn to read everything possible about the subject, density, sharpness and tonality. Sure it is a reverse image but your brain can learn to deal with that in no time. And you cannot beat the processing speed (there is no processing)

I once lived by contact sheets back in the wet darkroom days. But no more. It is just a matter of being able to let go of old habits and learn something new that works as well.
 
Lately I've been going through old contact sheets, going over my old files. There are scribbled notes on the back of some of them, crop marks on the front. I can take a bunch of them with me when I head out for coffee, pass 'em around...I sure wouldn't do that with negatives! I also like the way they look when I scan off a contact sheet, sometimes a single image, sometimes a group of four, and post it on my blog, perforations, crop marks, dust spots and all. http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com

Rather than being "finished work" it's more like letting people peek in your sketchbook
 
"Digital" contacts come in awfully handy for me. I recently shot a bunch of rolls at a local event, so this workflow literally came into its own.

I have a tabloid-size flatbed scanner (UMAX PowerLook 2100XL) with transparency lid, which can scan two 36-exposure rolls in one pass, although I usually scan just one roll at a time. Sometimes I print out 11x17" contact prints if I want to take them with me somewhere to examine via loupe, but much of the time I just check them out on-screen. Best of the old and new, IMO.


- Barrett
 
I like having ditital "contact prints" for similar reasons to Al Kaplan: I like to take them with me, take notes on 'em (such as: "hold the camera straight, moron", or "don't just spin the wheel on the meter: change the shutter speed"), mark the ones worth further processing or that need re-scanning (my 5000ED and Nikon Scan software can be a little flaky with its less-than-automatic frame detection) and so on.

I sort-of cheat to do it. I've put together a simple Photoshop action that takes full-size scans and sticks 640px JPGs in a separate directory. Canon's Easy Photo Print software (which came with my printer) turns these into "contact-like" sheets at 20 frames/page. I use the prints to scribble on after scanning them with my flatbed scanner so I have a digital as well as printed record (not that re-printing is hard to do).

Scans from each roll sit in a separate directory, with sub-directories for "contacts" (downsized images plus scanned sheets) and the edits for any prints I may have made from the scans. I burn a DVD of the lot, and stick it in a plastic sleve (in a binder) along with "contact sheets" edits for work prints, notes etc. - all cross-referenced back to the negatives. (Note that this DVD is most certainly not my only copy of the files.)

I've only just started doing this as I've only been developing my own regularly fairly recently. It seems like it should work for the long haul, though.

...Mike
 
Last edited:
Years ago a few labs that had 8 X 10 enlargers (they are HUGE!) would make enlarged "contacts" to 16 X 20 for a small fortune.

I had my local glass company cut me two pieces about 6" X 12" and round the corners and edges. They would take three strips of six in the Omega 4 X 5 enlarger. You print nine frames on 8 X 10 or 11 X 14 paper, slide the thing over and print the other nine frames. The ease of handling the smaller paper more than made up for the inconvenience of making four prints instead of one. Some clients loved them.
 
...long post....

...long post....

Are you aiming to get the black-background, perfs-and-frame-numbers and all type contact sheet? Or do you just want your scanned frames printed sequentially on a sheet that comes out of your inkjet printer?

For the former, I attempted to do (and never repeated it again), and made some contact sheets with the old style look. A flatbed scanner and a lightweight-lightbox were needed. Lightweight lightbox, since it will be placed on top of the scanner.

The scanner I used was an inexpensive microtek which had a transparency/backlight provision. It never limited the size of the scanning area when set to backlight, like some other scanners would.

For the lightbox, I used a DIY contraption with a fluorescent tube within. Electronic ballasting needed since the tube can flicker and cause wavy patterns in the scan. It had an approx 20X24cm (larger than 8X10 in) lit area, diffused by white acrylic sheet similar to "plexiglass".

The negatives (face down, emulsion up) were placed on the scanner glass. The strips I had were flat enough to hold their position. A 3mm glass plate was then laid over them to hold them in place. Then the lightbox.

Scan as usual, and then tweak in PS to get the tones right.

Now if you want just to have a set of tiny images printed on a big sheet of paper (just like the "index prints" the labs make), you can use a function in photoshop which does exactly this.

To do this in PSCS3, to to FILE, then AUTOMATE, then CONTACT SHEET II. The frames you want 'contact'ed' should be in one folder.

The dialogue box for CONTACT SHEET II will be as follows:

"Source Images" = location folder of the files.

"Document" = define your specifications.
Print size: the output size. Usually, A4 or letter size, or a custom size like 8x10 inch like the traditional contact sheets.
Resolution should be 300 dpi (default).
Mode: RGB color (default).

"Thumbnails" = define here the frame count per column and per row. For instance, the traditional contact sheet contained 6 frames across at 6 strips. To do the same, you simply fill the tabs with 6 columns and 6 rows.

Check 'auto-spacing' and 'rotate for best fit'.

Check 'use file name as caption'. Select appropriate font size and style.
The file names printed under the frames will be the file name assigned during the scan. So if you want traditional numbering (eg, 1-36) you should name the files as you scan them with their original frame numbers- eg, 4, or 24A.

Flatten the file. Apply smart sharpening. Then save.

You can now print the contact sheet file using your inkjet printer. Or send the files out to a lab for more permanent proofs on RA-4 paper.
 
Al Kaplan said:
That seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a contact sheet!
Click to expand...

The first method, yes.

The second method, no. No more trouble than placing the strips on the bromide, weighting it with glass, and then exposing it. Followed by developing, rinsing, fixing, and long washing, plus ferrotyping..... ]which was how I had my contacts done the wet style before.

The PSCS3 Contact Sheet function is literally just a button click, after the 'instructions' are saved as an action.
 
Since the late 1970's I've been doing contacts on RC paper, no long wash, no ferrotyping. I can dodge underexposed frames, burn-in overexposed frames. Hey, I'm used to it! No test strips, just arrange the strips and BANG!, I'm there. Soup, a few mnutes fix, 5 minutes wash, squegee and hang to dry in front of the AC. I read that Kodak stopped making single weight glossy paper. Maybe if I were starting out today it'd make sense. I never learned to type either. I still "hunt and peck" but I can do about thirty words a minute with my right hand while I smoke and drink coffee with my left. Overall it's faster than touch typing.
 
Al Kaplan said:
Since the late 1970's I've been doing contacts on RC paper, no long wash, no ferrotyping. I can dodge underexposed frames, burn-in overexposed frames. Hey, I'm used to it! No test strips, just arrange the strips and BANG!, I'm there. Soup, a few mnutes fix, 5 minutes wash, squegee and hang to dry in front of the AC. I read that Kodak stopped making single weight glossy paper. Maybe if I were starting out today it'd make sense. I never learned to type either. I still "hunt and peck" but I can do about thirty words a minute with my right hand while I smoke and drink coffee with my left. Overall it's faster than touch typing.
Click to expand...

Over here, RC papers were too expensive to be used for proofing. However, single weight, Chinese-made Erabromide was. It had a better tonal range than the KodabromideII RC #2, so it got used for 'proper' photos as well. So it was basically the 1950's darkroom setup here- right up to the time I stopped doing wet BW printing in 2003.

Dodging and other localised controls- even individual colour correction- is possible with the digital contact sheets too. Tweak before committing to the printer- and then go.

But I do miss the traditional look of the contact sheet- perforations, frame numbers, and glass scratches. Overexposed and underexposed frames (these get corrected in digital) get to be seen immediately.
 
Response...

Response...

Thank you all. I did figure it out. I did do as some have advised. I laid the print-file page down with the negs. enclosed & just switched to 300 dpi from my previous setting of 4800 dpi. I used the "film-guide" & I just tweaked the contrast in the internal setting.

I outputted to Glossy Epson Photo Paper on my Epson 4880 Pro.

Thank you all who contributed to this thread.

Best,

LV1,

DM Brown
 
I prefer 600 dpi for my contact scans. That way the individual frames come out between 8 and 900 pixels wide - big enough to see details (or post if I want.)
 
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