Tango Pincushion

This is the original grayscale image.

Gary,

This is very interesting. I don't really know which image I prefer most. Beautiful comp and I love the delicacy in the image elements.

I have no idea how you colorized this but I think I prefer the colorized version. I do wish there was a bit more dof.

These are both fascinating to me. I'm going to have to ponder them for a while. I'm really glad you posted these.

pat

Fascinating to see the interplay of artistry (in the arrangement and again in the processing) and technology (in the image capture and processing) come together to produce this image.

Thanks Pat and Scott for your comments.
X-ray is a different to visible light photography in that it captures incident 'light' rather than reflected light as in normal photography. There is no lens involved so there is no control of DOF (like a scanner, the object closer to the film is sharper). The DOF is much shallower than scan and in a way its a bit like pressed flowers without the compression artifact but with added 'transparent' dimension. Many people have done floral radiography and some are very nice. Dr Dain Tasker was the pioneer and probably best known. Other include Albert Richards ,Albert Koetsier and Steven Meyers.

Interesting work Gary. I hadn't seen many radiographic images. Thanks for giving some links to others who have done this work. Not knowing anything about how to do these, take anything I say with a the level of knowledge it's based on. I would think density of the plant material would have a very great influence on outcomes. So in this image the density range is pretty broad and I'm not sure about the stem. To me it looks like a a photograph of a desaturated stem in the colorized version. Also the flower head is too busy and without good depth of field it loses some appeal for my tastes. However, I really like what you guys have done with the calla. Both versions. Looking at Steven Meyers work, I really like this technique on leaves, ferns, and the tulips. Looking forward to your evolution using this technique.

Neat image. From the thumb, I thought that you'd done a nice job of creating a "line drawing" version of these flowers. Little did I know how hard you'd actually worked. The result is very attractive.

Wow David, this is really great. I love the treatment that you gave this shot. Fabulous results. Is the hospital staff OK with you using their X-Ray machines for this stuff?

Nathan

Very cool image Gary , so jealous of your being able to use an x-ray machine for this. Came across this type of photography in a recent article and was swept away ! Beautiful work , and still jealous!

Hi Gary Something very different and intriguing, and something that captures our attention Looks like your having great fun in the Xray room! I too prefer the colored version.
Albert Darmo

So Gary,

If I understand this correctly, when I look at the black and white image, the dark areas of the image I'm seeing are areas where the X-Rays don't pass through the subject and the white areas are transparent to the rays. The structure in the image is formed by blocking the light?

Color is not part of the process. You have no control over the dof (I'm used to that). You can't tune the subject's interaction with the light source by positioning the subject because you can't see the subject. (What you can see as solid may be opaque or even transparent to your light source.) You can't pre-visualize your image unless you've worked with the subject previously - again because the process has very little to do with what you actually see. Oh yeah, this sounds like fun. (smile)

Like Bob, I'll be very interested in seeing how this develops for you.

pat

Pat:
The black on white is actually the positive of the original image. The image is formed by the object blocking the light. You pretty much sums up the experience of floral radiography. Yes, we are working in the dark at this stage and feeling our way around. If you read Steven Meyers statement, he had done about 3000+ and most of his 'failures' are due to composition. Subject selection and arrangements are paramount as there is not much control in the exposing part. Hopefully I can apply a bit of what I have picked up in Ikebana here.

Bob:
I guess we could do multiple image exposures and blend them in PS like Harold Davies high key images to get the stem transparent but so far we have only done 2 images and we have a long learning curve ahead with this technique. Another variation is perhaps multiple exposure on the same x-ray plate but varying the angle of the ray slightly (a bit like tomography) but I don't know if this is feasible. Something for the future when we get bored.

Nathan:
The radiology dept is very supportive and the staff are quite keen to learn what else they can do with x-ray. At present I am sticking to plain x-ray. There are many other sophisticated machines in the department like the magnetic resonance imaging, CT scanners and ultrasound machines which I think can be adapted for floral imaging but I am not going to try those......yet

Wow Gary u've taken this to another level altogether,
although i dont understand the technique u've used i love the result u've got

Cool!

Cool shot, I strongly prefer the colorized version. I can almost see sap running through the upper part of the stems.

Don't understand a word of it but great stuff whatever
JohnR