Contact sheets are useful for gaining an overview of all the photographs taken during a shoot and for easily locating a certain negative or slide. In Photoshop, there are various methods for creating a contact sheet.

Firstly, “File > Automate > Contact Sheet II” should be selected. To suit your demands, adjust the “Contact Sheet II” parameters. To create the contact sheet, click “OK.” Next, arrange the rows equally and, if necessary, modify the caption names. Lastly, alter the color of the caption and backdrop.

Keep reading below for more information.

What is a Contact Sheet?

A contact sheet has its roots in the era of film photography. These were primarily utilized to look at images from a session or show photos to clients so they could choose which ones to print. To put it simply, a contact sheet is the photographer’s initial proofing tool.

How to Prepare Photos for a Contact Sheet

The images for the Contact Sheet must first be chosen, and they must then be placed in their own folder.

1. Make a new folder and give it the name “Contact Sheet Photos.”
2. After choosing the images, you’ll use for your contact sheet, transfer them to the Contact Sheet Photos folder.

How To Create A Contact Sheet In Photoshop

Photoshop has an Automate tool that does the labor-intensive work for us, making creating a contact sheet quite simple.

For more information on how to create a contact sheet in Photoshop, watch this video below:

1. Select Contact Sheet II under File > Automate.
2. The Contact Sheet II menu will appear. Select the contact sheet folder you made by clicking Choose under Source Images.
3. A Thumbnails menu may be found close to the bottom of the Contact Sheet prompt. To accommodate all of the photographs on a single page, make sure the sum of the columns and rows matches the number of your pictures.
4. Depending on how many images are in your Contact Sheet folder, adjust the total number of columns and rows to ensure that everything fits nicely.
5. When you’re ready, click OK, and Photoshop will create your contact sheet.

How to Format a Contact Sheet in Photoshop

The first contact sheet we created should be decent, but designers frequently need to add more customization to their digital products. 

1. By selecting File > Automate > Contact Sheet II, you may return to the Contact Sheet II menu.
2. The Document Size, Columns, and Rows, as well as other formatting options for the contact sheet, should be adjusted primarily. Modify the Document Size to 12″ x 4″, then the Columns to 6 and the Rows to 2, to produce a broader, longer contact sheet.
3. Select OK.

The contact sheet is given a whole new form and feels as a result. It goes without saying that you may alter these variables to fit your project.

How To Customize A Contact Sheet In Photoshop

The final step of this tutorial will demonstrate how to edit or customize your contact sheet. Since light-sensitive paper is used to create traditional photographic contact sheets, the backdrop is usually black compared to the images. Let’s look at how to accomplish this with Photoshop.

1. By selecting File > Automate > Contact Sheet II, you may return to the Contact Sheet II menu.
2. Uncheck the Flatten All Layers option in the Document Size submenu. Photoshop should provide you with the layers so you may alter them. Enter the document size, columns, and rows you think are most appropriate.
3. Additionally, uncheck the box next to “Use filename as captions” in the Contact Sheet II menu. This will make the contact sheet seem tidy.
4. Select OK.
5. Select the Background Layer in the Layers panel. The symbol for creating a new fill or adjustment layer appears as a black/white circle; click it. Select Solid Color next. Choose the color you desire.
6. Add a little roughness to have the contact sheet appear older and more reminiscent of the film photography of old.
7. You can now change the texture layer’s Blending Mode to Lighten.
8. To help the texture layer blend in a little bit better, lower its opacity to 34%.

Conclusion

As you can see, the procedure for making contact sheets is simple and uncomplicated. This tutorial provides a quick and simple method of creating content previews that you can print or download as a JPEG or PDF to email to your friends and coworkers.