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

[photoevangelist]

This end of my project is near....


Student Portraits Exhibit Poster by Lee Smathers, on Flickr

[SergeiR]

Congratz, Lee Well done.

[Tin Can]

Looks great Lee! A big project for sure! I know students you may be busy for a lifetime. Good job!

[photoevangelist]

Thanks guys. I haven't been posting here because I've been doing (I just counted 55) portraits. It's been a 30 hour a week part-time job for the past 4 months. Developing in trays was nuts. I finally took Jim's advice and got 3 tanks and 8 hangars. It works perfectly. 8 negatives (two batches of 4) is great for the 1 gallon of Rodinal 1:50. After that my images start to loose contrast. I should probably get another gallon tank or two for pre wash and rinse. Right now I'm using plastic kimchee tupperwares. It's perfect width but too long. It holds probably 3 gallons of water. But it works.

These are 15 of the better ones. 55 portraits! That was a hellofa project. I won't be doing this again in this magnitude. Perhaps only one class of 20-30 students vs. 50-60 students. I'll post some pictures of the gallery set up. 50 8x10 contact prints and 4 super sized 1 meter x 1.2 meter enlargements of the best of the best just to see how well these things enlarge with my digital work flow capabilities. I may do xray landscapes with 7x17 or 8x10 which will most likely be digital output.

[alanbutler57]

Thanks guys. I haven't been posting here because I've been doing (I just counted 55) portraits. It's been a 30 hour a week part-time job for the past 4 months. Developing in trays was nuts. I finally took Jim's advice and got 3 tanks and 8 hangars. It works perfectly. 8 negatives (two batches of 4) is great for the 1 gallon of Rodinal 1:50. After that my images start to loose contrast. I should probably get another gallon tank or two for pre wash and rinse. Right now I'm using plastic kimchee tupperwares. It's perfect width but too long. It holds probably 3 gallons of water. But it works.

These are 15 of the better ones. 55 portraits! That was a hellofa project. I won't be doing this again in this magnitude. Perhaps only one class of 20-30 students vs. 50-60 students. I'll post some pictures of the gallery set up. 50 8x10 contact prints and 4 super sized 1 meter x 1.2 meter enlargements of the best of the best just to see how well these things enlarge with my digital work flow capabilities. I may do xray landscapes with 7x17 or 8x10 which will most likely be digital output.

Great photos!
Green sensitive, or blue?

[Corran]

Congrats Lee.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Lee, Congratulations! Great project and I'm glad you got the tanks and made your life easier!I have not forgotten you. Just been very busy. Eventually you will have something to show your students.

[Tin Can]

I do think tanks may be the best.

Tonight I will try 8X10 tanks for the first time. Been practicing film hanger loading, I expect scratches...

My 4X5 tank set up is wonderful, but obviously 1/4 scale and so much easier in every way. Loading, and unloading zone...Fireside Theatre, for those that remember.

[Peter Lewin]

Lee: Great project, excellent poster, best of luck with the exhibit! While slightly off topic, the poster proves to me the truth in a trite stereotype: to most of us, the "other" looks very much alike. Because you have made each portrait similar in lighting, pose, and scale, my first response was "wow, at least three or four of your students look so similar that I would confuse them in real life."

[photoevangelist]

Alan, It's green sensitive xray.

Jim, awesome!!!

Randy, they're super easy with a safelight. I haven't gotten any scratches, but sometimes a little bit over developing in the areas that hold the film. Usually it's where the unexposed area is from the film holder, so it's no big deal. I can see it in some of my contact prints. I think it's part of the process that makes it so imperfect and more "truthful" than digital photography. I can't imagine doing tanks and hangars for panchromatic film though.

Peter, I have students that are watching me in the darkroom and say "oh it's me" or "it's xxxx" and I'm like, "no it's xxxx." Haha. Our TA, Changhwan, also said "Koreans are too similar". I used to think that way too, but after living here 12 years, I am able to see everyone is different. Black and white helps to really uniform the faces more and perhaps blend them.

I started this project to get my students interested in analog again, experimenting with other mediums (xray, Rodinal, Foma papers, homemade developers and toners), and large format. Many of my students buy an EOS 5 or other automatic film camera to use with their DSLR lenses so the look of the photography is similar. Many don't use prime lenses and only zooms. If I was doing photography like that, I'd get bored of analog and not see any advantages over digital. There is a wealth of history with analog cameras. My 100 year old Korona and 100 year old Dagor 12" give surprisingly great results to them. The students also only know Kodak films, D-76 and Dektol, and Ilford papers. Even some have asked, "does Ilford still make film?"

I came to this university hoping to teach digital and portrait photography, but those classes were already taken. When I was assigned to teach B&W and Editorial I was determined that I would make them my classes. I'm really glad they assigned me these classes! I've finally been able to find photography I enjoy again! That's really important to me. I don't want to be a zombie photographer.

So there's no hidden meaning to the photography. I'm just taking pictures. Others can evaluate it all they want.