This paper presents a description of fringe formation in two-wavelength contour holography. Approximations are introduced primarily by restricting the recording wavelength difference with the aid of a tunable dye laser and by observing the contour fringes through a controlled viewing system aperture. Several holographic recording and readout arrangements are presented for which explicit and conveniently interpretable contour fringe formulations are derived. Finally, the results from a set of experiments performed with each of the arrangements are offered as experimental evidence supporting the analysis.