“The contact sheet is like the analysts’s couch. It’s also a kind of seismograph, recording the instant. It’s all there, what surprises us is what we catch, what we miss, what disappears. Or else an event that fulfills itself as an image.”
~Henri Cartier Bresson~
Contacts 1
Contacts, Vol. 1: The Great Tradition of Photojournalism (1988)
DVD, Directors: Richard Copans & Stan Neumann
Contact sheets are valuable editing tools and they’ll help you stay organized. Back in the film days, contact sheets were part of the workflow. Now we view digital files on a slide show, 2 up, four up, or plain old one up. But it is hard to edit the many images that a digital session typically produces.
With a contact sheet, a best shot will pop. The printed thumbnails give you a different perspective, one that is useful for gaining insights into your work. Editing is important, a best practice is to “show less and only the best.”With a white background, there is plenty of space for writing comments or circling the best shots.
For your next photo shoot try a contact sheet and discover how the thumbnails will help you “see.”
Have a great weekend!
Cheryl
