Contact Prints

[Daniel Stone]

hey guys,

It seems there's a "show us your ...." thread for almost everything, but I can't seem to find much on contact prints!

So, for those of you shooting and contact printing your big(or small) negatives, show em off here!

I'll get it started, here's a shot from my trip assisting M+P to Iceland last summer, 2010.

This is in Budir, on the Snæfellsnes peninsula.

Ekfe 100(@50), Pyrocat HD 2:2:100
Lodima G3 in MAS Amidol(my favorite combo by far!)



looking forward to your posts!

-Dan

[austin granger]

I apologize if you've seen these before, but anyway they are all 8x10 contact prints. Or at least, they are at my house-on a computer screen, not so much...

Astoria Bridge, Columbia River, Oregon


Cooling Tower, Nuclear Power Plant, Oregon


Intake Tower, Lake Almanor, California


Near Pyramid Lake, Nevada


www.austingranger.com

[austin granger]

A few more (sorry):

Pier, China Camp


Silent City, Bryce Canyon


Sunrise, New Year's Day, Chimney Rock, Point Reyes

[Pete Watkins]

Scan of a contact print on Kentmere POP paper. Half plate negative. Photo taken in North Wales.
Pete.

[JamesFromSydney]

How are you all scanning your contact prints? I find that they lose quite a lot of resolution & detail, when scanned as a b&w document with a v700.

[andreios]

Austin, your work always amazes me.. Pity I can't see those contacts "in hand" - or printed in a nice book..

[sully75]

Pete, what kind of half-plate camera are you using? Just wondering. It looks like you have some modern film holders?

[Roger Cole]

How are you all scanning your contact prints? I find that they lose quite a lot of resolution & detail, when scanned as a b&w document with a v700.

Can't speak for how they are doing it of course but I learned a long time ago to scan black and white reflective originals in color, not as black and white.

[austin granger]

Austin, your work always amazes me.. Pity I can't see those contacts "in hand" - or printed in a nice book..

Andreious, Thank you very much for your kind words. I would like to see my pictures printed in a nice book too! Maybe someday...

As for the scanning question, I should have clarified that the pictures you see here were not scanned from the actual contact prints but from the 8x10 negatives. I've found that for sharing my pictures on the computer, scanning directly from the negatives (I'm using an Epson 4990) gets a result closer to what the contact prints really look like.

[Daniel Stone]

How are you all scanning your contact prints? I find that they lose quite a lot of resolution & detail, when scanned as a b&w document with a v700.

I've found that scanning in COLOR gets the most out of any document, photo, etc... If all you want is a litho-type result, then a b/w document mode is fine. However, for half-tone(like with photographs), using the color mode allows one to get the most out of their photographs.

Just my experience. Scan in color, and then do any touch-ups color/density wise in PS to match the contact print by visual inspection.

-Dan