How to Make a Contact Sheet in Lightroom

It is easy to find a photograph using a contact sheet.

Adobe Lightroom is an advanced image management and editing system designed for photographers. Many users create contact sheets for their best images, building on a traditional process of printing direct images from film negatives to have a simple record of photos. Lightroom adds many features to this process, including the ability to include virtual copies and show the effects of processing changes and changing the size and number of images per page. This added functionality gives photographers more choices in printing copies of their images.

Instructions

1. Open Lightroom and move to the Library module in Grid mode by pressing "G." Locate and select the images you want on the contact sheet by holding "Ctrl" and clicking on each one.

2. Go to the Print Module by clicking "Print" in the top right or by using "Window > Print." Click "Single Image/Contact Sheet" in the Layout Style panel on the right. Select "Rotate to Fit" in the Image Settings panel. Slide the "Rows" and "Columns" sliders under "Page Grid" in the Layout section of the panel. These sliders control how many images are displayed on the screen and their size. Adjust "Cell Spacing" to add a little white space around the images.

3. Click the "Print" button in the bottom right of the panel. Select your printer and paper type properties as normal and click "OK." Your photos will print in a contact sheet format exactly as designed.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose your best images for a contact sheet to show friends or clients.

• Try different exposure and color treatments on the same photo and print on a contact sheet to choose the best one.

• Make sure Color Management is enabled either in Lightroom or the printer---not both.

References

• Oreilly: Lightroom Workflow: Creating Contact Sheets