Contact Prints

[Kev M]

Does anyone still make contact prints? Is it easier than making normal prints or does it require the same amount of gear and grief?

I had my first set of contact prints done the other month by Peak Imaging and although I was about disappointed that they were inkjet prints it was nice to hold something in my hand for a change rather than just scan it to the hard disk. It certainly made choosing which negs to scan a lot simpler and saved me scanning all twelve to find out which ones I shouldn't have bothered with.

 

[Freester]

I do but it is inkjet from negative scans.

Once I dev a film I usually do a quick scan of ALL shots at a very small size (usually 400 pixels longest side). From these I create a contact sheet that I print to keep with the negs before I scan at high res any shots that have promise. I don't scan them all at high res as that would take forever with a flatbed. If you see what I mean...?

I haven't been doing this long but my thinking is the contact sheet will help me locate a shot more easily in the future if want to do another print, or when I am doing proper printing at college and don't have access to the scans.

 

[Freester]

If you want to make a contact print at home traditionally you can do with it with just a normal lamp - no need for an enlarger. You still need a darkroom and the dev solutions!

 

[raathistle]

I'm in the process of making contacts for all my films

Only really started organising the negs after christmas so didn't see the point before then but now they are all getting organised it makes sense. They are really easy to do as well, but you need somewhere dark