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[Hubris Incalculable]

Spoiler: intro to old thread (click to show/hide)

Hello, all you science-y types - that isn't to say i'm not interested in science (or !!SCIENCE!!), i just have less knowledge on hand than some of you... anyway. As a personal artistic endeavour, I am intending to take photos of my town, and make them look more post-apoc. That is all well and good and i know how to handle that. Thing is, I want to make them look like i was there, and that involves me "being" in an area of "high radiation" . What i want to know is whether the "radiation" would have any affect on my "film" or "data cards" (I intend, if possible, to have both effects), and what artifacts the "radiation" would manifest in my images.

Thank you!

This is where imma document my post-apocalyptic art project. it was originally just a question as to what radiation will do to film. Now it is not.

[Hubris Incalculable]

Well, question not quite so urgent - i got a partial answer gchatting with my uncle.

[Reudh]

Ah, I'm not entirely sure.

Radiation doesn't really have any effect on an SD card's images for example.

Negatives, on the other hand:
Here's some kodak film that was run through an airport scanner. If you were using a real camera to do this, apply a darkening fog effect to some parts of the image, depending on the angle the radiation is being applied from.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also; nabbed from the NASA website from a study on cosmic radiation affecting film:

Spoiler: Technical terms beware! (click to show/hide)

The color films, such as 7296 and 5030, exhibited an
increase in minimum density and a decrease in contrast. Shadows in the images appeared
grainy and ambiguous in the darker detail areas. Flatness in the tonal range resulted from the
lowered contrast. The black and white films (5454 and 5453) and color negative film (6028)
experienced similar effects but to a lesser degree. All the color films exhibited a shift in color
balance. These color shifts, along with the increase in base exposure and decrease in
contrast, were a function of the representative film speed. While 6028 was the negative film
least affected, reversal film 5020 showed the least apparent damage (the maximum density of
the reversal film was sufficient to offset the effects of radiation) and was not significantly
affected by the radiation.

TL;DR?

Different kinds of radiation affect film-based images by fogging the image, slight changes in colour and contrast and more ambiguous shadows.

Couldn't find anything on non-film-based images.

[LordBucket]

what artifacts the "radiation" would manifest in my images.

Short answer
Probably nothing noticeable

Long answer
The effect of radiation on film is similar to the effect of light. Except with the ability to more easily penetrate the container the film is in. Radiation in the situation you described would be ambient rather than directional. The effect should be simply a general degree of 'lightening' of the image with no particular streaking of any kind. However:

1) The amount of this lightening effect is unlikely to be noticeable. Pictures of Hiroshima immediately after it was bombed don't look significantly different from other pictures of their time. Neither do pictures developed from film that been taken on long flights.

2) The overall effect would occur before, during, and after the film was used rather than merely when the picture was taken. Radiation will tend to penetrate containers to some extent. If your film sits in an area of high radiation for years, it will be receiving radiation all that time. If a roll of film exposed in such a manner were to be taken to an area of low radiation and used, it would likely be affected more than new film taken to an area of high radiation and used immediately.

3) The innermost portion of the roll of film will tend to receive less radiation than the outmost portions. For example, here is a picture of film that has been run through an airport scanner. The inside vs outside portions of film received a visibly different amount of radiation. But again, the amount of this effect is unlikely to be noticeable in the case of background radiation sufficiently low that the people taking the pictures are not dead.

Practical answer
This is an art project, yes? If you're using analog film, experiment with film acceleration. Soak the film in lemon juice, burn the edges of the developed picture, etc. A visibly pleasing effect would probably be preferable to a technically accurate effect that either goes unnoticed or makes it look bad.

[Hubris Incalculable]

Practical answer
This is an art project, yes? If you're using analog film, experiment with film acceleration. Soak the film in lemon juice, burn the edges of the developed picture, etc. A visibly pleasing effect would probably be preferable to a technically accurate effect that either goes unnoticed or makes it look bad.

We-ell... I was intending to do it all-digital and then GIMP them to look irradiated, reproducing such effects as would show up in film.

But this suggestion is interesting. I might, then, 'invest' in a charity shop film camera and ruin the film a bit before getting it processed... could be fun. And I bet my mother has some ancient and unused reels of film.

*for some time, my 'quote' button has failed to work at all

[Hubris Incalculable]

Right- Imma move this up to Creative Projects, as i see no point in creating a new thread

EDIT: So, I walked home from the dentist, carrying three rolls of expired film, and two cheapo film cameras. I can't wait to see what comes of it. In the mean times, I'm gonna buy up a cheap digital camera and take off the IR blocking filter, as an alternate way of "simulating" (as in pretending) high radiation.