the film negatives are laid emulsion-side down
onto the unprocessed photographic paper, the
information that identifies frame number and
film type come out right-side up on the print,
which aids in their usefulness as categorizing
tools. As well they allow the photographer to use
a loupe or magnifying glass to examine the images
for focus, composition, and contrast. Proof sheets
can also function as a medium for note-taking by
photographers, who often mark on the sheets to
designate negatives chosen for enlargement or
indicate cropping.
Contact printing for final photographic prints is
most often practiced with large format negatives,
usually 810 inch or larger. The resulting prints
are extremely detailed and maintain a much higher
degree of faithfulness to the negative than en-
larged-negative prints do. Also, since the negatives
are not being enlarged at all, the prints do not show
any of the graininess that can result from over-
enlarging a small negative. Many associated with
the f/64 group in the 1920s and 1930s, including
Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, used contact
printing to create their photographs; in the late
twentieth-century, Sally Mann and Emmet Gowin
are among many using the technique. Smaller view
camera formats, including 57 inch and 4 5
inch, are also occasionally contact printed to create
the final work. And while contact-printing 35-mm
negatives might seem foolish or gimmicky, the
amount of detail available in even such a small
print is remarkable.
Contact printing can also be done with paper
negatives—which are often, actually, positive
prints. This method of achieving the final presenta-
tion image is common with pinhole photography.
Just as with film negatives, the paper negative is
pressed emulsion-to-emulsion with the unprocessed
photographic paper, and the resulting sandwich is
exposed to white light. Sometimes, the paper nega-
tive is dampened before being pressed to the unpro-
cessed photographic paper. Doing so and then
squeegeeing it against the unprocessed paper helps
ensure good contact across the whole area of the
print. When the negative and the unprocessed
paper are not in good contact, areas of blurry
soft-focus and loss of detail will occur.
When a contact print is made from a paper
negative, each successive generation of the film-
negative print will show degradation, much like
successive generations of photocopies. This can be
used to the photographer’s advantage, as it can be
interesting to experiment with the loss of detail and
areas of soft focus that can occur with contact
printing with paper negatives. Also, the first gen-
eration of paper-negative contact prints is most
often negative prints, since they are usually made
from a paper positive. If a positive print is desired,
another contact print would need to be made to
turn the image positive again.
Contact printing with paper negatives can also
be a way to manipulate photographs without per-
manently altering the negative itself. One could
make a positive print (with either an enlarged or
a contact-printed negative) and then draw, paint,
scratch, or otherwise manipulate the print. If this
paper is then used to make a contact print, those
manipulations will transfer to the new print, which
may itself then be manipulated and used to create
another contact print. It is interesting to see the
differences in opacity of pigments. Often, what
appears to be a similar shade of black as the
black parts of a black-and-white image will,
when contact printed, turn out to be much more
opaque than the rest of the black area, resulting in
a very noticeable white border or outline on the
new print.Limitations of Contact Printing
Contact printing has a number of limitations. A
significant drawback is that, since the negative is
in direct contact with the unprocessed photographic
paper, the photographer is very limited in his ability
to selectively expose areas of the print through such
darkroom techniques as dodging and burning-in. It
is possible to work in a limited way with dodging
and burning tools, but their usefulness is reduced by
the fact that the negative and positive are in direct
contact with one another. Dodging and burning are
especially difficult when using paper negatives to
make contact prints. Given that most photographic
paper is too thick to see through from the back, it is
very hard to dodge or burn a specific area of an
image except through trial and error. Paper-nega-
tive contact prints are also unaffected by colored
filters intended to increase or decrease contrast in
black and white photography.
Another drawback with paper-negative contact
printing is that some photographic papers come
printed with the logo of the manufacturer across
the back of the paper. This logo, like the image on
the front of the paper, will transfer to the non-
processed photographic paper once the sandwich
is exposed to white light, and will appear on the
final print if used as a paper negative.CONTACT PRINTING