Before digital photography, a contact sheet was a quick way to preview all the images from a roll of film.
You would print a contact sheet and decide which images you wanted to print in a larger format.
In fact, the Grid view in Lightroom is modelled after a contact sheet.
Contact sheets are a very useful way to show clients or photo editors a selection of multiple images.
Once you have created a contact sheet, you can print a hard copy or create a JPEG or convert it to a PDF.
Step 1: How to Choose Images for a Contact Sheet
- Select the images you want in the contact sheet. Windows/ctrl & A. All of the images should be selected.
Step 2: How to Choose Your Template
Once you have chosen your images, switch from the Library module to the Print module. (the tabs at the top)
In the print module, you’ll see the Template Browser panel on the far left of your Lightroom workspace.
Click the small triangle next to the panel title to expand it.
These Lightroom templates come with the program.
You can also create your own custom templates and save them as User Templates. These will appear in the section underneath the Lightroom Templates in the panel.
Lightroom gives you several options for different sizes of contact sheets. This actually doesn’t refer to the size of the print but to the number of columns and rows in the contact sheet.
We will be using the 4 x 5 Contact Sheet. It will come up like this. You will notice that the file names are below the images. You can either leave them as is or change them.
Step 3: Changing the Photo info
Photo Info offers a series of presets of information like filename, date, or caption. I like you to change the filename to the exposure so that you have the record of the camera settings for all of your shots.
Step 5: Print or Convert Your Contact Sheet
The last step is to print your contact sheet or save it as a JPEG or PDF.
In the Print Job panel, select Print To: and choose JPEG File instead of Printer in the Print Job panel. You will then be able to save your contact sheets to the same folder as the rest of you assignment as a JPEG file.
Photography with Tiffany 