I tried solorizing for the first time ;)

[ErinHilburn]

I just tried it for this series on campus workers. I think it turned out fairly interesting. But its the first time I've ever done it. It was incredibly exciting...at least I think so Almost as good as the first time I ever put a print in the developer. I'll try to scan them in sometime so anyone who wants can take a look. I know it seems kind of random, but I just wanted to share with people who would understand

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

It's great fun, isn't it? I haven't done it for a long time, but was meaning to get back to it, especially when I read about the method of doing an exposure test combined with a flashing test. You end up with an exposure test in one direction, with the flash test at 90 degrees to it, so that you can optimise the two together.

 

[ErinHilburn]

...

That's what I did tonight. One of my friends told me about it. It was extremely helpful.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Fantastic. Hope to see your work in the Gallery.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Solarizing is my favorite type to printing, it is so much fun and unpredictable that time just blends into the music .


Are you using a two step developer??
Do you tone after the wash with bleach sepia and hard selenium??

 

[ErinHilburn]

None of the above. I don't actually know anything about solarization I had just heard of it before. But I'm a lab assistand b/c I do a lot of bw work, so I was down at the school with my close friend and he was solarizing things so I had him show me how to do it. He has learned photography on his own and he'll be very interested in the idea of toning the prints. I know we have selenium down at the school. So we'll give it ago sometime.

What would be the purpose of a two step developer? We just wet our print so the entire emulsion would be covered threw it in a tray and flashed it. Then we developed it again. Is a two step developer better for that process?

 

[Bob Carnie]

Erin

I use two developers, basically the exact mixtures but in the second developer I use lots of restrainer.

My development is total time three minutes, first dev 1 1/2 second developer same. I flash the paper after I drop the print into the second dev and get it covered well with new chemistry.

Basically the real side of the image is from the first dev and the grain formation is different than the solarized portion of the print. So when you do a tone the solarization side goes one colour and the non solarized side goes another colour.

I really like this effect as you still get the blacks and white of the initial print and as well the mid tones give different colours.
But with this all said one dev and no toning is still cool.