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Fusion X-ray of tulips
Fusion imaging is beauty made of composite X-ray images and HDR images on a light box. The primary question is what energy fits best for flowers. To my experience 40 kV is often suitable. But: the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Mammography systems start e.g. from 20 kV and reach 39 kV. The sensor is up to 24cm x 30cm. Conventional systems start from 40 kV and reach 125 kV. The sensor is up to 43cm x 43cm what makes them more attractive to floral compositions.
The higher resolution and the lower energies of a mammography will suit better for transparent objects. But the spatial limit of a composition (which is 24cm x 30cm) might put hard restrictions on the artist.
Floral compositions have more creative space with a bigger sensor. But the X-ray tube starts with 40 kV and this might lead to overexposure of tender structures.
Thus I performed today more than ten compositions to study this relation.
After four exposure of three tulips I found this composition with four dense blossoms attractive to go further. The composition might somehow resemble to a sketch of three angels. The image is nice due to very soft edges of their „wings“, technically blown out portions in the image. The inner structure of the nearly closed blossoms is well resolved. The stalks serve as „body“. There is no advantage with higher energies.
X-ray three tulips © Julian Köpke The same composition was done immediately after the X-ray as a bracketing series on a lightbox. After returning I processed a manual HDR, the colors not to warm.
Three purple tulips HDR photo © Julian Köpke The final fusion image is a composite of the preceding two images. Compared to the lightbox photo, the hidden stalks reappear naturally, the inner petals are outlined like a sketch.
Three purple tulips fusion X-ray photo © Julian Köpke -
Radiating Beauty: Creating a new photographic form with fusion X-Ray images
The shapes and forms are recognizable, yet the level of detail is deeper than the human eye can normally perceive: Leaves appear minutely laced and surfaces are impossibly intricate, somewhere between translucent and opaque. Welcome to the captivating work of photographer Harold Davis and radiologist Dr. Julian Köpke, who combine their skill, passion, and vision to create stunning X-ray photography and pioneering fusion images. Read more on the Pixsy blog (article by Natalie Holmes).
This nice article was posted today to share the fascination of our common work on fusion X-ray images using a light box manual HDR photo of flowers and their X-ray.
X-ray fusion image of a Gloriosa lilly © Julian Köpke Our X-ray data are the same, our photographic data a nearly the same: Harold used a Nikon D850 and I used a Nikon D810A, which is modified for astrophotography. Our common lens was a Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 2/50 ZF.2.
We have some techniques and some principles in common, yet we are different individuals with different results. The next image is partly inspired by Harold’s version. Blue is the complementary color to yellow and fits nicely into the petals. The red color in the center is an image of the sun in monochromatic Hα light using a Fabry-Perot-Interferometer. So this image is a triple fusion image of three different light sources ! If you look closer at 2pm in the center, there are two sunspots.
This sunflower is a composit of X-ray, monochromatic Hα light of the sun and a sunflower on a lightbox. © Julian Köpke -
Shells fusion X-ray photo
Long time I dreamed of this fusion image of shells. Because already on a lightbox some of the shells are transparent and have nice colors. I like the shining through effect very much.
The X-ray image is a compromise of structure and density resolution, depending on the maximum energy the mammography system is able to produce.
Today I’m not at all in a stable state due to a recurrent infection. So I allowed me to do this image instead of hard working.
Shells fusion X-ray photo © Julian Köpke It is the light inversion in Lab color mode that shows more of a X-ray look and feel. The colors are pretty close to the bright image.
Shells fusion X-ray photo with inversion of the L-channel © Julian Köpke -
Composite of a sunflower: X-ray, light and Hα
In a digital world we can combine different digital sources. This photo of a sunflower is a composit of its X-ray, its photo on a lightbox and monchromatic sunlight at a wavelength of 635nm (Hα light).
In fact: this is an example of an impossible thing. But you may be able to feel the warmth of a sunbeam emerging of the core of the sunflower. And the petals act as prominences.
This sunflower is a composit of X-ray, monochromatic Hα light of the sun and a sunflower on a lightbox. © Julian Köpke -
Primroses
I felt very much attracted by these primroses. They were close to purple and red and I could see them already as a beautiful print.
But how photographing them on a lightbox ? They always toppled over. Many efforts were useless. Blossoms tend to move, always.
On this photograph I put the blossoms top-down. Because any arrangement could be done then. It works !
Purple Primroses © Julian Köpke A different color show the orange primroses. Composition with or without leaves ? Without gives more the impression of a painting.
Primroses II © Julian Köpke 
Primroses I © Julian Köpke -
Three vetches
X-ray images give an insight into the inner (or hidden) structure of a flower. HDR images on a light box are quite close to this.
Today I wanted to show the softness of petals and went to my dealer. She sold me three vetches, not really expensive for the purpose.
This is my third composition today of the three vetches on my lightbox. The play of the light in the petals resembles to some extent X-ray images.
Three vetches © Julian Köpke -
End of wintertime
Our weather is more and more weird. Today was the second day with a warm sun and a blue sky. Nights are getting pretty cold, days up to 25 degrees Celsius.
Cleaning up our garden led us to some old physalis which were a little more than a skeleton. In autumn these fruits look like lanterns, now they resemble an X-ray.
I did this shot on a lightbox using manual HDR technique.In Lab color mode I obtained this image with a pur black background.
It’s an exoskeleton for the fruit inside which remains that way without bruises.
Physalis after winter has gone. © Julian Köpke -
Mediterranean creatures on a lightbox
Today I put some tests on my cretean purchases from last September to evaluate their potential of being subject to fusion imaging. I bought three Nautilus shells and two sea snails, holding them in the store against the sun to check their transparency. My untidy studio accommodated these precious stones under quite a bunch of something.
The best representation is with a black background, i.e. with inverted L-channel in Lab colors. With a black background a soft shining light appears in the objects.
This snail has a shape a triangle and resembles a bear claw or an Apollo capsule in the late Sixties. The translucency is very little.
Cretean Snail © Julian Köpke The following snail has a classic shape. With the black background it resembles a galaxy in outer space.
Mediterranean Snail II © Julian Köpke My first attempt with the Nautilus shells led me to a copper-like color representation with a single shot image. Lab colors is the key to this color and light distribution. Very attractive is the fact of two shells turning right and one left. Why did I wait so long to make this image ? Why do we miss important opportunities ?
Three Nautilus shells with light inverison © Julian Köpke -
X-ray fusion images
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FAQ: Fusion imaging
Explanation of the idea
Fusion imaging is a child of the digital era of mapping structures. Before image fusion was used in diagnostic radiology, astronomers used it to extract new insights from our universe. Fusion imaging of flowers can be beautiful. And, maybe, it’s a starting point for research in new fields.
The use of photography was initially, after its invention in the 40s of the 19th century, nothing more than a gadget. Only by astronomers, that used used photography for detection of asteroids, photography became a serious matter. By comparison („blinking“) of photographies astronomers discovered mobile objects within a field of fixed stars. In Heidelberg, Max Wolf (1863 – 1932) has been a pioneer of astrophotography.
Imaging of flowers is nothing new. But in the digital era of photography, the mapping possibilities changed fundamentally. It became possible to create the illusion of transparency or translucency by using a set of HDR images at the HighKey side of the exposures. The procedure was introduced by Harold Davis.
X-rays were initially used for medical diagnostics and therapy. Their ability to reveal structures inside an object with an opaque surface was the driving feature of technical development in this field. Nowadays x-rays are used to examin technical structures and there are telescopes to map x-rays from our Galaxy. Every technician who started in its profession learned to do x-rays of interesting structures like flowers, animals or teddy bears. X-ray images of flowers are nothing new.
Transparent looking flowers and transparent looking x-rays of the same flowers are each already for itself appealing to our eye and mind. By combining two digital images of the same structure in visible light and x-ray there is something new to happen. We name this combined procedure „fusion imaging“ and the result of a combination a „fusion image“.
How it works in a nutshell
First, create an HDR of flowers (see Harold Davis). Then create an x-ray of the same composition (see FAQ: X-Ray of Flowers). Last, not least: combine the HDR image and the corresponding x-ray with appropriate editing software.
HDR Calla lilies © Julian Köpke 
X-ray Calla lilies © Julian Köpke 
X-ray fusion image of yellow Calla Lilies © Julian Köpke
