Enlarged negatives with x-ray film

[ole-squint]

Hi.
Anybody made any enlarged negatives using x-ray film? It seems Bergger won't be supplying their print film anytime soon. (Last summer they emailed me that it would be available by November.) I've used x-ray film in camera, so why not under the enlarger?
Any info/thoughts appreciated.

Thanks in advance-------------------

 

[koraks]

Yeah, I've done it on occasion. It's fast film, so you'll need to stop down and/or use an ND filter and still have short exposures. Dialing in the desired contrast using a combination of exposure and development will take some time and annoyingly will of course vary from one negative (or positive) to another.

When making a negative from a negative, either use an interpositive or try a reversal process. Either can work. The latter is more chemically complex, but works in principle.

If you want to make prints on x-ray film, so where the x-ray film becomes the final artwork, you'll have to put up with the blue base. It can build plenty density to work great as a transparency, though.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Should work - you need a reversal process; the only 'odd' chemicals you will need are either P. Permanganate or P. Dichromate along with Sulfuric Acid.

I have made enlarged negatives on lithographic film - cheaper than X-Ray. They turn out continuous tone but quite high contrast - just right for cyanotypes and salt prints.

An example: https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/clover-cyanotype.17903/

I found it hard to get my head around getting the right exposure - usually if it comes out too dark my instinctive move is to lessen the time under the enlarger, which, of course, leads nowhere. Then I just told myself I was making Kodachrome slides and the conundrum was solved.

 

[Rick A]

I used to do quite a bit of it, but haven't in a couple of years. You can make enlarged negatives two ways, first by contact printing the original then enlarging the inter positive or by enlarging the original negative for a large inter positive then contact printing for the final negative. The later method is good if you like to make screen prints from the enlarged positives or even display with back light as a transparency. This works well for alt printing methods such as cyanotypes or VDB's and salted paper POP prints, etc.

 

[Donald Qualls]

the only 'odd' chemicals you will need are either P. Permanganate or P. Dichromate along with Sulfuric Acid.

You can also use hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid in a looped multi-pass bleach, or use copper sulfate acidified with almost anything plus sodium chloride (table salt, preferably non-iodized) followed by a bath in household clear ammonia (3% ammonium hydroxide).

 

[Peter Schrager]

There's also xray duplicating film which is one shot if u can find it

 

[Cedavis2nd]

There's also xray duplicating film which is one shot if u can find it

Peter, could you say more bout XRay duplicating film? What is the brand or specification? TIA

 

[htmlguru4242]

Peter, could you say more bout XRay duplicating film? What is the brand or specification? TIA

I know this is an old[er] thread, but it's interesting stuff, so I figured I'd answer. The films are generally blue-sensitive and fairly sharp. They're single-emulsion, unlike standard X-Ray film which is coated on both sides, which increases sharpness, and gives you one fewer emulsion to accidentally scratch.

It's slower than standard X-Ray film or litho film, but faster than enlarging paper. It's probably too contrasty for in-camera work, but in my experience, contact prints of negatives (or enlargements thereof) didn't suffer any significant contrast issues. (I didn't do any scientific or rigorous testing, so certainly don't hold me to this, lol).

Ultrafine used to sell it as "Continuous Tone Duplicating Film", but it's listed as special order, and has been out of stock for a bit, so I'm unsure what the story is here.

There are a variety of X-Ray direct duplicating films on the market, mostly designed for duplicating x-rays in dental settings and such, but it's getting harder to find as CR & DR systems replace film. Both Fuji and Carestream (the Descendant of Kodak in the medical space) make it, but it's unclear what the story is with production / supply.

All I've seen for sale recently at retail (though I admittedly haven't looked deeply) is 15x30cm (6"x12") size, which is used for duplicating panoramic dental x-rays (panorex).

You can usually find some on on eBay in other sizes though, and it's generally fine even if expired. It's not expensive - under $100 for a box of 100 8x10 sheets.

A vendor called Imagemax sells their own brand. I'm certain they don't make it themselves, but there's no datasheet or anything to figure out who the actual manufacturer is.

https://x-raysupport.com/product/duplicating-film/#description

^ link if you're interested.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Yes, I've used it to enlarge roll films. Inter-positive on double-sided green, then contact print to make the negative. Eventually, I want to enlarge onto 14x17 xray...