Digital Contact Sheet

F

Flack

Well-Known Member
Registered
I have just started to use this method now in Lightroom to make a digital contact sheet so I can see what negatives are worth making a print from in my darkroom. I scan my 35mm/6x6 negs using my Nikon Z6 in to lightroom then I convert them with Negative Lab pro, I always make a tiff copy and use these for my contact sheet.

I can then judge which ones that are worth a print without using a full sheet of my photographic paper to make a wet contact sheet, doe anybody else use this method.?
 
There is a simpler (in my view) way of doing this using Photoshop not Lightroom. Scan your negatives into a folder say in 'Pictures'. Colour or B&W it doesn't matter but they should be JPG's at 300dp. Tiff files will seriously slow the process down.

Open Photoshop - Click on open to open the pictures folder Click on 'Automate' (it is about 3/4 of the way down) click on file and choose 'pictures' Click on the folder your want to make into a thumbnail page. Then click on OK (top right corner)

A white window will appear with a circle of dots rotating to show you it is working then 1 or more pages will appear depending on how many images are in the file. Save them so you can look back later.

The images will be sized to fit an A4 sheet, but to enlarge them click on view, then 100% or even 200% and you will be able to check if they are actually sharp enough to worth printing

I have catalogued about 1/3rd of all my colour negs (work still in progress) so I can refer back to them without squinting at them through the paper negative envelope
 
Just an update. Each full page is sized as a 10x8 inch sheet (not A4 as I said previously) and there can be up to 30 images per sheet. Some sheets, if there are a lot if images on the file may have 1 or more sheets with 30 and another 1 or more with less than that. I have just done a test sheet with a folder containing 87 images and there were 4 sheets in total but of these there were 2 full sheets and 2 partially full.

I have also just checked using photoshop and if you wish, these can ALL be converted to B& W at the same time using the PS tool Image adjust - Black and white convert to give you an idea what they may look like converted from RGB.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top