X-ray "positives" are easily created through digital technology.   X-ray "prints" maintain the x-ray's visual integrity and present the image as the radiologist would read it. Since the eye is drawn to the brightest part of an image, the internal fixations, rendered in white, stand out sharply. These just happen to be MY films from my foot surgery, printed with permission of Dr. Jonathan Deland, Hospital for Special Surgery, NYC. (No, I am not getting paid for the plug!) So, you choose! Besides, isn't the moon more romantic against a dark sky?

Paper prints of radiology films such as X-rays, MRI's, CAT scans, etc. have been used as courtroom exhibits for a number of years. The advantage of presenting the material in this fashion is the elimination of the need of an illuminator (sometimes called a shadow-box) that needs to be plugged in to an outlet, limiting the location of the exhibit with respect to the jury. However, the terminology can be quite confusing as different methods of creating these exhibits can yield varying final image interpretations. The first and easiest way of printing X-rays was to place the x-ray against a piece of photographic paper in a darkroom, expose it to light and process the paper. This method is called CONTACT PRINTING. When making contact prints from X-rays, however, anything white on the film will be black on the print, and anything black on the film will be white on the print. This creates a POSITIVE image, or REVERSAL image. This is fine when working with traditional photographic negatives in order to render an image that is realistic to the way the eye normally views the world. But in radiology imaging, the X-ray film is the normal image by which diagnoses and interpretations are made. Today, positive images are easily created through digital technology which eliminates the need to make photographic negatives for enlargement. If you have a chest film and the doctor testifies that he observed a dark spot on the film that suggested a tumor, then it better be a dark spot on the final exhibit! This is easily accomplished by making a copy negative of the original film, then placing this negative in a traditional enlarger for printing. When ordering X-ray prints from The Evidence Store, what is black on the x-ray will be black on the print, and so forth.