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

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Thanks for the photo and explanation, Jim. I've got some of this stuff also, about to try it out in a home-made camera I'm building this month. Did you bleach off the 2nd side of emulsion, or develop with the intention of keeping both emulsions?

Robert, thanks. I did not bleach this image at all. I have printed both sides of a negative before and I have noticed some differences in sharpness. I know that the key for me at least, is developing the film in hangers in tanks. The Pyrocat works great with x-ray film and the developer hardens the emulsion. No scratching at all and with the red safe light I can control the density range of the negative for my printing process. I still have some negatives to print that are landscape images where I used filters and I am curious to see the effect. I'll post them when I can.

Jim

[wclavey]

...resurrecting a thread from last month...

Here is a recent picture I shot on green-sensitive x-ray film, in some light shade. I actually made 3 exposures and this one was metered at 100 and developed in Diafine diluted 1:1 in a Jobo roller tank (so the actual speed of the film was probably around 50 or so). This is my first exposure with the green-sensitive film; all my prior work was done with blue-sensitive. I expected the foliage to look different, but the grass surprised me here.

Shen Hao, 210mm Sironar-N

[BetterSense]

I've been testing CXS "green latitude" film. It works, and looks fairly normal, that is, more normal than paper negatives. I just can't seem to avoid scratching it, processing individually in trays. It seems to scratch if you look at it funny. It seems to be about 100 speed, but I admit I haven't been very scientific about exposing or developing it. I can easily handle and develop it under my LED safelight.

[wclavey]

I had few if any problems with the CXS blue film scratching, but this CXS green seems to have a much softer emulsion. I have several more sheets already cut to load into holders, but I have been waiting until I got a few tests done, so it looks like I can continue. I bought an LED safelight that had a cutoff well outside the sensitivity range for the blue film and used it for all my darkroom work - - for developing prints too. I wasn't sure the green film would be OK, but it seems to be.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I shoot the green sensitive film in 8x10 and 11x14 and I find that it is sensitive to scratching even more so than my Efke. I use 8x10 tanks and hangers and use dilute Pyrocat-HD to develop and the neg's come out great. Still working on some 11x14 hanger designs.

Westley, nice image and it looks like the highlights and shadows are well under control. Can't beat the price of this stuff and I agree that I was surprised with the foliage color.

Jim

[wclavey]

I'm only 4 sheets into a box of 100, and each sheet becomes 4 4x5s, so I have a long way to go, but If I cannot find a way to deal with the soft emulsion, I'm going back to the blue sensitive film. Even though I like the way the foliage looks on the green, it requires too much touching up in Photoshop and it would be impossible to contact print - - which is really why I do 4x5. I have some nice contact 4x5 contact prints from the blue film.

[EdWorkman]

What Jim said
I have 8x10 hangers & am about done building tanks to hang them in- leak tests are all I lack . I have my Pyrocat HD. I just could not avoid horrid scratches in the trays.
80 sheets of blue and 100 sheets of green await exposure

[BetterSense]

I just got some film hangers coming in the mail; maybe using tank processing will help my scratching. It's good to know that the blue sensitive film is tougher, although I also like the look of the green.

[SteveKarr]

Hey Guys,
This X-Ray stiff is fun! I have 500 sheet of Agfa Blue. I had 50 sheets green and here are a few images... CHEAP! and looks like pushed Plus X to me ... I have `12 more of the Kodak blue to do tonite ... Dip & dunk ... Dip & Dunk ....

Steve

[SteveKarr]

Off topic ... I also shot the same fellow in Liquid light ... ASA 1 !