Print Developer Pre-Bath, Solarisation

Andrew O'Neill · Feb 25, 2021

My photography students playing around with soaking photo paper in developer before exposing it to image forming light, then solarising with a brief flash of room light, followed by stop and fix. We've been getting some great results. We've also been doing same to our pinhole images.
Manny The Mannequin, was shot on HP5, developed in Ilfosol-3, 1+14. Ilford MG IV Pearl. MG developer 1+9.

pentaxuser · Feb 25, 2021

I agree with michael_r's sentiments This one has something almost other-worldly about it

pentaxuser

Andrew O'Neill · Feb 25, 2021

michael_r said:
Neat!

How do you expose to image forming light after the developer soaking?

The enlarger was set up and image focused on a sheet of plate glass. Tape on corners to indicate where the image is. The photo paper is soaked in a tray of developer for a couple of minutes, drained, then placed on the plate glass under the enlarger. I taught my students to do their exposure incrementally...usually 3 sec increments. This way you can see the image emerge a little after each exposure. They are amazed at this! The exposure for Manny was 4 blasts, 3 seconds each. Any more exposure after that seemed to do nothing as the developer in the emulsion had exhausted itself. Making sure no one has photo paper out, the room lights are switched on and then off when there's the slightest graying of the whites. Then plunged into the stop, then fix.

eddie · Feb 25, 2021

This is a very cool project, Andrew.

Maris · Feb 25, 2021

That's the Emmermann process in a nutshell.

Andrew O'Neill · Feb 26, 2021

eddie said:
This is a very cool project, Andrew.

It really is! The look on the students' faces makes it worthwhile.

Andrew O'Neill · Feb 26, 2021

Maris said:
That's the Emmermann process in a nutshell.

I've never heard of that before, Maris. Could you point me to more information on Emmermann? Thanks!

oxcanary · Feb 26, 2021

Hi, I did this years ago with a negative that when printed won a prize in my local photo club monthly competition. I chose a wide angle low winter sun picture of a woman walking along a street with a long shadow behind her. Printed this as normal and put it into the developer. About 30 seconds in I primed a flashgun at quarter power and fired this at the ceiling. The picture emerged and I snatched this when ready. Result was a solarised woman with a deeply sinister shadow behind her that sported a halo. Very please with the result!

gorbas · Feb 26, 2021

Cool! Without flashing, it's trick to print very contrasty negatives by using self masking of partially developed print and your technique with 3 sec burst of exposure is the key for it.

Maris · Feb 26, 2021

Andrew O'Neill said:
I've never heard of that before, Maris. Could you point me to more information on Emmermann? Thanks!

The Emmermann process is basically exposing photographic paper that has been soaked with developer. I believe the original motivation was contrast control with the shadows partially developing while under the enlarger. This shadow density then self-masks while further exposure chases highlight density.

I've tried this in the darkroom with not much success but considerable wastage of time and materials. Resin coated photographic paper delivers wilder results than fibre base because the reserve of imbibed developer is less and edge effects due to local exhaustion are more prominent.

The inventor of the process could be Curt Emmermann, and I could be wrong too.
Internet searches for Emmermann process photography deliver few results for this obscure technique.

mshchem · Feb 26, 2021

Maris said:
I've tried this in the darkroom with not much success but considerable wastage of time and materials

That's funny. Well said, I love the young or young at heart trying out different things. I remember using solarization in black and white, and color. When I was in high school there was a classmate, a young lady who I absolutely adored. I made a color solarized print of her. She was very sweet and praised my skills. She was a year older and out of my league. For her praise I would have wasted an entire box of paper.

MattKing · Feb 26, 2021

In honour of PE's memory, I'll just mention that this appears to be a version of the Sabbatier effect, and not solarization per se.
If you can't descend to pedantry on a teacher's thread, when can you?

cliveh · Feb 26, 2021

Matt is quite correct. But have you tried this with film, as the results can be quite effective.

MattKing · Feb 26, 2021

Maris said:
The inventor of the process could be Curt Emmermann, and I could be wrong too.
Internet searches for Emmermann process photography deliver few results for this obscure technique.

I see a reference in this paper, which also refers to a 1937 paper by C. Emmermann: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/00016925109136659

bdial · Feb 26, 2021

I used the technique several years ago to make a Sabbatier aka solarized print. I went through a number of 16x20 sheets before I got one I liked. On my college student income at the time, the cost was quite dear.
It's an interesting technique, but messy. Doing it on glass is a good idea, I just put the wet paper on an easel, which needed a lot of cleaning afterward.
If I can find the print this weekend, I'll take a picture and post it.

MattKing · Feb 26, 2021

A flat bottomed glass dish might work well - something Pyrex perhaps?

Andrew O'Neill · Feb 26, 2021

MattKing said:
In honour of PE's memory, I'll just mention that this appears to be a version of the Sabbatier effect, and not solarization per se.
If you can't descend to pedantry on a teacher's thread, when can you?

Haha no worries, Matt! I'll stick with solarisation, because when we go hybrid with their pinhole negatives, I want to show them that that effect can also be done in PS, and that it originated in the darkroom... Like most of the filters and effects there.

mooseontheloose · Feb 27, 2021

Very cool idea Andrew! I'll have to try it the next time I'm in the darkroom.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Feb 27, 2021

gorbas said:
Without flashing, it's trick to print very contrasty negatives by using self masking of partially developed print and your technique with 3 sec burst of exposure is the key for it.

That's a nice trick! I guess it might also be useful while making reversal prints from B&W slides.

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