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

[photoevangelist]

8x10 CSG (kodak full speed green). 12 minutes in 1+60 Rodinal (yes, i know.. not standard dillution, big whoop ).
Orange filter on Gundlach Radar 8x10. f8, i believe ( i shot for couple hours, and i have nasty habit of not recording things for real.. but most of session was metered around 11-16, and filter eats out about 2).


Liliya by Sergei Rodionov, on Flickr

Breathtaking! I'm speechless.

Speaking of non-standard dilutions for Rodinal. I came across some notes from when I was a photography student that are over 15 years old. My professor taught us that Rodinal 1:100 was multi-purpose, and 1:31 was high-acutance. Curious where he got the dilution 1:31. 1:25, 1:50, and 1:100, I've noticed, are the most popular. (Not meaning to get off topic too much here).

[photoevangelist]

I put these in the flower thread but felt I should show them here as well. Both are shot on Blue x-ray @ 50, half speed BTW, developed in Pyrocat-HD 1;1:100 for 6 minutes and printed in carbon. Scans of the prints and not the negatives.

These are really nice, Jim! People should note, you don't strip your negatives.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Lee this is correct. No stripping here. I print through it with the 1,000watt NuArc.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Neither do I. As I've said before, you cannot maintain a sufficient density range to print in carbon transfer or kallitype, for that matter. Stripping literally cuts the negatives DR in half. Even if you greatly extend the development (and there is a limit to this), it is still not enough. Of course, stripping is perfectly fine for silver printing.

[SergeiR]

I tried to strip couple for scanning... and quite honestly - didnt do much for me, apart from time wasted.. so meh.. I am sticking with fully clothed version too.

[Leszek Vogt]

Sergei, excellente work. You got the development down alright..not to mention light, etc.

Les

[SergeiR]

Sergei, excellente work. You got the development down alright..not to mention light, etc.

Les

Thanks. However i need to get it better, i think.

I feel like i always underexpose it while shooting and then missing certain something, b/c when i scan - i see that i need to pull brightness a bit.
Underexposing helps caucasian skin tones, but i need to do some outdoors experimenting to see how it behaves without flashes & etc - i actually have few sheets done on Sunday, just didnt get to them yet..
And i still want to get back to 1+100 or even 1+200 rodinal to full exhaustion.. Gonna experiment more

[photoevangelist]

FYI: I just received a copy of Ansel Adams' The Negative today. I started reading and he goes into some detail about blue sensitive films and orthochromatic (green and blue) film. Pages 21-25. I thought it was cool. I couldn't help but think about the xray films we're using today.

[photoevangelist]

Sergei, how does the orange filter benefit your xray images? If green sensitive xray is orthochromatic (green and blue sensitive), according to Ansel Adams (The Negative, pg 112) red and orange filters are not useful with this base.

He says however, yellow, green, and blue filters can be used for contrast effects.

[SergeiR]

Sergei, how does the orange filter benefit your xray images? If green sensitive xray is orthochromatic (green and blue sensitive), according to Ansel Adams (The Negative, pg 112) red and orange filters are not useful with this base.

He says however, yellow, green, and blue filters can be used for contrast effects.

Honestly saying.. i just was too lazy, b/c i had some other b&w film in other holders and taping and untaping filter (its prewar lens, bent front, so i cant screw them on) was just a bit too irritating.
However, one would think that it still should help a bit with evening tones out. Green is another thing to do, got that one too - gonna try it this week both ways, to see which one i like better.