I am an amature black and white photographer with a "bathroom" darkroom.. I am looking for tips/information on doing solarization...I have been doing some experimentation on my own and have had some good results but it has been a lot of trial an error. Any recomendations for readings, sites, books that help perfect the results.

-- Brett Wiatre (bertw2468@aol.com), December 18, 1999

Answers

Hi Brett, if I recall correctly, Ralph Hattersley (sp?) had a good chapter on making solarized prints. Don't know if you can still find his book on basic b&w photography. From my limited experience I can pass on these hints, use a # 5 filter/paper and try developing it in exhausted developer. Also, make a test sheet by first making vertical columns of exposures i.e. 5 seconds, 10 second, 15 seconds etc., from the negative, and then, on the same sheet of paper, making horizontal columns of white light exposures at intervals, i.e. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds. After developing that print, you get a fair idea what your negative exposure and your white light flashing exposure ought to be. HOWEVER, I am no expert on this.

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), December 19, 1999.

I have an article on my site entitled Controlling the Sabatier Effect. You can read it at http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Solarization/solarization.html.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), December 20, 1999.

Here's a great article from U.C.Berkeley called "Solarization DeMystified". I found it very helpful...t

http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/~wljeme/SOUTLINE.html

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), December 23, 1999.

What I like to do is make a photogram so I have a real black and white contrast. (I like to solarize my hand)

then you can put your photo in the developer for 30 seconds, rinse, but in the rinsing process this is where you control your effect, (besides exposure time) if you make different designs with the water i.e. dabbing a paper towel or not drying it at all ...the light with reflect and magnify in certain spots.

Well after the whole water thing expose your photo to light for like 2 or three seconds...and go through the developer, stop bath, and fixer process...it's cool its neat!

-- Owen Keller (kelo003@newhampton.org), January 13, 2000.

I just responded to an almost identical question about doing Sabattier, which I understand is the correct term for what is commonly called solarization. If you would like instructions for the way I do it, look under "Sabatter in the Darkroom" in this section.

-- Holly Whiteside (hollywhiteside@oberlin.net), March 27, 2000.