Scanning XRAYS anyone?

[Robert Blackwell™]

Is this just like scanning anything else, or are there some custom settings I should apply? I'd just mess around with it but I don't have them yet.

[Cheesefood]

Are they X-RAYted?

[Cheesefood]

My ex-girlfriend is a radiographer. I had all sorts of X-RAYted jokes.

My favorite was the time I had to get my abdomen x-rayed. She read the x-ray and was able to identify gas in my colon, yet I still got yelled at 5 minutes later when I farted.

Somewhere along the way, someone sent me an e-mail of an x-ray of a guy getting a BJ.

[Robert Blackwell™]

Well, these are just xrays of my past. So, it's just a personal um..scrap book? :o) Not for office use at all.

My scanner is only letter size, so there would be a few that I'd have to stitch together in photoshop. And, so, I've never done any film scanning and I'm hoping that it will be fairly easy to scann. After all, it's just B&W

[YrbkMgr]

You need a tranny adapter...

[Robert Blackwell™]

I've never scanned film or negativs.

So, am I understanding this correctly? You guys are saying that I just wont be able to scan them regularly? Or wont be able to scann them unless I put a lamp or something over the top and leave the lid open...

[Cheesefood]

You need a tranny adapter...




Ewww.....

I know way too much porn lingo.

[YrbkMgr]

Cheese,

You make me laugh.

Robert,

You understand completely. You need a transparency adapter. Reflective media (pictures) have the light source come from the bottom and the image is reflected down to the CCD. Negatives (and thus X-RAYS) need to have a light source that illuminates them from the top, so the CCD can collect the data.

Think about how they look at x-rays - they put it on a light box and the light shows through the "back". Same thing needs to happen with your x-rays.

I suppose you could try it without one, but I'd bet it'll suck, pardon my french.

Peace,
Tony

[Michael B. Field]

I doubt you'll have much luck if you can't turn off the light that is inside the scanner you have when you do the scan using a back light. I used to produce these a lot and used a light table and a 4x5 camera and bw film and custom process the film so I would get get a decent range from black-gray-white.

[Cheesefood]

I've tried scanning negatives and transparencies, and it always comes out as a black blob with a few spots.

Remember back in the day when cable was just scrambled and you could watch the Spice Channel all blurry and discolored? It was worse than that.

[YrbkMgr]

Remember back in the day when cable was just scrambled and you could watch
the Spice Channel all blurry and discolored?




At least it had sound!

[Robert Blackwell™]

What if I had a big mirror?

[Michael B. Field]

usually the back of the scanner lid is white; I think the only solution is to use a slide scanner wher you can turn the cathode off.

[dave milbut]

robert, i'd try chris' advice...

[r_harvey]

Chris Cox -
Uee a bright white piece of paper or cardboard.




....

Dave M. -
robert, i'd try chris' advice...




So would I... except that it wouldn't work. You'd have to "shoot" through the shiny base of the film, and hope the bounce-back from the cardboard is brighter than the shine. You will have to firmly squish the white paper/film/scanner together to eliminate shadows.

If you don't want to farm it out, there are at least three ways to make it go:

* Get a scanner that has a backlight, and shoot it in strips.
* Tape the film to a window put a piece of white paper behind it, and shoot
it with a digital camera.
* Get some Dektol&Fixer, an incandescent light, some plastic trays, and
a sheet of glass, and make contact prints in the bathroom. Scan the prints
normally.

[ninjasavant]

I worked at Kinko's for a number of years and have scanned many x-rays for lawyers. You don't need anything behind it. No backlight, no mirror; just scan it. It will come out looking like an x-ray. If you want to get more detail out of it (even stuff you can't see with the naked eye), try adjusting the middle slider in the Image>Adjust>Levels dialog box towards the left. Also try playing with curves. Inverting it will also make it easier to see for those who don't work in negative spaces too often. Have fun.

-ninja

[dave milbut]

or you can get this for 39 bux and free shipping:

EPSON Perfection 1260 PHOTO Scanner - Refurbished
<http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=31061923>

:)

[r_harvey]

Is bomide paper expensive? If it's not too expensive, that might be a
fun little project.




The paper's not a lot, but you need trays and developer and such; figure $50 just to start playing (and it is fun, albeit dirty).

[ninjasavant]

you can't just scan negatives. not the same type of thing, you'll only get strange looking scans. but x-rays, go nuts with your home scanner.

-ninja

[r_harvey]

...not the same type of thing




I had assumed that since both used photosensitive silver emulsions coated on the same substrate, that they were similar. Thanks for the clarification.

Robert,

If you do experiment with the white-paper-behind-film method, keep in mind that you're shooting through the film twice, so base fog+dmin will be out of whack. Try to use something ultra-smooth and white, because you'll pick-up any texture.