# Contact sheet prep for multiple versions of a single image



## DWPhotos (Jun 4, 2012)

Hello....again! 

My question is this - can I prepare a single contact sheet that contains various versions (lighter, darker, warmer, etc.,) of the same image without having to prepare and save each image as a virtual copy and then bring it over into the print module? It would seem that a function like this would be very useful when determining the proper printing parameters within the context of a contact sheet.

And sorry for so many print related questions. It seems printing from LR is under represented in the bulk of published manuals and on-line discussions/tutorials. Perhaps a book dedicated just to LR printing might be a big winner :nod: (hint, hint). 

Thanks in advance!

Dave


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 4, 2012)

I could see that could be a handy function, although I can't see it being built in any time soon.  If you could convince a plug-in developer, though, they may be able to automate the creation of the VC's.  Rob Cole's usually up for doing stuff like that.

You can ask as many print questions as you like.  Print isn't covered in great detail in most books because there's only so much you can say about how it's supposed to work... most of the forum questions are related to model-specific issues.  There are so many variables involved, it's a bit of a minefield.  If you fancy making up a list of questions/information you'd like to see in a book one day though, I'll certainly consider adding them.


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## DWPhotos (Jun 6, 2012)

Thanks Victoria
As a matter of fact, I do have a growing list of items that I can't seem to easily find answers to, both general print questions and printing out of Lightroom questions. I'll start the list on this thread and come back over time and add to this post.

Questions

1- Is there any other way to place text beneath or above a print outside of just the Identity plate? A single line of text is quite limiting. Ideally you should be able to put at least one additional line of text below the Identity plate text. I know Kelly's LR-3 book claims you can hold down Alt-Enter (Option-Return on Mac) and LR will allow a second text string, however I can't seem to get LR-4 to allow this. Might this be a feature only found in LR-3?  

2 - A section on the various paper types would be fantastic. Currently there are just sooooo many different papers to choose from and precious little information on the differences between the all. There is matte, glossy, luster, semi-glossy, rag, cotton, pearl, pearl-silk, velvet, exhibition, presentation, royal satin, and on and on. Glossy and luster papers I get but what is exhibition paper? Is it a kind of glossy paper or ? And what is the upside/down side of printing on matte vs. glossy? Or velvet vs. presentation? Do all the cotton papers tend to blend colors so I should not expect super sharp images? And what about papers with the words "fiber based" added to their name? Does that automatically mean they have additional textures associated with them unique to that single brand or ?

And in a complete non-sequitur, here's a photo I just took of the Venus transit from San Diego, CA


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## happycranker (Jun 6, 2012)

Dave, As to your first question do you have Photoshop, if so there is an action available which is called ring-around which creates exactly what you are looking for, cannot remember the make but I am sure Mr Google will find!

As for books on Inkjet Printing I can recommend the one from the Outback Photo web site http://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_news/DOP_Ebooks/index.html


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## LouieSherwin (Jun 6, 2012)

DWPhotos said:


> 2 - A section on the various paper types would be fantastic. Currently there are just sooooo many different papers to choose from and precious little information on the differences between the all.



Much of what you are referring to just marketing by the manufactures to try to differentiate their product. Here are topics that I hope will help you to clear the fog. 

I think that you can categorize papers into four main types; fine art, matt, semi-gloss and high-gloss. Sorting this out from the market speak is not necessarily easy. The biggest difference between these is the absorbency of the surface and what happens to the ink when it hits the surface. On the most absorbent surface, fine art,  the ink will hit and spread out making it less sharp and less intense color and contrast. On the least absorbent the ink will stay on the surface and be sharper and more intense color and contrast. This affects the look and feel of the resulting print. A close up of a flower might look great on a fine art paper but would be harsh on a high-gloss. Conversely you might rather print the close-up of a hot-rod on high-gloss to make the colors pop.

This is also the reason you have to select a paper type in your printer driver. This tells the driver how much ink to throw at the paper to make an optimal image. If you ever accidentally selected a fine art setting while printing on a gloss paper you would know what I mean as you watched the ink drip across the page like a watercolor painting.

The next choice will be surface texture. Again not necessarily obvious from the name. All the papers but high-gloss will have varying amounts surface texture. A keyword here for fine art and matt  is  "smooth", that means flat no texture on the surface. Virtually all of the semi-gloss papers have some texture as that is how the the light is diffused to make it semi-gloss not high-gloss. At any rate the amount of texture varies and you can only really tell how much by looking at a sample ( see getting samples below). 

Next is the type of fiber used to make the paper which is generally going to be either 100% cotton, alpha-cellulose (wood pulp). Cotton or linen based papers have long been know to be stable and long lasting but more expensive than a-cellulose based papers. If you choose an a-cellulose paper you should choose one that is "Acid Free", in other words treated with something to neutralize the natural acids in wood that would normally cause yellowing with age. 

The gloss papers all have a coating that creates the gloss finish. Most commonly this has been "RC" or resin coated paper. This is a carry over from RC photographic papers. It is a plastic coating on both sides of the base paper and is then coated with an inkjet receptive surface on one or both sides.  Some manufactures are also bringing back some other photographic papers to be used for inkjet printing. On in particular is baryta coating that is now becoming popular. 

Finally there is the topic of optical brightener agents (OBA). These are chemicals added to the paper that respond directly to ultraviolet light and fluoresce with white light to make the paper appear whiter. The keyword to look for  here is "bright". OBAs will give you nice clean whites but degrade over time so are not a good choice for archival prints. 

The easiest thing to do would be to stick to the papers manufactured by the company that makes your printer. Learn which of the above qualities are important to you. They all offer a good range of quality papers with a variety  of  the above characteristics. The printer drivers and color profiles are optimized for these papers so it is easy to get predictable results when trying out different styles of paper.  

The best way to start to explore other available papers is to order sample packages. These are available directly for the manufacturer or from the distributors. Then you can sit down and compare the look and feel of actual paper before you have to invest  in a full box of one that you want to actually try make some prints. I have usually started out buying a box 8.5x11 of the paper I am interested in and make sure that I like the results be for I order larger sizes. 

I hope that this helps you to make some more informed choices.

BTW "Exhibition" probably mostly means $$$$

-louie


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 7, 2012)

Great answer, thanks Louie.  I haven't done that much with inkjet printing in years.

For a line break, try Ctrl-J.  John Beardsworth gets the credit for bringing that to my attention.


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## johnbeardy (Jun 7, 2012)

It looks like Ctrl Enter seems to do the same as Ctrl-J. But line breaks are flaky on Windows, so it's best to know both.

Louis's answer was good. I'd just differ that I'm not so convinced about the value of sample packs. Manufacturers never seem to interleave them, just supplying a front sheet saying x sheets of this, y sheets of that... So once I've used a few sheets at random, I can't tell with certainty which paper is which. I prefer to go to the shop or trade show, see what I like and buy a small box.


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## DWPhotos (Jun 7, 2012)

Awesome, thank you very much for the lead. Although I was not able to find this function by the name ring-around, I was able to find how to set this up in Photoshop. For others that may read this thread, you load your image into PS (for some reason it will not work with a TIF, not sure why, but works fine with a JPEG image) and then go to IMAGE>ADJUST>VARIATIONS and you'll have the ability to mix and match saturation, highlights, midtones and shadows. Not quite sure how I send this set to the printer but once I do I'll update the thread. 
Thanks again Happycranker!


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## DWPhotos (Jun 7, 2012)

LouieSherwin said:


> Much of what you are referring to just marketing by the manufactures to try to differentiate their product. Here are topics that I hope will help you to clear the fog.
> 
> I think that you can categorize papers into four main types; fine art, matt, semi-gloss and high-gloss. Sorting this out from the market speak is not necessarily easy. The biggest difference between these is the absorbency of the surface and what happens to the ink when it hits the surface. On the most absorbent surface, fine art,  the ink will hit and spread out making it less sharp and less intense color and contrast. On the least absorbent the ink will stay on the surface and be sharper and more intense color and contrast. This affects the look and feel of the resulting print. A close up of a flower might look great on a fine art paper but would be harsh on a high-gloss. Conversely you might rather print the close-up of a hot-rod on high-gloss to make the colors pop.
> 
> ...



Awesome, that is incredibly helpful. Thank you very much louie. I currently have a Red River sample pack and am waiting for an Epson Signature sample pack to arrive. It's a funny thing, I've spent so much time learning PS and LR but ignoring the printing side assuming it was as simple as pushing a button. Turns out it's as equally complex and perhaps even more demanding. Unlike photo's that live in your computer, printed images are out there for all to see. As a result you want them to be as close to perfect as you can make them and it's a whole lot more than just "pushing a button".


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## DWPhotos (Jun 7, 2012)

johnbeardy said:


> It looks like Ctrl Enter seems to do the same as Ctrl-J. But line breaks are flaky on Windows, so it's best to know both.
> 
> Louis's answer was good. I'd just differ that I'm not so convinced about the value of sample packs. Manufacturers never seem to interleave them, just supplying a front sheet saying x sheets of this, y sheets of that... So once I've used a few sheets at random, I can't tell with certainty which paper is which. I prefer to go to the shop or trade show, see what I like and buy a small box.



Thank you John and Victoria. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to make any changes when I hit either Ctrl-J or Ctrl-Enter, but on the positive side, it doesn't return a "beep" either. I wonder if I have a setting somewhere set that is preventing me from adding a line? Any thoughts on what might be preventing this action from occurring?


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## LouieSherwin (Jun 7, 2012)

John has a good point, it can be troublesome if the papers are not labeled. However, I just went through a round of selecting some new papers and got samples for Canson, Hahnemuhle, Moab and Museo. Only the Museo samples were unlabeled so I had to be careful but since they only had 4 different papers it was not to hard. 

Another limitation of sample packs is that they only supply 2 or at most 3 sheets which is really not enough to make useful print evaluations. So they are only really helpful in making your initial selection so that you can purchase a box or two, to start making evaluation prints. If you can go to your local shop to accomplish this it is cheaper than purchasing sample packs. 

One problem here in the states is that there are hardly any "shops" around today in this era of "Big Box" stores. And the ones that are still operating have limited inventory so getting my hands on with many different products can be challenging which is why I spent some money on samples. There is no substitution for holding and looking at the papers in your hand. 

Another thing to keep in mind is to check with your supplier about the papers you are interested in. I found out from the distributor that the paper that was my first choice has having quality problems so he recommended some alternatives based on my initial choice which actually ended up being less expensive. Having a good relationship with your supplier is invaluable. So if you don't have a local shop around be sure to contact the customer service line where you intend to purchase and talk to them about any known quality issues. 

-louie

PS I recently upgraded to Lion and text correction while typing is turned on. Generally I love it, however, if there are words that don't make sense in the context of the sentence Lion probably did that and I didn't catch it while proof reading my reply.


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