Real Solarisation on Film?

Philipp Grewenbach · Feb 23, 2020

Hello everybody, I am New Here, so I hope the question and category Do fit...

I read a Lot about solarisation lately, and have been thinking about trying it out. However, I found zero Reviews of people doing it on modern bw Film...
So, My question is, has anybody got experience with solarisation on bw Film? I mean real Solarisation via extreme over-exposure, not the Sabbatiere Effect...
Does it work on modern Film? How much over-exposure does it need?

Any Feedback is hugely appreciated!

koraks · Feb 23, 2020

Philipp Grewenbach said:
Does it work on modern Film?

Generally not, no. Your best bet is with old-style films, perhaps give fomapan a try or shanghai. But I doubt you'll get it to work.

Vaughn · Feb 23, 2020

I have only done it with Type 55 film -- always rumoured to be Kodak Pan-X until Polaroid sued Kodak for patent infringement over Kodak's instant film..

removed account4 · Feb 23, 2020

i hope bob carnie sees this thread, i think he does this with film ...

jvo · Mar 6, 2020

welcome to photrio...

never thought of doing it with film - i'v done it with paper tho'

enjoy!

Bob Carnie · Mar 7, 2020

I solarize film all the time , colour and b&w, basically I use Mr Jolly's method of development combo's I use a point light source that is controllable above my dev trays , film solarization will give a black maki line in print and if you solarize paper you will get a white line.

with colour film the colours invert in a beautiful semi predictable way , there is not as much maki line , due to colour developer ingredients.

bernard_L · Mar 7, 2020

Bob Carnie said:
I use a point light source that is controllable above my dev trays , film solarization will give a black maki line in print and if you solarize paper you will get a white line.

This sounds like Sabattier effect, not real solarization as per the OP.

Doremus Scudder · Mar 7, 2020

bernard_L said:
This sounds like Sabattier effect, not real solarization as per the OP.

I believe so. What Bob does is to expose already exposed film/paper to light during the development. Real solarization is a reversal caused by extreme overexposure at the time of the initial exposure, e.g., of the sun or a bright light source in the scene. I'm not sure which effect the OP is really after.

Best,

Doremus

Bob Carnie · Mar 7, 2020

I try to follow Man Ray's example and use William Jolly methods of chemical mix.

MattKing · Mar 7, 2020

Bob Carnie said:
I solarize film all the time , colour and b&w, basically I use Mr Jolly's method of development combo's I use a point light source that is controllable above my dev trays , film solarization will give a black maki line in print and if you solarize paper you will get a white line.

with colour film the colours invert in a beautiful semi predictable way , there is not as much maki line , due to colour developer ingredients.

bernard_L said:
This sounds like Sabattier effect, not real solarization as per the OP.

In honour of PE's memory, I'll make a point of agreeing with bernard

Bob Carnie · Mar 8, 2020

PE and I had this between us we laughed about this privately when I met him at GEH.

grahamp · Mar 8, 2020

The only time I did this in camera was with a pinhole exposure. The main subject was a close-up in shade, so the exposure was in the tens of seconds. The sun was in the frame, and prints black. Film was Delta 400. And no, it was not planned.

Could I do it reliably? No.

tezzasmall · Mar 9, 2020

I've read about a developer formula (on here I think) recently to achieve this effect. I can't find it in my bookmarks, although I believe I printed out the formula to try, as it sounded fun. I'll link to it, if and when I find it...

I've also just googled what was mentioned above by Bob, so I too will be reading this later:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/dr-jollys-solarization-developer.99209/

Terry S

Philipp Grewenbach · Mar 10, 2020

grahamp said:
The only time I did this in camera was with a pinhole exposure. The main subject was a close-up in shade, so the exposure was in the tens of seconds. The sun was in the frame, and prints black. Film was Delta 400. And no, it was not planned.

Could I do it reliably? No.

But that gives me hope nevertheless, as it seems that it is still possible even on modern delta film... as soon as there will be bright sunlight here I will try it. Thanks everyone!

I ws thinking about extreme overexposure-solarisation, not sabatiere...

grahamp · Mar 10, 2020

I think in my case the sun was burning through fog overhead, so the horizontal light was quite low, hence the long exposure for the main subject. The sun has to be massively overexposed to remove the latent image while still keeping the rest of the image usable.

KenS · Mar 10, 2020

Philipp Grewenbach said:
Hello everybody, I am New Here, so I hope the question and category Do fit...

I read a Lot about solarisation lately, and have been thinking about trying it out. However, I found zero Reviews of people doing it on modern bw Film...
So, My question is, has anybody got experience with solarisation on bw Film? I mean real Solarisation via extreme over-exposure, not the Sabbatiere Effect...
Does it work on modern Film? How much over-exposure does it need?

Any Feedback is hugely appreciated!

Philipp...
Generally, solarisation (on film) is when you are pointing INTO the sun (perhaps on a cloudless sky) such that the sun comes shows up as a really dark "sphere" in the sky (on a 'contact' or 'enlarged' print. It is caused by GROSS 'over-exposure' on the film even when given 'NORMAL' development..
H.T.H.

Ken (aka elsewhere.. as "Grumpy')

Bob Carnie · Mar 11, 2020

I just pretend that my point light source is the sun...

Real Solarisation on Film?

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