In the days of film photography. You took photos on a film with either 24 or 36 shots. There was no way of checking, deleting and taking again.
Once you had finished the film you took the film out of the camera and under no light developed the film.
Once you had developed the film you had a series of small negative thumbnail images
Negatives for black and white or colour film were inverted with negative colours and tones. They were difficult to understand.
So Photographers cut the negative roll into strips, laid the strips on a piece of photographic paper and made a photogram of the negatives. This was called a Contact Sheet and was easier to look at and understand. Using a special chinagraph pencil they could draw on the contact sheet, making notes about which images were worth printing, about how they could crop or change the composition of their original photos.
The photograph you take, whether using digital or film, is not always the photo you end up with. You can refine or improve the composition by cropping a photo.
Your contact sheet shows that you have taken a lot of photos to arrive at your best nine or favourite six that you have printed it out on a larger scale. But it also shows your thinking, how you have started to refine your images.
This refinement is an important part of your supporting book work, an important part of you showing your creative process. If you are using a digital camera and printing a contact sheet onto A4 or A3 paper you do not need to use a chinagraph pencil. You can scribble over the images to show ideas for crops, you can cross out the ones you do not like. You can write notes to yourself to record your thinking or ideas.
All of these things are important parts of you showing your thinking and the creative process. Showing your thinking and showing the creative process gets you marks
Photographers use their contact sheets sometimes as creative pieces of work
Martin Wilson plans the layout of his contact sheet and orders how he takes his photos to create a image out of his contact sheets
Martin Wilson.
William Klein is a Fashion and Street Photographer who revolutionised Fashion Photography by taking the models out of the studio. He also is well regarded for his street photography.
William Klein 2012
His recent exhibitions have turned his contact sheets into giant art works. Showing his images and his original pencil or pen marks on the contact sheets
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