One Roll, Six Frames
A contact sheet of six film frames that fills its grid completely, where the exposure printed under each frame matches the light in it. Six fields.
Two runs of the same template. A daylight Portra roll beside a tungsten night roll on Cinestill — one grid rule, one numbering rule, and two completely different sets of exposures because the light in them is different.
Generated from this template with the fields shown above — six frames in three columns and two rows with no orphan, numbers running 21 to 26, and every exposure following its own light: 1/125 f/4 on the flat morning street, 1/60 f/2 on the lamplit hand, 1/15 f/1.8 on the pair lit only by a screen, 1/500 f/11 on the proofs in hard window light, 1/500 f/8 in the sunlit doorway. The two frames that share a reading are the two shot in the dark. The reference's own baseline failed both ways: seven frames, so the last sat alone above an empty corner, and 1/125 f/2.8 stamped under all seven regardless of whether the subject was a campfire or a noon ridge. That second fault is one this library already refuses elsewhere — invented coordinates on an abstract poster, invented floor areas on an analysis card — and it is better disguised here, because a contact sheet is supposed to carry exposures. Run-to-run quirks: the sprocket rendering varies, and the date sometimes drops from a frame or two.
Generated for this library
Input
Roll Vibary's first open build week, one Thursday
Stock KODAK PORTRA 400 · frames 21 to 26 · 18.07.2026
Wide the street at seven, flat grey · the street at dusk,
windows lit
Detail a hand on a trackpad under a lamp · proofs by a
window in bright side light
Human two people over one screen, lit by it · someone
carrying a poster out into full sun
Colour warm neutral, green shadows, soft highlights
Returned 1 sheet · 2:3 · six frames, three columns, two rows
grid six frames fill the page evenly, thin white gutters,
no orphan and no empty corner
numbers 21 through 26, left to right and down, one roll
exposures each frame's stamp follows its own light - 1/60 f/2 on
the lamplit hand, 1/500 f/8 on the sunlit doorway,
1/15 f/1.8 on the screen-lit pair. No two alike unless
their light is alike
borders black frame edges with sprocket hints, the stock name
in amber at the top, number at the right, exposure and
date along the base
colour one roll's palette throughout: warm neutrals, green in
the shadows, highlights rolling off rather than clippingYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The roll
- 2The stock and the numbers
- 3Two wide frames, with their light
- 4Two detail frames, with their light
- 5Two human frames, with their light
- 6The colour of the roll
One Roll, Six Frames
Produce ONE image: a contact sheet of film frames from a single roll. Follow every line below. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.
First — do you have the fields?
If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.
Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.
The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.
If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.
Fields — replace these six lines only
- The roll: {what was shot, and when} e.g. Vibary's first open build week, shot over one Thursday
- The stock and the numbers: {a film stock, a frame range, a date} e.g. KODAK PORTRA 400 · frames 21 to 26 · 18.07.2026
- Two wide frames, with their light: {two scenes, each with its lighting} e.g. the studio street at seven in the morning, flat grey light, long exposure · the same street at dusk with the windows lit, wide open and dim
- Two detail frames, with their light: {two close subjects, each with its lighting} e.g. a hand on a trackpad under a desk lamp, warm and close, wide open · a stack of printed proofs by a window, bright side light, stopped down
- Two human frames, with their light: {two people-frames, each with its lighting} e.g. two people leaning over one screen, lit only by it, very wide open · someone carrying a rolled poster out the door into full sun, stopped right down
- The colour of the roll: {the stock's rendering} e.g. warm neutral, slightly green in the shadows, soft highlight roll-off
The full-grid law
Six frames in three columns and two rows, or eight in four and two. Never seven.
A seven-frame sheet cannot divide, so the last frame sits alone under the others with an empty corner beside it — and that hole is the first thing anyone sees. Templates in this genre ask for "six to eight frames" and a model obliges with seven about as often as not.
The grid divides evenly, the gutters are equal, and every cell is filled.
Frame numbers run consecutively across the sheet, left to right and down. Consecutive numbers are what make it a roll; scattered ones make it a selection, which is a different and lesser thing.
The exposure law
Under every frame sits a shutter speed and an aperture, and they follow that frame's own light.
The default failure is one exposure stamped on all six. A firelit close-up and a noon ridge cannot share a shutter speed, and printing that they do turns real-looking data into decoration — the same fault as inventing coordinates or serial numbers, in smaller type.
So each frame's light is stated in the fields and its exposure follows:
- bright sun, stopped down: around 1/500 at f/8
- open shade or flat grey: around 1/125 at f/4
- indoors under a lamp: around 1/60 at f/2
- dim, lit by a screen or a fire: around 1/15 at f/1.8
Two frames share an exposure only when they share a light. A reader who knows cameras should find nothing to argue with.
The six frames
A roll moves through something. The six are:
- Two wide — the place, at two different times or two different distances.
- Two detail — close, held, small: hands, objects, surfaces.
- Two human — somebody doing something, not posing.
No two frames repeat a subject. Together they should read as a day progressing rather than a set of alternatives.
The borders
- Each frame sits in a black film border with a hint of sprocket holes along one edge and a soft natural vignette.
- The stock name in amber small caps at the top left of each border, identical on all six.
- The frame number at the top right, in the same amber.
- The exposure and the date in small type along the bottom edge.
- Vertical frames throughout, thin white gutters between them, a white ground.
The colour
One roll, one rendering. Every frame shares the stock's palette: consistent warmth, consistent shadow tint, highlights rolling off softly rather than clipping, a fine even grain. A frame graded differently from its neighbours did not come off this roll.
Never
- ✕ seven frames, or any count that leaves an empty cell
- ✕ the same exposure under frames with different light
- ✕ non-consecutive frame numbers
- ✕ two frames of the same subject
- ✕ modern digital sharpness, HDR, clipped highlights, cold grading
- ✕ captions, titles, logos or any text beyond the border stamps
The result
A sheet that could have come out of one camera on one day: a grid that fills, numbers that run, and six exposures a photographer would not correct.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Give each frame its light — bright, dim, backlit, lamplit — and let the printed exposure follow from that.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the sheet.
- Check the numbers and the corners: consecutive frames, no empty cell. Then check one dark frame against one bright one — if they share an exposure, the strip is decorated rather than shot.
What you swap
- The roll
- Vibary's first open build week, shot over one Thursday
- The stock and the numbers
- KODAK PORTRA 400 · frames 21 to 26 · 18.07.2026
- Two wide frames, with their light
- the studio street at seven in the morning, flat grey light, long exposure · the same street at dusk with the windows lit, wide open and dim
- Two detail frames, with their light
- a hand on a trackpad under a desk lamp, warm and close, wide open · a stack of printed proofs by a window, bright side light, stopped down
- Two human frames, with their light
- two people leaning over one screen, lit only by it, very wide open · someone carrying a rolled poster out the door into full sun, stopped right down
- The colour of the roll
- warm neutral, slightly green in the shadows, soft highlight roll-off
Before it runs
- Six frames, or eight. Seven cannot fill a grid, and the odd one out is the first thing anyone sees.
- A light for every frame, described. The exposure printed under each one has to follow from it, and inventing both is how these sheets end up stamped 1/125 f/2.8 six times.
- Subjects that move through something. Six views of the same tent is a repeated frame, not a roll.
When to reach for it
For a trip, a day, a season, a project's first week — anything better told as several photographs than one. The style is easy to render and fails in two boring ways: a grid with a hole in it, and every frame stamped with the same invented exposure.
What changes
- One sheet whose grid divides evenly — six or eight frames, never seven — so the page has no orphan and no empty corner.
- Each frame carries an exposure that agrees with its own light: a firelit close-up and a noon ridge do not share a shutter speed.
- Frame numbers run consecutively, so the sheet reads as one roll rather than a selection.
- The six subjects step through the day rather than repeating it, with a stated mix of wide, detail and human.
- One film stock's colour across all six, so the sheet holds together as a single roll shot in one afternoon.
Pairs with
- Built by Tiny HandsA miniature-scale poster where small figures are assembling the thing the poster is about — with one declared height rule so every object stays the same size as itself. Seven fields.
- Drawn Into the PhotographA real photograph with one glowing hand-drawn figure living inside it — standing on a real surface, touching a real object, and placed in the quietest part of the frame. Six fields.
- Five Pins, One StreetA wide daylight photograph of a real place with five small pins on it, each naming something actually visible in the frame rather than floating over it. Seven fields.