Use of X-ray film: technical discussion with example images

[Alan9940]

I use three of Vinny's tanks. Each holds 6 hangers, and 5 quarts of developer. You can find his posts here, or http://www.vinnywalsh.com/#!products/c2jd

Part of the trick with hangers is to only use Kodak hangers--they don't touch the face of the film around the edge, where others will stick right to about 5mm of margin. And minimal agitation.

Wow! Thanks for this link. I've been pondering some Kodak 8x10 tanks on eBay, but they require something like 3 gals of chemistry per tank! I've been looking into building some myself with Plexi, which would certainly be quite a bit cheaper than Vinny's tanks, but...maybe worthwhile to go with someone who knows how to handle these materials and to ensure a tank that doesn't leak! I'm fairly skilled with my hands, but if the bonding sides of plexi aren't nearly plane smooth ensuring proper flow of the acrylic glue you're gonna have a leak. Not good...

[andrewch59]

Nice pic!

[andrewch59]

Excuse the quality of the digital copy, taken with a tablet, unfortunately no scanner. 10x12 Vageeswari, Ross 3A portrait lens, green xray at F22

[andrewch59]

Once again apologies for the poor copy, tablet repro, in and out of the darkroom, no digital improvements, 10x12 Ross 3a, green xray

[Fr. Mark]

Another note on un-safe safelights: I did some shots with film cut under the bike tail light "safelight"and developed them with said light mostly off and definitely far away and most especially not shining directly down into the developer tray and got fine results. I'd been afraid that in addition to massive fog/mottling on development I'd also toasted the film while cutting it.

It was hugely exiting to see proper contrast and detail on these 5x7's. It even picked up a moire pattern from two layers of sheer curtain fabric and other detail of the curtain weave! I'm really looking forward to printing these.

I'd been mislead by the idea that this is a RED led, the film is red blind, therefore it doesn't matter how bright the light is, it does not have the wavelength to fog the film. Did I test this idea before acting on it? No. Is it wrong, yes! When I finally tried testing it the light definitely fogs film and printing paper---I made some photograms---I also looked at the light from it bouncing off a compact disc and it is mostly red but there's definitely yellow and green coming out too. I could not see the dimmer other colors unless I extinguished the regular room lights in the darkroom.

As for details: Brontrager Flash 2 bike tail light runs a very long time on 2AAA batteries. Ektascan B/RA cut to 5x7 and Pyrocat HD 2:2:100 5:30 (approx, Dev by inspection---briefly inspect!) at 76 F for cyanotypes and carbon (someday) though they will print pretty well on Ilford MG too as contact prints.

[koraks]

G-Claron 240/9 at f/45, about 4 seconds.
Green xray, developed in Rodinal 1+100. Attempted minus development by developing for 2 minutes with continuous agitation, then into a water bath for about 3 minutes. Back into the developer for a minute, followed by 2 minutes water bath. Repeated the last cycle once more, so in total about 4 minutes in the developer and 7 minutes in the water bath. I doubt it's as effective as simply using a more diluted developer or less frequent agitation and the negative came out a little thin, but it sort of worked alright for this image.


G-Claron 240/9 at f/16, about 8 seconds.
Green xray, developed in Rodinal 1+100. Continuous agitation for about 5 minutes and another minute or two in a water bath.

Both 8x10 btw.

[Jiri Vasina]

Both are very nice, koraks...

[koraks]

Thanks jiri! I might try a carbon print of the first one.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Thanks jiri! I might try a carbon print of the first one.

That would look great in carbon. So would the second one

[koraks]

They would if you made the prints