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

Jon,

It was actually someone else who posted their procedure. It's pretty simple, so here goes: Tape down your negative with the side that was not facing the lens, facing up. Tape it down with duct tape. Run your finger nail along the edge of the film, pushing the tape down. You don't want ammonia reaching the emulsion on the other side!! Dip a brush (I use a cheap foam brush) in household ammonia and apply it to the negative. The emulsion strips quickly. With a damp sponge, wipe away excess ammonia/emulsion. Then wipe with a wetter sponge. Examine to make sure all emulsion has been removed. Remove from glass and wash in a tray.

Because stripping literally removes half of the negatives density range, you will have to develop longer than your normal time.

andrew

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Originally Posted by Jon Wilson

Jim, I too have been concerned it would be scratched to smithereens. But, the one sheet I was able to develop yesterday does not appear scratched. I am going to look at it closer and hope to get the sheet scanned/printed.



I developed my first sheet yesterday with Ilfosol 3 (5:30) and used my 3063 with its 11x14 jobo insert. I did not notice any scratches, but the film may need more fixing or stripping of the emulsion from one side for the developed sheet does not look like a typical developed sheet of film for it has a bluish tint to it. Is that normal? If not, does it need to be fixed more?

Andrew, I know having waded through this thread you have posted how you strip the emulsion from one side. Could you describe your method for doing it so that it is near the top of the thread?

In any event, I am stoked at the price of this film.....mine cost me about .50 per sheet which is nothing compared to the Real McCoy (Ilford, Kodak, etc.).

Thanks guys.

Jon

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Jon, that is the way it looks. IMHO stripping is a waste of time. Just print through it. Now I'm a carbon printer and it has never been any problem for me. I've printed from negatives developed in D76 and Pyrocat-HD. Just learn how to use it for how you will print. It is cheap enough to experiment with. Find what works for you. Everyone does it a little different. You have the basics. That is all you need.

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IMHO stripping is a waste of time

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Even if you enlarge with it? Not a waste of time. Contact printing? Yes, it would be a waste of time then.

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Originally Posted by Andrew O'Neill

Even if you enlarge with it? Not a waste of time. Contact printing? Yes, it would be a waste of time then.

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Thanks guys. This helps. The 11x14 would be contact printing. Smaller formats would be available to me for enlargements, so I will plan to "strip" those negs. BTW, is the bluish tint to the Fuji green X-ray film normal appearance after it has been developed and not stripped?

Yes, the film base is blue... even before you develop it.

here is one I shot last night, still trying to work out all the quirks, really like this stuff though, this was shot with a C1, green sensitive xray film and a ab1600 strobe

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7...0bcd6bc0_b.jpg
flower by J. Golden, on Flickr

First of all, thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. Your experiences have created a de-facto manual for working with x-ray film. I recently decided to try it because of some interesting potential qualities I'll mention in a few lines. Your collective wisdom and willingness to share have provided a sort of "kick start" into working with x-ray film.

Now for my hair-brained idea. X-ray film has the image exposed on two layers of emulsion -- the side facing the lens being the primary image and the so-called back side being the secondary image. It occurred to me that the secondary image would be a bit fuzzy due to the image passing through the primary emulsion and the base material. This is really an unsharp secondary image (hopefully the lights are going on and you know where I'm going with this).

It may be possible to relatively easily create a built in unsharp mask for the primary image.
The trick (I think) will be to reduce (possibly proportionally) the secondary image.

The result (again, I think) will be improved contrast in the shadows and better acutance overall.

There have been several suggestions for removing the secondary emulsion by mounting the negative on a glass plate -- great idea. I'm now working on a reducing process that is controllable using that setup. For calibration, I'm shooting a white wall with a 4x5 Stouffer Step Tablet sandwiched on a sheet of Fuji Green X-ray film using an older wood film holder. The older film holder's internal guides has more slop so I can insert the two sheets of film together.

Using a controlled exposure, I can measure the developed and reduced film density on my old densitometer.

I think I have the process down -- I'm working on the reducing chemistry now. I need something that I can control the emulsion reduction -- Clorox Bleach is not a good idea -- It wasn't consistent enough except in strong working solutions and then it seemed to only consitently strip everything off.. I also splattered some on my shirt and pants -- now the wife is involved ;-(
I'm ordering Farmer's Reducer to see if that will give me better control over reducing the unsharp mask denesity -- something like maybe one half stop per minute.

Bill

Bill,

I too have thought of ways to exploit the double sided image -- I've even tried to develop them separately. For me, the second image works best as a retouching mask. I've played with pencils, dyes, abrasives, knives, and even thickened ferricyanide bleach. There's a lot of potential there, but it takes practice.

Bill, thanks for the post.
I also bought the Fuji Green XRay film and was surprised at the blue base. So I admit to quickly trying to ballpark the exposure development and exposed at 100 and developed in HC-110 Dil B for 6 minutes then another shot for 3 minutes. Both are overly dense to my eyes but I haven't tried to bleach the one emulsion off, yet. The 3 minute neg is closer but I will try Dil H next time. I do have some scratches but I hope only on the bottom side.

Any suggestions as to dev times for Multigrade IV type contact printing appreciated.

I'm doing exclusively MG IV contact prints and I'm getting great results with Rodinal and stripping one side.