Today in the dark I decided to try making up some 11x14 contacts sheets of 35mm negs. I have made a few of these in the past but quit because of paper cost. I think thou that if I can use some kind of generic cheaper RC paper (have to order that stuff) this might be the way to go. I saw a documentary recently on Sebastiao Salgado and it was the way he reviewed his sheets. I like using the Fotovix machine to go through negs but wanted to try it Salgado's method as well. There is also a certain beauty to those large contact sheets, something pure and perfect about them. Today I will print up some of these 11x14 contacts in my 8x10 enlarger then use the sheets to choose a neg and move onto a archival fiber print.
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| 8x10 enlarger. |
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| Negatives in 8x10 glass neg carrier. |
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| 11x14 contact sheet. |
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| Washing 11x14 contacts. |
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| Contact sheet detail. |
Update* After making up 8 or 9 of these I have come to the conclusion that this is the way to go with my 35mm negs. With these large 11x14 contacts you can feel the flow of the shooting, see each and every shot fairly large, with the addition of the loop everything is seen clearly. I can use the enlarged contacts to make a better selection and not miss any possible shots, then follow that up with RC work prints of the top candidates. I just have to find a relatively cheap 11x14 RC paper out there, the one I am using now Ilford's Pearl RC is to expensive. When in doubt do what the pros do, Salgado had this all figured out years ago.
