Just discovered solarisation(by mistake)

J

Joe

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I turned on the lights by mistake while the paper was in the dektol. I had no idea, what a surprise!
 
I remember reading this thread the last time I was in the Darkroom (bathroom) and I had a way under exposed test print in the developer...so...I flipped the lights on and watched the results...I haven't done that in years...
 
I once discovered something interesting back in school by leaving a print in the fixer overnight...all the dark areas turned silver! The effect was cool but the fixer was grossly exhausted. <g>

-jbh-
 
Joe said:
I turned on the lights by mistake while the paper was in the dektol. I had no idea, what a surprise!
Click to expand...

That's a "sabbatier," or "false solarization." A true solarization is when you do that to film. The sabbatier effect is, in most ways, the exact opposite of a film solarization. Print sabbatiers give you white mackie lines and solarizations give you black ones, for instance. With old formula films you could achieve solarizations through extreme overexposures, but modern films contain too much metol for this to work. To achieve this effect with film, these days, you pretty much have to do it the same way you do paper. The secondary exposure time will, of course, be much shorter for film than for paper. Man Ray was famous for his solarizations. "Two Nudes," by Man Ray, demonstrates the difference between a sabbatier and a solarization: http://www.studiolo.org/Photography/Judging/Judging-Man%20Ray%20-%20Nude%20in%20Photography%20-%201937.jpg I have heard that Efke makes the only modern film that can still be used to make solarizations through prolonged overexposure (from what I understand, it can take about a 5 minute exposure or more on a bright day).

The sabbatier effect can also be combined with other darkroom effects to give you odd ... well ... I did a semi-nude as a sabbatier and sepia toned it and everything came out looking like brushed bronze: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=72998

The sabbatier effect seems to work best with organic objects (human skin, flowers, trees, and etcetera). It isn't particularly dramatic with mechanical shapes.

If you want to see something strange, do a contact print of your sabbatier print, and subject that to the sabbatier process. Then make a contact print of that. at some point in the chain of making contact prints and subjecting them to the sabbatier process, you wind up with a normal print -- except that all the shadows are white.

Now let's see you try some of the more advanced stuff, like double printing (expose a print to two negatives in succession): http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=73002
 
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I used this effect on a 4x5 negative and a Nikon flash (polaroid type 55)...it's my current icon:

360180842_349fdf1c94_o.jpg


Todd
 
Remember, this is for polaroid film. I took the shot at normal exposure, went into a dark area, opened the film sleeve and operated the flash (aimed at the negative). I then closed it back up to finish developing, viola' ;)

Todd
 
you can also solarize selectively using a mag-lite (you can make it even more focused with some balck cardboard in the form of a cone)
I tried darkening skies while print was on developer once and came out with a sabbatier sky.... worked perfectly!
 
Nice Posts, have not thought about this for a while, I recall some folks were making specific chemistry to help out.

Will check some of the links before I offer my 2 cents, it was often a way to try and salvage something at times from a test print. Often "accidental" , some experimentation to try to move it to intentional.

I know I have a book of prints somewhere on this process.

I have some ortho film that may prove interesting in place of paper?

Regards
 
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