A salt print made with an 8x10 negative -- blue sensitive x-ray film, developed at the hospital's lab.
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A salt print made with an 8x10 negative -- blue sensitive x-ray film, developed at the hospital's lab.
I tried exposing more as well as developing more. Exposing more did nothing but give me a negative with waaaaaay too much base + fog. And you can only go so far with over-development before you get too much base + fog. I only tried this with pyrocat-hd. Maybe with a high contrast developer such as D-19, it might work. Wanted to try it, but have been too busy making carbon prints rather than experimenting.Quote:
I have a question regarding this topic, as I don't print carbon. Since I strip the emulsion on x-ray film, I always expose my film as if it had only one emulsion layer. How much additional exposure would be required to print carbon with one emulsion layer?
Very, very nice salt print, Vaughn!
Andrew,
I'm sure I can get plenty of contrast and Density Range one side of X-Ray film for carbon printing by developing in 510-Pyro. My developing times are short, and so there's a lot of room for increased development. I'm not sure why increased exposure would produce fog, unless by fog you mean excess density. Since I plan to increase development significantly, I'll decrease exposure to compensate for the increased development. To extend density range it's important to keep the low densities low while extending the higher densities. Increasing exposure is contraindicated in this scenario.
I found two boxes of 18x24cm mammography film.
This is what i found online:
"HDR-C Plus Mamoray film is a single-sided orthochromatic mammography film that is part of the Agfa HealthCare film / screen system for mammography. The film uses both Split Emulsion Layer (S.E.L.) and the Cubic Crystal technologies. Agfa’s Split Emulsion Layer technology provides the Mamoray HDR-C Plus film with three emulsion layers on one side of the film. Each layer consists of monodispersed Cubic Crystals of identical size.
A particular strong point is the system’s high dynamic range. For every image, the contrast is optimized for each density range. Equally, the system provides excellent visualisation of details which are further enhanced by the masking effect of high maximum density in the non-image area adjacent to the skin-line."
It should be less contrasted than standard double-sided X-Ray film, and the three-layer emulsion should be a nice solution for pictorial photography (wide range of illumination level on the same picture).
There are very few mammography film available, so i guess that somebody had the chance to test the Agfa HDR-C.
What's the best EI/developer combination i should start with?
Are the results comparable with modern orthochromatic film?
I don't like the rounded corners and the lack of notch codes: the former is not a really a problem, while the notches could be punched under red light.
If the film turns out to be usable, then i have 200 sheets for every kind of test, bellows checking, film holders checking, experimenting with developers, etc. for a very affordable price. After that, i should still have a lot of sheets left :)
I am not going to do any alt. technique in the near future, just scanning (with stitching) and contact printing on silver paper, so the contrast of the negative should be kept under control.
have fun
CJ
I'm getting good results developing "green latitude" using Dektol at 1:10 by inspection. I'm going to try the bleach next.
I wish xray were available in 12x20, but it is not, that I am aware of.
It is available in 24x24 and 10x12 though, which gives me two options.
1) splice two sheets of 10x12 together - emulsion on both sides though, how do I keep them in place? A small piece of tape or two on the backside at the splice?
2) cut down 24x24 - I've heard it over and over this stuff scratches easily.
Are either of these viable options if I want to play with cheap film? Or am I SOL? I mean for the chump change they are asking I might play anyway, just thought I'd get some feedback first before I place an order.
2) -- I tape down a clean sheet of paper on the cutting board to reduce the possibility of scratching while cutting down 14x17 x-ray to 7x17, 11x14 or 8x10. Seems to help.
Thanks Andrew -- I might be printing it and the negs of my other two sons in platinum.
Vaughn
I've been following this thread over the years with only a passing curiosity since I shoot 4x5 for which high quality B&W film is still "reasonably" priced. However a couple of months ago I took the plunge and purchased a Toyo 810G and X-ray film suddenly became a viable choice to shoot a lot of images with that camera that I wouldn't ordinarily do because of the cost. So yesterday I ordered a 100 sheet box of Kodak's green sensitive x-ray film: http://www.zzmedical.com/zencart/8x1...ilm-p-419.html
I have one question that hasn't been addressed in this thread so far: How long do the negatives last before they start to fade? I ran across this issue yesterday while searching the web for a Kodak Data Sheet on the film. Supposedly X-ray negatives fade over time. If that is correct then is that fading do to the chemical processing they typically receive in the health care environment and would the standard B&W processing that we photographers use would prevent that fading?
Finally, here's an interesting local (San Francisco) news feature on a local ULF photographer that uses X-ray film that was broadcast last week: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...sco&id=8310514
An exhibition is currently at Inclusions Gallery in San Francisco thru 9/18/2011 where a Discussion/Q&A session will be held this Thursday from 7-9PM. The artists Reception was held this past Saturday and the gallery curator told me that the place was completely packed with people standing out on the sidewalk.
Thomas
If you fix and wash them properly, they should last as long as the acetate backing does.Quote:
Originally Posted by tgtaylor
How they fit last week's film sheets into a broadcast stream I'll never know.Quote:
Originally Posted by tgtaylor
From what I have been able to determine, practically all x-ray film manufactured in the past 30 years is on a polyester base and not acetate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Hughes
Here is a quote from the reference that I ran across yesterday regarding fading - actually fogging:
"X-ray film will fog slowly with time, the extent depending markedly on how well it is stored. This fogging, along with the optical density of the film base, will generate a low density in the toe section of the Characteristic Curve." See http://www.e-radiography.net/radtech/f/film.htm.
Finally, here is a link to the Kodak Data sheet that I found: http://www.taldent.ee/est/med/filmid/mxg.pdf
Thomas