This image is of the 2nd toe (right) and 3rd toe (left).
If you look at the major joint demonstrated (called the proximal interphalangeal joint), you can tell that there is a subtle cloudiness of the 3rd toe joint that is not in the 2nd toe joint. Since it was the 3rd toe that was the most sore and swollen from a run in with a furniture leg at midnight, and since the xray report was negative, I decided to get a lateral view of the toe involved. This is technically difficult as you have to get all the other toes out of the way so that there is no overlap.
Here the lateral 3rd toe x-ray demonstrated a chip fracture off the base of the middle phalanx of that 3rd toe. I still remember our xray professor, Dr David Coulter, pointing out these subtleties, and I thank him at least once a week.
