Bruce Barnbaum - The Art of Photography - An Approach to Personal Expression

Making Contact Proof Prints

My first step in printing is to make a contact proof of every negative so that I can see what I have on paper and get a good indication of how to print any negative of interest. Making contact proofs is far more important than most printers realize. For me, it’s critically important; it should be for you, as well. I have contact proofs of all my negatives; these serve as a catalog of my entire history of photography. My contact proof prints are intentionally low in contrast so I can see detail everywhere, even if I later choose to allow some of the detail to disappear in the final print. At the contact print stage of the printing process I’m looking for information, not “punch”. I study each contact proof for the possibilities I envisioned at the scene, and even visualize new possibilities while studying the proof.

To make my contact proofs, I place two sheets of 8″ × 10″ enlarging paper on top of a thick foam pad under my enlarger and place four 4″ × 5″ negatives on each sheet of paper. I cover the entire setup with a ¼″-thick sheet of glass. This arrangement ensures perfect contact between the negative and paper emulsions. The entire arrangement is directly under the enlarger, which is set to a contrast level of 60 units of yellow filtration—roughly equivalent to a #½ or #1 filter (the filtration may vary depending on the paper used). The eight negatives normally vary in density; often there are considerable differences in density among them. So I expose the entire set to the amount of exposure needed to get a good proof of the thinnest of the eight negatives. Of course there may be several negatives within the set that have the same relatively low overall density.

After making that exposure, I place 4″ × 5″ sheets of cardboard on top of the glass over each of the thinnest negatives. Then I give additional exposure to the next densest negative(s) in the group, then cover that negative with cardboard. I continue giving additional exposure to successively denser negatives until I finally expose the densest one fully. Then I develop both sheets of paper to yield eight proof prints. If any of the proofs comes up too light or too dark to be of value, I simply proof it again in the next set of eight negatives with a more appropriate exposure (maybe even a third or fourth time). Eventually I discard all the useless ones and keep only the good ones.

If I’m proofing 120 roll film, I cut the roll into several segments (five frames per segment, or four 2¼ × 2¼ frames per segment) and use the same procedure with cardboard cut to or 2¼ × 2¼ for density variation. If you use a different size 120mm film (such as 6 × 9 cm or 6 × 7 cm), cut the roll appropriately to proof the entire roll on the sheet of 8″ × 10″ paper.

I then develop the contact prints for the usual five minutes in Dektol diluted 1:5. This yields a low contrast proof with excellent detail for all but the most high contrast negatives. It doesn’t give me a “snappy” print, but it gives me the maximum amount of information about what is on the negative and shows me how it would look in a straight print. That’s all I want: information!

Note

Making contact proofs is far more important than most printers realize. For me, it’s critically important; it should be for you, as well. I have contact proofs of all my negatives, and these serve as a catalog of my entire history of photography .

I process the proof sheets, fully dry them, then flatten them in a dry mounting press. I number them all to correspond to my negative number system, which allows me to retrieve any contact print and negative later. Then I study the proofs individually before printing any of the negatives. This may appear to be a time-consuming approach for those who want to get a number of great prints quickly, but it certainly saves time and paper in the darkroom later. By the time I decide which are the most important negatives to print, I also have a rather clear idea of how I wish to print them, including any burning or dodging or other techniques.

Often I have an idle 25 minutes or even an hour of time, which is not enough for a productive printing session in the darkroom. But those minutes can be extremely valuable for further evaluating contact proofs, not only to determine which images are really worth printing, but also how each image can/should be cropped, the proper contrast level for the final print, and for determining a basic printing strategy. Furthermore, those images rejected as good prospects can be reviewed again days, months, or years later. I’ve gone through that process and, many years later, as I looked at those old contact proofs, I found real gems hidden among those I had long ago rejected. Apparently I’ve been ahead of myself at times, making exposures in the field that I only began to appreciate years later. Having the contact proofs allows me such review; having no contact proofs would have prevented later evaluation of my work. And, of course, I can immediately access any negative I’ve ever exposed for printing in the darkroom (Figure 10-1).

Preliminary Work Toward a Final Print

The first thing I look for is a good image from the entire negative. If it disappoints me, I look at the possibility of cropping the photograph to obtain a good image. Though I try to compose the photograph to utilize every square millimeter of negative area, I will crop without hesitation if it can improve the print.

I use two small 5″ × 5″ cropping L’s for my purpose, searching the proof for distracting elements along the edges or undesirable areas that could lower the quality of the final print. Then I move the cropping L’s around to see if I can effectively eliminate the unwanted portions. If I find an effective crop, I mark it off in ink directly on the proof print. If I find a second potential crop of equal value, I mark that one off in ink as well. If I have second thoughts about anything I’ve marked, I can remove the ink by swabbing denatured alcohol directly on the proof print with a cotton swab. This has no adverse affect on the emulsion.

A contact print of a negative has roughly the same contrast level as the negative projected onto enlarging paper from a diffusion enlarger (but not a condenser enlarger, which would have significantly higher contrast). Thus the low contrast proof I make is closely equivalent to a variable contrast paper printed at 60 units of yellow filtration when projected from the enlarger. If the proof looks good, it tells me that about 60 units of yellow filtration is the logical choice for enlarging the negative. If the proof looks a bit flat, I think about decreasing the amount of yellow filtration, thus increasing the contrast level, perhaps even to zero units of yellow (i.e., “white light”), or going beyond white light into the realm of magenta filtration, which further increases the contrast of the paper.

The “muddier” the contact proof looks, the more magenta filtration I feed into the enlarger, up to its maximum level (170 units of magenta on my LPL enlarger). On the other hand, if the contrast in the contact proof looks too harsh, I dial in progressively higher amounts of yellow filtration to lower the inherent contrast. I never use magenta and yellow filtration simultaneously because they cancel out one another and serve as neutral density filtration, lengthening exposure times.

I start out by printing 8″ × 10″ prints, even if the final print will be 11″ × 14″ or 16″ × 20″. It’s far less expensive to experiment with printing an image on 8″ × 10″ paper than on larger sheets. The 8″ × 10″ prints can always be used for publication prints, even if I have no intention of mounting them, so they are not merely learning devices.