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Pulpo
With their appearance and the way they move, octopuses are sure to attract everyone’s attention. Perhaps some people know these cephalopods as a starter. Whilst taking the X-rays, I constantly had in mind the ubiquitous depictions of these creatures in Mycenaean culture.
Pulpo © Julian Köpke 
Pulpo © Julian Köpke Her body does not show any strong contrasts on the X-ray. The suction cups still show the strongest contrasts on the X-ray. The composite image with the photograph gives only a faint hint of which images were used as a basis.
Pulpo © Julian Köpke 
Pulpo © Julian Köpke -
Paragliders
Some compositions simply cannot be planned. A friend and I were sitting near the launch site for paragliders, who were spiralling higher and higher, as if they were circling a central point. Cropping the image helped a little to bring out that impression.
Paraglider © Julian Köpke A photograph taken just outside the entrance to the House of Astronomy on the Königstuhl in Heidelberg creates reflections in the midday sun, which appear much more dynamic thanks to cropping.
Haus der Astronomie Heidelberg © Julian Köpke -
X-ray of vegetables and boxes
X-rays make a dense object appear see-through or transparent. We find it hard to look away from X-ray images because we are always discovering something new in them.
Combining an X-ray image with a photograph is therefore an approach that captures the viewer’s interest.There are some great recipes for aubergines; even served as thin slices with honey, they make for a real treat. The inside of these vegetables is of moderate interest on an X-ray. I’ve stacked them to introduce variations in density as an additional element.
X-ray of aubergines © Julian Köpke 
Aubergines © Julian Köpke With a little creative flair, you can combine the two images to create a semi-transparent image with attractive colours.
Aubergines X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke Mushrooms have a similar soft texture to that of aubergines and show fewer changes in density when stacked.
Mushrooms X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke Going more wild with fusion images, you get a fresh perspective on packaging and its contents. What do the pasta look like? How are they arranged in the packet? How much is actually in there? Is it even any fun looking at pictures like that?
I haven’t yet found a definitive answer to these questions. Depending on how they are processed, the images can certainly be aesthetically interesting.
Mini Penne Rigate n. 66 © Julian Köpke 
Fettuccine n.166 X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke -
Colorizing an X-ray
There are famous artists who demonstrate how X-ray images can be coloured. Steven N. Meyers is one of them. The use of colour makes his floral images appear airier and more realistic, with the X-ray aspect receding into the background. Perhaps they appear more realistic for another reason too: the X-ray is a negative and is converted into a positive for the colouring process.
This is how I went about it with a creative image combining flowers, a snail and some plants.
An X-ray image of carrots shows coarse roots with few differences or interesting details. When the carrots are stacked, irregular overlaps appear, revealing areas of increased density. Using simple colouring produces a rather uninteresting image if the colours are kept close to the natural hues.
Bunch of carrots © Julian Köpke 
Bunch of carrots texturized © Julian Köpke The example of a bunch of carrots probably just highlights my limited ability to use images creatively in Photoshop. That’s why I’ve included only a few examples of how to take this colouring technique further.
In the image on the left, I’ve used textures and increased contrast. This makes the overall image look quite different from the original – in particular, it appears very restless. In the image on the right, I’ve used colour contrasts to create a look reminiscent of Pop Art.
Bunch of carrots © Julian Köpke 
Bunch of carrots © Julian Köpke The Lab colour space overcomes some of the limitations of the RGB colour space. In particular, it is relatively easy to alter or invert the brightness alone without changing the colours. Using this technique, one can create images that appear unusual yet retain a sense of naturalism (left-hand image). Alternatively, one can produce a bold, colourful look with the appeal of an X-ray image (right-hand image).
Bunch of carrots © Julian Köpke 
Bunch of carrots © Julian Köpke -
Varieties of fusion images using X-ray
Images produced using visible light and X-rays could not be more different. And not just because of varying the subject. The fusion of these two techniques already makes it possible to present the same source material in vastly different ways.
When I began developing this technique, I drew inspiration from a method of photographing flowers transparently, as practised and published by Harold Davis. My focus was on transparent flower photography and the ability of X-rays to penetrate objects seemingly without resistance.
In the case of the flowers, the fusion of the X-ray image and the photograph reveals the translucency inherent in the photographic process and, moreover, conveys a delicacy—one might almost say a fragility—of the subject.
Pink lily X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke 
White Campanula X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke Using only the approach to depicting flowers derived from photography and the work of Harold Davis, fusion imaging can create a small universe. The fusion of the two types of radiation in the image is by no means straightforward and also depends on the object being imaged.
Amaryllis X-ray mammography fusion photography texturized © Julian Köpke 
Fusion X-ray photo Calla lilies IV. Black background using Lab inversion. © Julian Köpke As well as flowers, there are interesting structures that never appear transparent or delicate in ordinary light. Nevertheless, they are well worth a closer look. Take, for example, the shells of snails or mussels. Under X-ray light, these become particularly striking. From the very beginning, I have also experimented with fusion imaging on these objects.
In this context, it is also true that image fusion does not follow a single, clear path, but is guided by artistic criteria. X-rays and photographs can produce vastly different effects, even when depicting the same object, depending on how they are processed.
X-ray fusion photo snail shells composition III © Julian Köpke 
X-ray fusion photo snail shells composition III © Julian Köpke Only a transparent object can be transformed into an image that appears transparent using a lightbox. This is inherent in the nature of how these images are created using an HDR process. This limitation can be overcome to a certain extent with the aid of X-rays.
Transcending the limits of visible light is not a straightforward process. With objects that become radiographically transparent, transforming them into an interesting composition is a demanding artistic task yielding variable results with no set formula.
I bought these two smoked fish from a supermarket. On the left is a sea bream and on the right a trout. In this artistic fusion of photography and X-ray imagery, I added a background and some texturing. On closer inspection, you can see small tears in the muscle tissue of both fish caused by the drying out that occurs during the smoking process.
Sea bream (Dorade) - X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke 
Trout (Forelle) - X-ray fusion photography © Julian Köpke Fusion images can be created using objects that are not themselves transparent. They are visually appealing as a result of the artistic process and can sometimes even be surprising. There is no set method for creating a fusion image; instead, the approach is guided by the subject matter, the characteristics of the object being depicted, and the overall visual effect.
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Calendar 2026
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Moody weather
Stein am Rhein is a town with a northern and a southern part on the banks of the Rhine, which here flows west towards Basel. The Rhine does not form the border with Germany here; on the northern side is Swiss territory. A hotel with historic knight’s armour and oil paintings in the corridors is situated directly on the river.
My wife and I arrived in clear, warm weather the day before. But in the early May morning, it became foggy again, and my desire to get up was limited. On the same side of the river next to the hotel is the monastery of Sankt Georgen, which is nowadays only a beautiful museum.
As soon as I stepped onto the bridge that leads between the hotel and the monastery from the north to the south, I saw the sun standing in a cloud over the Sant Georgen monastery. I had to hurry a lot because the fog was beginning to lift. An HDR shot was a matter, of course, to savour all the nuances of the light later.
I did the post-processing of the HDR manually and software-based, so I had all the freedom to process the image.
Sunrise Stein am Rhein, Switzerland © Julian Köpke -
Calendar 2025
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Lonely tree
Deadvlei dunes and trees in morning light © Julian Köpke How I would love to spend a night in this place: as relentlessly as the sun burns down on us during the day, the starry sky at night is so wonderfully clear and bright in this Namibian place. As an ordinary tourist, you have no chance of being allowed to stay in this part of Sossusvlei before sunrise or after sunset. You arrive in groups after sunrise, in large jeeps through the gates of the national park. After arriving at the Deadvlei dunes at around 9 o’clock, only a few slopes are still in the shade for a short time. These moments are precious and last only a short time.
You have to be quick, follow your intuition, and try it out. The terrain is extremely attractive. The photographers in a group immediately spread out across the plain, as you can easily see in the picture. There are groups of trees, occasionally pairs or single trees, as here. You can’t stand it in the heat for longer than two hours. Afterwards, we had a late breakfast before returning to the hotel and leaving the national park.
The background consists of a band of blue sky without clouds, orange-red sand dunes and the yellowish-white soil of the dried-up riverbed. Rarely does a river die in this depression after a downpour. A long time ago, as evidenced by the dead trees, there was even more moisture here.
I took the picture with my Leica Q without a tripod. This camera has a fixed focal length of 28mm. At f/8 and ISO 200, the exposure time was 1/250s. What was important to me was the completeness of the shadow cast by my lonely tree in the foreground. You can find some of my images published on Landscape Photography Magazine.
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Flash
I have set up a studio of black surfaces where the light falls on my objects from above. All distractions that could interfere with the view disappear as if by magic. There is only the object.
Every ray of light that does not fall directly into the eye remains invisible. Concentrated light such as laser beams is made visible by introducing vapour from CO2 into the beam path, for example, which provides the necessary deflection into the eye or a photographic lens.
For the same reason, light from above escapes the eye of the observer or the photographic lens when viewed horizontally. Only an object deflects the light from above in the direction of the eye or the photographic lens. This is essentially a reflection. Transmission of reflected light can also occur with objects that are transparent. This is the case, for example, with fine petals or glass. Both phenomena, reflection and transmission, are of great aesthetic appeal and therefore of photographic interest.
In the end, there is only the object – or composition. Photographing colored flowers in a dark room has the effect of an apparition emerging from the darkness. And the picture immediately makes you think. These pictures made me think of a quote by Henri Poincaré, whose exact source („The value of science“?) I have unfortunately not found: „A thought is like a flash of lightning in the middle of a long night, but it is everything“.
Brilliant colours of Kniphofia Uvaria © Julian Köpke
