[Beer-Lambert-Bouguer Law, Beer's Law, etc.] The Lambert-Beer law states that between the transmission of light through material and the product of the absorption coefficient of the material and the distance of the travel through the material is a logarithmic dependence.

The latent image is the invisible product of x-ray or photographic film emulsions, build after radiation or light exposure. The visible image is developed and fixed chemically from the latent image. Latent images are also produced in a photostimulable storage phosphor and retrieved by scanning with a laser.

See also Developer and Imaging Plate.

Lateral describes a position away from the midline of the body.

A lateral view is a 90° degree view performed medial to lateral or lateral to medial. In mammography, lateral views are used for triangulation with the craniocaudal view of the breast and to demonstrate microcalcifications dependent on gravity.

The lateromedial view of a mammogram is performed with a 90° angulated x-ray beam directed from the lateral to the medial breast. For a lateromedial oblique view, the x-ray beam is directed from the lower-outer to the upper-inner part of the breast (the exact reverse of the mediolateral oblique view). These views improve the visualization of medial breast tissue (also called true reverse oblique).