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How to Make Contact Sheets for Darkrooms

The proliferation of digital cameras killed film and developing laboratories. The instant review of digital images and ease of making home prints turned darkrooms into dinosaurs. But some photographers continue to use darkrooms to make prints and contact sheets for proofing. A contact sheet is a single print of 8-by-10 inch photo paper, showing all the negatives on a film strip, allowing the photographer to see the negative as a positive to determine which negatives to print. It is becoming a lost art but with the tools and equipment for producing black and white contact sheets, the steps are not difficult.

Things You'll Need

Darkroom
Red safe light
Contact proofer
Photo paper
Enlarger
Timer
Trays
Photo chemicals --- developer, fixer, stopbath
Clothesline
Clothespins

Instructions

Print a Black and White Contact Sheet
- 1
  Develop the film. If using 35 mm film, cut the negatives into strips of four negatives apiece. Place the negatives in a plastic negative sleeve to protect them from fingerprints and dust. The negative sleeves are 8-by-10 inches, the same size as the photo paper used for making the contact sheet.
- 2
  Place the sheet of negatives into a contact print holder. The holders have a glass overlay. Place the sleeve of negatives, emulsion side facing down.
- 3
  Turn on the enlarger. Place the contact sheet holder under the enlarger. Adjusting the height, make sure the light coming from it will cover the contract print holder. You can have the light spill out over the sides of the holder to ensure the entire holder is exposed. When satisfied with the adjustment, turn the enlarger off.
- 4
  Set out the trays and chemicals. Place three trays side by side. Put developer in the first tray, stop bath in the middle and fixer in the last. Use the instruction on the chemical containers to determine amounts and diluting methods.
- 5
  Turn on the safe light. This red light does not fog paper and allows you to see in a dark room. Open the print paper package and take out a piece. Place it on the contact sheet holder under the negative. Close the contact sheet holder and position it under the enlarger. Once you open the print paper package, it cannot be exposed to light other than the safelight or it will fog and ruin the paper.
- 6
  Make a test strip. Set the enlarger on F4, put in sheet of photo paper, cut in 2-by-8 inch strips, under the negatives and use a piece of cardboard to cover all but the first one inch of the strip. Set the timer to 16 seconds. Turn on the enlarger and working from left to right, uncover the strip with the cardboard every 2 seconds until you reach the end.
- 7
  Develop the test strip. Place the strip in the developer for 1 minute if the paper is resin coated, 2 minutes if it is fiber based. Using tongs, take it out and place in the stop bath for 30 seconds. Then move it to the fixer for 2 minutes, or 4 minutes for fiber-based paper.
- 8
  Turn on the lights and determine which exposure is the best overall for the negatives. Turn the lights back off and load the contact sheet holder with photo paper.
- 9
  Expose the paper to light using the enlarger. Place the holder under the enlarger and expose for the amount of time determined by the test strip.
- 10
  Develop the print. Use the same times outlined for developing the test strip.
- 11
  Let the sheet dry. Clip the edge to a clothesline with a clothespin and allow the print to dry. In normal light, look at the contact sheet with a photo loop or magnifying glass and select the negatives you want to print.

Photography