hello,

Yesterday I was experimenting a bit with making foto's having a 'strange' look. I tried dubble exposures (with 2 different negs), and 'solarizations' (my definition of solarization is probably not the right one, but I can't find a better word for it : when the foto was in the developper I put on the lights in my darkroom for the shortest time I could mannage at about one half of the developping time). But the results were dissapointing. I thought the solarizations would give me some sort of a 'halo'-effect, but it wasn't what I had expected. Does anyone has any suggestions about improving my 'solarization'-technique, or any other technique to print foto's with strange looks ? All suggestions are welcome, especially the ones that don't need very sofisticated equipment !

Thanks in advance !

Natalie

-- natalie degrande (natalie@inwfsun1.rug.ac.be), January 19, 1998

Answers

re:Solarization and other...

I suggest you get a copy of the October issue of Shutterbug. There is an article in it about solarization. Just follow the auther's instructions and you will get great results. I don't know if they will be the results you want, but they do produce interesting prints.

Kevin

-- Kevin B. Finigan (kfinigan@swbell.net), January 19, 1998.

Well, if you really want strange effects...

... why bother with negatives? Just put shapes, leaves, glassware, whatever on the photo paper, shine a light and develop. Also known as "photograms", this is (argueably) the purest form of photography there is ...

... expose the paper, sprinkle some fixer on it, rinse it off, then develop. Argueably nothing to do with photography at all, but great fun. Especially when you know you've mucked up the exposure of the paper, so you've got nothing to lose ...

... double expose the paper, using black-paper masks. A simple method of "comping", and not a computer in sight ...

... when you've done one of your pseudo-solarisations, it looks very black, right? Use it as a negative, squashed on to a sheet of photo paper with a sheet of glass. Perhaps this is the result you were looking for ...

... put textured glass between the enlarger and the paper. They sell this glass for bathrooms, and you can get offcuts cheaply, or free from a neighbourhood skip ... try bubble-plastic ... expose for some of the time normally, some of the time through the glass ...

... investigate "old-time" processes, such as gum-bichromate ... or paint photo-emulsion on to whatever you want ...

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), January 19, 1998.

Alan,

I tried to mail this message to you by mail, but there seems to be a 'communications error', so I'll post it here :

thanks for all the suggestions you made ! I can hardly wait to get in my darkroom again ! But I'm afraid I don't understand everything very well. Is it to do with my lack of the Enlish language or just my imagintation that isn't big enough ? What are black-paper masks ? Do they block the light in certain areas in a certain form ? How can I use a 'pseudo-solarization' as a negative ? It's just a piece of foto-paper, so no light can go through it. Hope you don't mind answering these questions !

Natalie

-- natalie degrande (natalie@inwfsun1.rug.ac.be), January 20, 1998.

By "black paper masks", I mean this, for example: take a sheet of thick black paper. Tear it in half, not very carefully, so the edges are ragged. Put one half on the photo paper, and expose a negative, so half the photo paper is exposed. Now take away the first half of the mask, and put the other half down on the other half of the photo paper. Now expose a different negative. If you were careful lining up the two halves of the mask, there will not be a light or dark line joining the two halves of the resulting picture.

For a better result, the black mask should be suspended above the photo paper. You can use a pile of books on each side of the easel, and place the mask so that it is on the two piles, and suspended over the photo paper.

As a variation, take another sheet of dark paper, and cut out a circle from the centre, and keep the piece you have cut out. The two pieces of black paper can be used in a similar way.

Or try this: project a negative on to a sheet of black card. Mark the outline of the subject with a pencil. Carefully cut out this shape. Then project on to photo paper, using the cut-out to prevent the object itself appearing on the photograph. Then enlarge a different negative, using the black paper with the hole. The result will be a photograph, with the subject replaced with something entirely different.

"Comping" is short for "composition", I think. It means making one picture out of two (or more).

Photo paper, even when exposed and developed, is transparent. To prove this, take a photograh, hold it up against a strong light, and look at it from the back. You should be able to see the photograph.

So you can use this photograph as a negative. Take a fresh sheet of photo paper, put it on you easel, place a normal photograph on the top, and a sheet of ordinary glass on top of that, to hold it down. Turn on your enlarger. It will need a long exposure, perhaps ten minutes. You will have to experiment to find out. Then develop the photograph, and it should look like a "negative".

OK, so that has shown how to use a photograph as a negative. Now, when I turn on the room light when a print is developing, even only for a second or two, the print apparently turns black. But when I've fixed and washed it, if I look carefully, I can see some variation. Around boundaries of between light and dark in the original negative, the pseudo-solarised print shows light bands. So I then use that print as a negative, as in the previous photograph, and (with luck) the final result is mostly light, with dark bands at "boundaries". Most strange. Printing through the pseudo-solarisation print will need a very long exposure, such as one hour.

Good luck with these. Any questions, do ask. I do think these discussions are better in public, because other people may be interested, but if you like you could try Alan.Gibson@digital.com.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), January 20, 1998.

Whoops, in the penultimate paragraph, for "previous photograph", read "previous paragraph".

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), January 20, 1998.

I already figured that out ..

I'll try to get in my darkroom this weekend and I'll keep you informed on what results I get. I'm really curious ...

-- natalie degrande (natalie@inwfsun1.rug.ac.be), January 20, 1998.

solarization and other...

Here's how I do solarization: Expose a print as normal, then put it in the developer. Put your developing tray underneath the enlarger. When the print starts to appear, switch on the enlarger light for say 2-3 seconds. If you use a grade 5 filter and a timer on your enlarger, it makes things much more controllable than switching on the lights in the darkroom, and with a bit of practice you'll get some good results.

I then follow a similar method to Alan Gibson. The first solarized print will appear rather dark, so put it face down on top of a new sheet of photographic paper and overlay a piece of plain glass (to keep them flat). Expose for 2-3 minutes (I again use a grade 5 filter) and the lower sheet will be a negative of the first, but with some of the grey tones removed. Repeat this process and you will have a good solarized print (I use grade 5 filters as I like the effect of removing grey tones to produce a striking black and white image).

I have posted a couple of examples of my results at http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~wadyer/solarize.html

Kind regards, Andy

-- Andy Coverdale (acoverda@netcomuk.co.uk), January 23, 1998.

I have tried a product called SOLAROL ,I think it is made by Accufine?that has given me some good results. The main benefit being you can get the same or close results over and over. I purchased it in Milford Camera Shops in Milford CT. although I`ve seen it in the chemical section of photo ads for the big NY mailorder companies. I use a seperate tray and "flash it " with my enlarger for different amounts of time. I would definately try this as I`ve tried other ways and this is the best so far! I remove the colored filters first and of course the neg.

-- Thomas Horan (Fishman57@aol.com), June 10, 1998.

You may wish to read my article Print Solarization, Controlling the Sabatier Effect at http://unblinkingeye.com.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@earthlink.net), July 23, 1999.

also "old skool" fiber papers work better than vc rc papers...if you can't find solarol...

-- trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), July 23, 1999.

I am just a beginner also, but my teacher taught us how to solarize and it is pretty easy. She taught us to make a print the regular way and then put it in the developer for what ever time it should be in there for, then you take it out and rinse off the developer with some water and squeegy it so you get most of the chemical off. Next you stick it back under the enlarger and reexpose it to light for a quick second or two and put it back in the developer. Then you just develop it all the way through and you have a solarized picture. The one I did worked best in fiber paper and it just takes alot of experimenting to get right.I like to take the prints I made too light or dark or out of focus and try to solarize those. That way if it turns out good I didn't have to waste the paper.

-- Megan Butacan (aunt fredy@aol.com), October 15, 1999.