Making decent contact prints - how do I?

Kev M

Kev M

Suspended / Banned
Messages
4,347
Name
You can call me Sir.
Edit My Images
Yes
How do you make decent contact prints, mine really suck and I can't get them sorted.

Les Maclean recommends printing at grade 1 to minimise the contrast so that you can get the maximum detail out of the negative but how do judge the exposure time on a low contrast print? With a normal print I'll split grade for the blacks and whites or if single grading base the timing on the mid-black point and D&B the rest. So how dark should you make a low contrast contact print?

The second problem is how do you judge that timing when you've bracketed the exposures? because technically each neg should require a different printing time. Or do you pick the most suitable frame (perhaps the most dense) before you start and base your contact print around that and stuff the rest of them?

Les Maclean's book doesn't really touch on this as he uses the zone system and 5 or more film backs so that bracketed shots are taken on different rolls of film and each film is processed with the same dynamic range.

It's alright for some but us mere mortals only have two backs, one in use and one prep'd so all bracketing gets done on the one roll.

TIA,
Kev
 
Not sure a contact will tell you anything about the exposure time of a final print. It's a good idea to assess your best neg first, that is one with dense blacks (highlights), clear areas and a range of midtones. Print for that and let the rest of the roll look after itself, making a second contact if necessary to accomodate negs of different densities.

The logic of printing a contact 'flat' (grade 0 or 1) is to show the maximum mid-tone detail, it's no guide to print contrast. Contacts aren't works of art, they simply show composition and whether there's anything worthwhile in the neg.
 
Yeah I wasn't thinking that the contact would give me the actual print time, I gues I didn't phrase it properly. So, print for the dense negs and screw the rest. That'll be fun making test strips over one neg:lol: At least they're 6x6 not 35mm, they'd be almost impossible.
 
You need to print yourt contacts strips same every time - that way you will get know after a while how to print individual frames just by looking at them. Inconsistency at the contact stage means much more work later.
 
We may be talking at cross purposes Kev. What I'm suggesting is to treat your contact print and final print as totally separate entities. The contact is simply a 'what does the composition look like' set of 12 or 36 miniprints to be perused through a lupe. Sure, it'll give you some idea whether it's a contrasty or flat neg but you'll only know for sure when you do a test strip for the final print.

A grade one test will show how much tone there is in the neg in a way a grade 4 test won't, even if you ultimately decide grade 4 is the look you're after in the print.
You can buy multigrade tests but I've never used one, if you get your exposure and development tuned you can use grade 2 as a reasonable starting point for a test strip and work around that. Personally I wouldn't print for your densest neg (unless the rest are so thin they were processed in wee) but the one with the best mix of tones.

I may have the wrong end of the stick but I can't see why you'd be doing test strips the size of a neg?
 
I always understood that one should go for lower contrast and expose for just enough time for the clear base to print as solid black. That is your reference point (unexposed = black) and from there you can see how well your negs are exposed.
 
...someone might be interested:- Tesco (and I suppose others) do a contact sheet (called an index) 3/4" X 1/2" frames when you have your film developed...I get mine free to shut me up for when I was complaining in the past but I think it's 99p.
 
Ambermile said:
Coo - I find that hard to believe... :D

Arthur
Click to expand...

..and this story is worth reading as it pays to complain and is dedicated to a forum member (or more) who first mentioned Tesco and were getting their negs developed for 99p, but in my particular branch a re-incarnation of Boudicca said "they wouldn't do development on it's own" even though I showed a receipt of another Tesco that did do only dev for 99p.
So after wanting to see the store manager (erm who wasn't available..oh yeah?) a deal was struck to shut me up that's lasted a year so far as all the staff (3) know me... as that miserable old git.
 
excalibur2 said:
..and this story is worth reading as it pays to complain and is dedicated to a forum member (or more) who first mentioned Tesco and were getting their negs developed for 99p, but in my particular branch a re-incarnation of Boudicca said "they wouldn't do development on it's own" even though I showed a receipt of another Tesco that did do only dev for 99p.
So after wanting to see the store manager (erm who wasn't available..oh yeah?) a deal was struck to shut me up that's lasted a year so far
Click to expand...
Stories like this are, as you say, very handy to know about as they do give more ammunition when in similar situations.

excalibur2 said:
as all the staff (3) know me... as that miserable old git.
Click to expand...


Say it ain't so :thinking:
 
***Say it ain't so***

Well I was complaining over about 3 weeks...and I suppose the staff said amongst themselves at the time "Oh no! not him again" ..... ;)
 
excalibur2 said:
***Say it ain't so***

Well I was complaining over about 3 weeks...and I suppose the staff said amongst themselves at the time "Oh no! not him again" ..... ;)
Click to expand...

If any of the processing lab staff get a transfer to the in-store restaurant, I'd suggest that you DON'T eat or drink anything from there :lol:
 
TheBigYin said:
If any of the processing lab staff get a transfer to the in-store restaurant, I'd suggest that you DON'T eat or drink anything from there :lol:
Click to expand...

erm and I like their custard filled doughnuts @ 10 for a £1 :(
 
Cheers for the advice everyone. I now have a height, f-stop and timing which I can use to standardise my contact sheets. Rattled off at least half a dozen yesterday.:thumbs:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top