The dark room/ contact sheet

    The many steps of photography require patience and skill. The next step in printing out a photograph is taking your negative film strips to the dark room, so they can be printed on photo sensitive paper. You first cut your negative strips into smaller strips and place them in a sheet protector. This keeps your film strips from getting dusty and bent. It also allows you to make a contact sheet a little later. After you make sure your film is protected and ready to go, you are ready to use a darkroom enlarging machine and make a contact sheet. 

    A contact sheet is a large piece of negative photo paper (about the size of a piece of loose leaf paper) that you expose your pictures on, so all of them can be displayed at once. The photos come out smaller than usual on the contact sheet due to the lack of space. This method allows you to see your photos so you can choose which ones you want to print . This also allows you to see what exposure times your pictures need. I personally like to take a silver sharpie and mark the photos that I want to print so I don't get confused when I go  to print out my photographs. The next blog will teach you how to make your negatives into beautiful photographs.