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Dan Rodney/2 min read

Creating & Printing a Contact Sheet

Lightroom Editing Essentials

Library Module

Import, rate, keyword, and organize photos across the catalog.

Develop Module

Global and local adjustments — exposure, contrast, color, sharpening.

Presets

One-click looks — save your own or use the built-in presets.

Export

Output to JPG, TIFF, or PSD with size, sharpening, and metadata control.

Master Adobe Tools at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Graphic Design Certificate covers Photoshop alongside the broader Adobe toolkit that complements Lightroom in any photography workflow.

Master the art of creating and altering contact sheets using Lightroom’s Print module with this comprehensive tutorial.

Topics Covered in This Lightroom Tutorial:

Creating a Contact Sheet, Altering a Contact Sheet’s Appearance, Printing a Contact Sheet

Exercise Preview

lightroom previewB1

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you’ll create a contact sheet from a collection of photos using Lightroom’s Print module. Clients may request to purchase photos from a photographer’s contact sheet.

Creating a Contact Sheet

  1. Go into the Library module.

  2. Expand the Collections panel if it is not already.

  3. From the Collections panel, click on USA > Wyoming.

  4. Unreject all photos that have been rejected by clicking on the black flag on each rejected photo’s thumbnail.

  5. At the top, click on the Print tab to go into the Print module.

    This workspace has several handy templates that help you print your photos at common sizes.

  6. On the left, in the Template Browser panel, expand Lightroom Templates and click on 5x8 Contact Sheet.

  7. At the bottom of the screen, next to Use, open the menu and select All Filmstrip Photos. This makes sure we use all the photos in the collection.

Changing a Contact Sheet’s Layout

  1. On the right, in the Page panel (you may have to scroll down), make sure Photo Info is checked and set to Filename.

    Clients often request or refer to photos using their filenames.

  2. Also on the right, in the Layout panel under Page Grid, set the following:

    Rows: 7
    Columns: 4

    Great! Now the photos will print a bit larger.

  3. If you are connected to a printer, go to the bottom right of the screen and click one of the following buttons:

    • Click Print to automatically print the contact sheet.
    • If you need to configure any printer options, click Printer. (After setting options, you can print from the dialog that will appear.)

  4. If you printed, check out what your contact sheet would look like when handed off to clients. Very cool!