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

[afotandolaciudad]

Hello to everyone from Spain and Happy covid-free new year.
I've never posted but reading the forum for long time, this thread for more than a year.
Finally I was gifted some X-ray film: Fuji Super RX and Fuji Super HR-U.
I'm planning to fun with it in the darkroom. I want to try get large internegatives for enlarging color slides to B&W by contact printing. Only for fun and learn. There are lot of handicaps: reds in the slides, high contrast, scratches...
One question: do anyone try to spray clear lacquer (nitro lacquer seems to dry fast and is very clear) on top of one or both emulsion sides in order to avoid scratches?


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[Tin Can]

I have not, you may be the first

Try it and report!

Hello to everyone from Spain and Happy covid-free new year.
I've never posted but reading the forum for long time, this thread for more than a year.
Finally I was gifted some X-ray film: Fuji Super RX and Fuji Super HR-U.
I'm planning to fun with it in the darkroom. I want to try get large internegatives for enlarging color slides to B&W by contact printing. Only for fun and learn. There are lot of handicaps: reds in the slides, high contrast, scratches...
One question: do anyone try to spray clear lacquer (nitro lacquer seems to dry fast and is very clear) on top of one or both emulsion sides in order to avoid scratches?


Enviado desde mi M2003J15SC mediante Tapatalk

[Fr. Mark]

Hello to everyone from Spain and Happy covid-free new year.
I've never posted but reading the forum for long time, this thread for more than a year.
Finally I was gifted some X-ray film: Fuji Super RX and Fuji Super HR-U.
I'm planning to fun with it in the darkroom. I want to try get large internegatives for enlarging color slides to B&W by contact printing. Only for fun and learn. There are lot of handicaps: reds in the slides, high contrast, scratches...
One question: do anyone try to spray clear lacquer (nitro lacquer seems to dry fast and is very clear) on top of one or both emulsion sides in order to avoid scratches?

Enviado desde mi M2003J15SC mediante Tapatalk

I don't think coating with nitrocellulose would work. It is waterproof once dry, so you would not be able to develop the films. Maybe it could be used as a protectant after development, but the dry emulsion is pretty tough, I think. And, I think most people who get scratches get them while processing the films, that is to say the emulsion is soft when wet. Also, nitrocellulose is very fast burning and very easy to light on fire. It is an ingredient in modern smokeless gunpowder. I don't want it in my house and so I don't do wet plate.

[j.e.simmons]

I’ve minimized scratches using Pyrocat developers. I think any developer that tans and hardens the emulsion would do the same.

[afotandolaciudad]

I was thinking in coating after processing, not before. So would be necessary to develop the film with extreme care. When dry I would spray one or both layers. This could help to handle the negatives in the contact-printing phase.

I wouldn't be worried about burning of a few nitrocellulose coated films. In the past this happens with a great amount of film with nitro base stored in bad conditions. Intense hot of projection lights didn't help too.



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[Corran]

In my experience the fragility is mostly while the emulsion is wet.

[Jim Noel]

I agree with Corran.

[Wayne]

I agree with Corran.

What, that its fragile mostly when wet? That's not exactly surprising, its also when most scratches happen. I've rarely scratched a negative after processing was finished.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Abandoned Orchard Apple Tree HRU Maki 210 Heliar by Nokton48, on Flickr

In my neighborhood there are remnants of the apple orchard that stretched for a good distance many decades ago. At the back of my property is one of the original trees, now gone wild.

Plaubel Makiflex Standard, 210mm Makiflex Auto Iris Heliar, Fuji XRAY HRU 4x5" cut from 8x10. Grafmatic Film Back, Sinar 103mm Glass Disc Yellow Green. 1/15 at F5.6 Legacy Mic-X 18 minutes at 60C. Aristo #2 8x10 Omega DII Omegalite Diffusion Head Multigrade dev

[lanactoor]

On a lark I did a double-exposure onto a sheet of 8x10 Fuji HR-U from 2 similar (but slightly offset) half-35mm negatives during my last printing session. Tossed the sheet into a flat bottomed tray of stale xtol for 15-20 minutes with irregular agitation. Not exactly crisp, but it's another reminder to me of why I like experimenting with xray.