But it Still Doesn't Sound Pretty...

The world of X-ray photography is a very interesting place and surprises are often found in every image. X-rays are similar to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) in the sense that the collected images are only black and white. To take these image I use a scientific X-ray machine at a local company. The source is much finer than a medical device and the exposure has to be taken on film since the large digital detectors have not yet come down in price. Here an antique alarm clock is X-rayed. The film is then scanned into a high resolution digital file that has to be meticulously hand colored in photoshop. The colors are only chosen to look nice together and to highlight the different parts of the clock. It is hard to see on this web resolution file, but the alarm clock has been over-wound and the main spring on the right hand side is broken. Thus the broken clock was only a dollar at the local flea market. By the way, there are several flea markets that I can be found wandering around in the summer, often carrying the strangest of objects. With X-rays the color and scratched surface is of no interest, and often times broken things are more interesting than working ones.

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This post was written by Ted Kinsman for Photo Synthesis.