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This guide will give you the easiest ways to create contact sheets in Lightroom.
I’ve been using Adobe Lightroom for many years, and I need to create contact sheets several times a week.
Making contact sheets helps you to easily view you photographs before selecting which ones you wish to print.
Let’s dive into the tutorial.
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How to Make a Contact Sheet in Lightroom
Contact sheets are a physical print of a collection of photographs.
Contact sheets are your best friend when you need to view photographs to find the precise gems worthy of printing.
If you have worked with analog cameras and printed film, you will be familiar with negative strips. Once developed, negatives are stored in folders in transparency sheets.
At the best of times, negatives are hard to view. Not only are negatives, well, a negative image, but they are delicate, being dust and scratch-prone.
Photographers solved this problem by printing a positive of the entire roll of negative strips.
These were the first contact sheets, also known as contact print or contact proof.
A contact sheet gives you a thumb-sized image of all photographs taken. This means that at a glance, you will be able to see which are worth editing or printing.
Normally, about 30-40 miniature images will fit on a contact sheet.
It makes sense to make contact proofs, small positive prints from a roll of film. It makes it easy for a photographer to ponder the tiny images before committing to printing them,
But in a digital world, how can contact sheets still be relevant? There are now so many digital ways to view images, with the added bonus of being able to enlarge or alter them.
However, surprisingly, contact sheets haven’t lost their relevance, even in a digital world.
The printed contact sheet is preferred by some wedding and product photographers as a way to share and discuss results with clients.
For one, having a printed proof helps to focus photographers and their clients on the collection.
Instead of succumbing to the temptation to ‘quickly’ alter images, to view the difference a crop or a filter could make.
It is well known in sales that when someone physically touches a product, such as the contact sheet, they are more likely to buy it.
The technical restrictions of the darkroom meant that contact sheet images had to be the same size as the negative.
Lightroom makes it possible for photographers to print contact sheet images in a variety of sizes.
Things to consider before you make a contact sheet
What selection of photos are you going to arrange?
In what order do you want to store them?
Is there a specific order you would like them to be viewed in?
Do you want to print them or store them as a JPG or PDF?
Reasons for Making a Contact Sheet
There are different reasons for making a contact sheet.
It could be a way of record keeping for easy access to view images when needed.
Another reason is to share images with clients or co-workers.
Contact sheets can be used to organize photos. They were sorting images in order if you need them for exhibitions or catalogs.
For example, if you are a nature photographer who makes a living selling prints. You might want to organize your images into sunsets or winter scapes. You might have a bird collection. Or you might prefer to organize your images by the date or location they were taken.
Creating contact sheets will make it very easy to tell at a glance which images are worth editing, which are worth printing, and which will be fit for exhibition or print.
So, let’s take open Lightroom and make a contact sheet.
Step 1 – Decide the Reason for the Contact Sheet
Before you start, consider the purpose of the contact sheet is. Is it a way to keep records of photographs, or is it to share with clients?
If you have a specific reason for the contact sheet, select and organize photos into a smart collection based on this.
Remember, you don’t have to show a client all the images shot. There might be a few accidents or total write-offs that your client doesn’t need to see.
Step 2 – Open Library Module
Hit the Library tab at the top of Lightroom’s workspace to open the library.
Step 3 – Select Images
When Library mode is open, select the images you wish to add to the contact sheet.
You can select images by clicking on the photo’s thumbnails in the catalog display.
It can be worth creating a smart collection of the images you wish to add instead of trawling through your entire catalog.
Create a collection by heading to the collections tab. You will find it on the left side of the workspace.
Click the Plus symbol on the Collections tab, and a drop-down menu will appear.
Select the first option, Create Collection.
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Once clicked, the Create Collection dialogue window will appear.
Enter a name for the collection, and tick the box beside Sync with Lightroom.
If you have already selected some or all of the photos for the contact sheet in the library, tick the box beside Include selected photos.
Then click Create at the bottom of the window.
All highlighted images will be added to the new collection.
Open the new collection by clicking on its folder in the Collections tab.
You can add new photos by dragging them into the folder from the library.
Delete any doubles or unwanted photos by right-clicking on their thumbnail.
A drop-down menu will appear, scroll down the menu until you form Remove from Collection, click this.
Once clicked, a dialogue window will open; click Yes.
The photo or photos will be removed from the collection.
Step 4 – Open Print Module
Now that you have a collection of images, you can head to Lightroom’s Print module.
At the top of the canvas workspace click Print.
How many will fit on the sheet’
The idea of making a contact sheet is so that the images can be easily viewed at a glance.
We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will find using contact sheets beneficial.
If you liked this tutorial and want to learn more about Lightroom techniques, check out – How to Use Lightroom Classic, a beginner’s guide.
FAQ
Can I create a contact sheet in Lightroom?
Yes, you can easily make contact sheets in Lightroom to view on your desktop, share, or print.
How do I make a photo contact sheet?
To make a contact sheet from film in the darkroom, first cut the roll of film into strips.
The strips should be no longer than the length of the darkroom photography paper.
Place the film strips onto the photography paper. Place a clean glass sheet on top to hold them in place.
Expose the paper and negatives to light, then develop. Now you have a photo contact sheet.
How do I save a contact sheet in Lightroom as a JPEG?
To save a contact sheet in Lightroom as a JPEG, first make a contact sheet.
When saving the contact sheet, change the Output format’s print option to JPEG file.
In which Lightroom module will you be able to make a contact sheet?
The Lightroom module you will need to be able to make a contact sheet is the Print module.
Lightroom’s Print module contains premade templates to design and organize contact sheets.
What size is a contact sheet photo?
The traditional photo contact sheet is 8 x 10 inches.
This was the size of the darkroom photography paper used to make a standard contact sheet.
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