Contact print quality

[Robert Fisher]

Is a contact print simply a contact print?

In other words, are there particular labs that excel at producing contacts?

My goal is to secure the highest quality contact prints with 8x10 TMax 100 and Kodak 160VC.

Thanks for any and all advice!

[Brian Ellis]

As far as TMax 100 is concerned (i.e. b&w contact printing) a contact print is pretty much a contact print. I'm not sure that many labs would even know what you were talking about if you asked for a contact print. But if they did then they would do exactly what you would do yourself - suspend a light bulb over a sheet of glass with a negative and paper sandwich under it, turn on the light for the appropriate time, turn the light off, and develop the paper. There's not much flexibility with contact printing. You can change the paper grade, you can get in beteen paper grades with a combination of developer and water, or you can use variable contrast paper. You can do a limited amount of dodging and burning but it isn't as easy to make small dodges and burns when the light source is above the paper and negative as it is with an enlarger where the light is in between the negative and paper. OTOH, with contact printing you likely won't need to do as much dodging and burning as is typically done when enlarging.

You certainly can get more elaborate equipment, e.g. a good contact printing frame is nice to have to make sure the paper and negative are in good contact from edge to edge. You can use an enlarger as a light source and use variable contrast paper and filters. You can hook a timer up to the light source. You can hang the light source with a pulley arrangement so that you can vary its height and therefore your exposure times. But these things are mostly matters of convenience.

I don't know anything about contact printing color paper, actually never heard of anyone doing it though I guess it could be done. It strikes me that you'd perhaps need to use an enlarger with a color head as a light source because I'm not sure how you'd deal with the color balance using a light bulb. But I'll stop before I reveal more of my ignorance and let someone who's tried color contact printing help you.

[Oren Grad]

It's not a matter of elaborate equipment, more a question of care in doing it. Many labs treat contact printing as simply a way to get a quick-and-dirty proof print. Some even print with the negative in its sleeve or plastic page. If you want a contact print as the final product, you do indeed need to ask around to see which labs take contact printing seriously.

I've seen color contact prints from Stephen Shore; I'm sure he's not the only one.

[Michael Kadillak]

Is a contact print simply a contact print?

In other words, are there particular labs that excel at producing contacts?

My goal is to secure the highest quality contact prints with 8x10 TMax 100 and Kodak 160VC.

Thanks for any and all advice!

I can only address the question of 8x10 B&W contact prints as I have never contacted printed 8x10 color print materials.

If you are interested in the best possible quality in your 8x10 B&W contact prints then you need to need to own the process yourself from start to finish. All you need is a set of trays, some nitrile gloves, a dark room, a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and a contact printing frame. To extract the best quality you need to fine tune your development of each sheet to the specific exposure it has received. When you hand off your film to a lab you are accepting a leap of faith that the lab is capable of adjusting the process to your specific needs and that this process is repeatable.

If there is a chance that you might want to test the alt process waters at some point in the future then I would suggest that you stay away from T Max 100 as it has a UV layer in the film base and as a result it would preclude you from using a UV light source for exposure. T Max 400 or FP4+ wpuld be better choices.

It is neither difficult, expensive or time consuming and the rewards are plentiful. I am sure that there is someone in your area that would mentor you in this regard with a simple request.

Cheers!

[Eric Leppanen]

Regarding B&W, I think your best bet would be to work with one of the few labs remaining that have a specialty in B&W. I work with Image Control (located in Costa Mesa, CA, phone 714-545-1385) which is a dedicated B&W processing and print lab; they vary the paper contrast level to match the print and perform dodging and burning. I have been very happy with their work, and they do an excellent job. Presumably there is a similarly oriented lab located closer to your neck of the woods.

Regarding C-41 contacts, that in my experience is a much tougher road to hoe. Not only has the number pro labs that process C-41 shrunk dramatically, but the ones that remain view C-41 contacts as proof prints, rather than a final or exhibition print. I get my C-41 processing and contacts done at A&I, which is just about the only pro lab that I am aware of that still does this work in southern California (at least for sheet film). But to my knowledge what I get from A&I are straight contacts, no dodging and burning at all. As you know, the market for color custom prints has effectively gone all digital, for better or worse. :eek:

[alec4444]

For B&W contact prints, try MV Labs in New York. Jim printed for Annie Leibovitz - if he's good enough for her, he may be good enough for you. Really nice people there too - not stuck up or anything. You'll pay, but per your post, quality was the main goal.

I agree with Michael - the best results will come from you; what is it that you want to see out of the negative. If you're particular, you'll be on the phone with these guys a lot and you'll be looking at a lot of proofs before you get that final product. But I think MV will do a fine job.

Color is a bigger challenge. A lot of people swear by Duggal (also in NYC) but I have to say that I was pretty underwhelmed with an R-Print I had them do.

Cheers!
--A

[Jordan]

Try:
www.palmpress.com
I work for them and could personally print your black and white contact prints through work. We are located in MA. We have many people send negs by mail depending on your location. We do great work and specialize in fine art black and white printing. I make my own contact prints as well.

[Jordan]

Also for the color work we deal with a place called:
"Color Services" in Needham, MA.

[Stephen Willard]

You can do dodging and burning with either b&w or C41 by using a dodging and burning mask (DBM), a contrast reduction mask (CRM), or a contrast expansion mask (CEM).

With C41 you will need to us a color enlarger as your light source so you can adjust the color balance of the light source to produce a proper colored image. It does not have to be an 8x10 enlarger. It can be a 35mm enlarger so long as it covers the 8x10 negative. You may even want to us the color enlarger for b&w with variable contrast b&w paper as a means of controlling the contrast in the image.

There are many other types of mask you could use as well to exercise the control you need to render an image that is appropriate for the composition. No lab would ever provide these type of services that I know of.

I do not do contact printing as noted, but I do create a sandwich of films with the negative on the bottom in my enlarger drawer. This sandwich can have as few as five layers and as many as 11 different layers of film and masks. The sandwich is aligned with registration pins. This allows me to make single exposure prints without any dodging and burning manipulations. If I placed that sandwich directly on paper then I would be doing contact printing as opposed to enlarging. The difference between the two types of printing is not that big for the way I print.

[cotdt]

How does a contact print compare to the original positive film? Surely the original film is the best print? I'm thinking of just processing all my B&W as transparencies and forgo making prints altogether.

[Christopher Breitenstein]

How does a contact print compare to the original positive film? Surely the original film is the best print? I'm thinking of just processing all my B&W as transparencies and forgo making prints altogether.

This is a possibility, and all things being equal this would produce sharpest and prints with the longest tonal range. but here you are sacrificing the control lost in the printing process. The ability to dial in and perfect contrast and relative tone (dodging and burning). If going straight to positive suites you then go for it!

Yours;

[ljb0904]

OTOH, with contact printing you likely won't need to do as much dodging and burning as is typically done when enlarging.

Brian, can you explain why this is true? Question from someone completely ignorant of the black & white process. Thanks.

[Gene McCluney]

Making color contact prints is just about as easy as making color enlargements. You use your color enlarger as a light source. With this method, you adjust exposure and color balance just as you would for an enlarged print. The only difference is that the negative is sandwiched with the paper in a contact printing frame on the baseboard of the enlarger, rather than in the negative carrier of the enlarger. You, of course adjust the height of your enlarger to get a good coverage of light on the baseboard.

Over the years, I have made final prints from LF color negatives by contact, as well as with all my 4x5 color negatives I make proof sheets in contact form for my clients (4 4x5 films per 8x10 page).