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

[Carl J]

Nice work, Lee!

[Andrew O'Neill]

Can somebody offer a little help to the old and feeble? I've been through this thread and seen several comments about, yes you do strip the back emulsion, no you don't strip the back emulsion...but I don't get it.

What is the advantage of stripping the emulsion, and how do you strip just the back emulsion without stripping it all? Forgive me if this was answered somewhere in here, but I went through the whole thread and didn't find it.

As I have stated several times, if you are alt printing, do not strip. If you are scanning or printing on silver gel papers, then go ahead and strip. A stripped emulsion is slightly sharper, but you really cannot tell in a contact print unless you put prints side-by-side and look very carefully.
There is plenty of information in the original xray film thread http://www.largeformatphotography.in...highlight=xrayabout stripping. Another reason why this thread should be merged with that one...

andrew

[SergeiR]

Yep, thats the thread i did read before starting.

on stripping for scanning. i dunno. I dont feel like unstripped (way how i do it) scans are really soft. At least not with betterscanning ANR glass , and 8 pennies on my V700 @2400dpi.

[Corran]

It's not your scanner. They were soft on my Screen Cezanne too, pretty obviously.

[SergeiR]

It's not your scanner. They were soft on my Screen Cezanne too, pretty obviously.

Thats the thing they arent soft at all for me. Pretty bleedin' sharp.

[Corran]

Sorry, misread that. Well there is certainly no way any 8x10 is soft generally speaking, but anyway, it was obvious enough to me.

[Randy]

I posted a pretty extreme crop back on page 42 of this thread, of some small mushrooms. For my size of printing (from 8X10) stripping would be unnecessary.

[Corran]

Yes, I'm sure for most uses it wouldn't be any problem, but for instance, that big print I did probably was a bit sharper generally speaking since I stripped it.

[photoevangelist]

I'm not stripping my negatives, but I also haven't determined what I'll be doing after I finish the contact print project. The negatives seem really sharp to me. I can't imagine them any sharper. Maybe I'll do some testing with stripping the negatives once this project is complete. Sure wish I could enlarge 8x10, that would be incredible! I made some 30 x 40 prints of Tri-X 4x5 at ISO 1250 in Diafine from my Epson v750 scans and was pleased. I'm sure an 8x10 xray scan will be better around the same size.

[photoevangelist]

I posted a pretty extreme crop back on page 42 of this thread, of some small mushrooms. For my size of printing (from 8X10) stripping would be unnecessary.

What scanner are you using, Randy? Those mushrooms looks nice from here.