You've Taken the Photo, Now What?

6x4.5 negatives shot on the Ferrania Zeta Duplex

When I was a child I often wondered why my grandmother's old family snapshots were so tiny compared with the photos that we received back from the lab taken on our old 90s point and shoots. It wasn't until much later that I figured out they were contact prints, and the size was determined by the size of the negatives they were shot on.

Snapshots are moments in time. They are records of a moment that the photographer felt was important enough to record for posterity. They can contain precious memories and hold great sentimental value to those that inherit them. However, cheap snapshot cameras were equipped with single element lenses that didn't have amazing resolving power. We've all seen snapshots taken in haste, some with fingers covering the lens, some that cut off the tops of people's heads, some that feature camera shake or motion blur. That's fine. They're not meant to be works of art. But, because of all those things, snapshots weren't really good contenders for enlargement and mounting on your living room wall. Rather they were enjoyed in more intimate family albums. The resolving power of the lens is fine in small prints. Box cameras shot negatives that were 6x4.5cm, 6x6cm, or 6x9cm. That size was plenty big enough for a contact print that could then be stuck in a photo album.

So what are contact prints? Well, as a medium for producing final prints of a snapshot, it isn't really practised any more. They are still made, however, for darkroom work. Basically, a contact print is a print made by placing light-sensitive paper in contact with a negative and then shining a light through the negative to expose the paper. The paper is then put into developer, a stop bath, and fixer and you have a print that matches the dimensions of the negative. They are useful in darkroom work because they provide a quick preview of the photos taken on a roll of film. They help you pick the ones you'd like to do more work on and maybe enlarge.

These days box camera shooters are more likely to scan their negatives and share them digitally. Back in the mid-twentieth century though, hobbyists could buy contact printing kits. At their simplest, the kit contained a cardboard cut-out frame that would clamp the negative and printing paper together, and some developing trays. Due to the low sensitivity of the printing paper at the time, a household lamp could be used to make the exposure in a dimly lit room.

The instructions for the Johnson "Print-a-Snap" kit state:
You need not black-out the room completely - simply wait until it is fairly dark and draw the curtains to exclude any bright lights from outside. 

It recommends doing the development in a shaded part of the room and offers the following diagram as an example. In it, a sheet of cardboard divides the work space:

Once the paper and negatives were loaded in the frame in subdued light, it was simply a case of holding the frame up to the lamp to expose the paper. Naturally there was some trial and error involved depending on the strength of the bulb and the distance the frame was held from the light.

The instructions recommend doing test prints until you get satisfactory results. There are some other very rough guidelines:
You can arrange a convenient exposure of about 10 seconds for an average negative by holding the frame either 1 foot from a 25 watt lamp, 1ft. 6 ins. from a 40 watt lamp, 2ft. 6ins. from a 60 watt lamp or 4 feet from a 100 watt lamp.

It is a little difficult at first to judge how much to alter the exposure for the next test but if the strip is much too light try increasing the exposure to 20 or 30 seconds. If it is much too dark, reduce the exposure to 5 or even 3 seconds.

If an average negative needs 10 seconds exposure a very thin one may need only 3 seconds and a very dense one 30 seconds or more.

If you wanted to upgrade your kit you could buy better printing frames that would clamp the negative and printing paper tightly against glass. "See-Thru" masks were also available that would produce nice white borders around the prints. You could also buy battery or mains operated contact printers. These were printing frames that sat on top of a plastic body that contained a bulb. The closed lid held the negative and paper in place and the bulb would expose the paper.

Should you wish to give this old fashioned way of contact printing a go, just be aware that modern photographic paper is highly sensitive, so it won't be safe to expose it to a dimly lit room as used to be the practice. Ideally you'd need a designated dark room where you can work with a safe light.