Solarisation
Encyclopedia
Solarisation is a phenomenon in photography
in which the image recorded on a negative
or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark. The term is synonymous with the Sabattier effect when referring to negatives, but is technically incorrect when used to refer to prints.
In short, the mechanism is due to halogen ions released within the halide grain by exposure diffusing to the grain surface in amounts sufficient to destroy the latent image.
's: The Black Sun 1955
The solarisation effect was already known to Daguerre and is one of the earliest known effects in photography.
John William Draper
was the first to call the overexposure effect solarisation. Already in 1840 observed J.W.F. Herschel
the reversal of the image from negative to positive by extreme overexposure. L. Moser reported in 1843:"....., that the light in the camera obscura produces at first the well known negative image; with continued action of the light the image turns into a positive image.... and recently I have obtained in fact on occasion a third image which is negative".
The effect generated in the dark room was then called pseudo-solarisation. Spencer defines the Sabattier effect as: "Partial image reversal produced by brief exposure to white light of a partly developed silver halide image". Many other ways of chemical and actinic radiation "exposure" can be utilised for the partial image reversal. The use of chemicals for image reversal is also known as 'chemical fogging'.
The pseudo-solarisation effect or Sabattier effect was described in print by H. de la Blanchere in 1859 in L’Art du Photographe. It was described again in 1860 by L.M. Rutherford and C.A. Seely, separately, in successive issues of The American Journal of Photography, and in the same year by Count Schouwaloff in the French publication Cosmos. Sabatier published near the end of 1860 a process of obtaining direct positives, but according to the description, this process did not seem to have any connection with the Sabattier effect as no mentioning was made of any exposure of the Kollodium plates after development had started. The phenomenon should have been christened the Blanchere Effect, for it was not described by Sabatier correctly until 1862. However, Sabatier could not find an explanation for the phenomena.
The effect was usually caused by accidentally exposing an exposed plate or film
to light during developing
. Artist Man Ray
perfected the technique which was accidentally discovered in his darkroom by his assistant Lee Miller
. It is evident from publications in the 19th century that this phenomenon was invented very many times by many photographers as it tends to occur whenever a light is switched on inadvertently in the darkroom while a film or print is being developed.
In modern film
photography, this effect can be emulated for artistic effect by briefly exposing the film to actinic light
during chemical development
. However, because of the speed of modern films, the effect is much more commonly seen in printing.
There is a further characteristic effect: a narrow band or rim of low density, called the Mackie line
, is formed at the boundaries between adjacent highlight and shadow areas. If the film negative is treated, the line is light, which produces a dark line in the print; when the print itself is processed it produces a white or light line around areas of high contrast. It is therefore always possible to determine whether the negative or print has been used to produce the solarisation effect. However, researchers have shown that Mackie lines are not part of the Sabattier effect itself.
In scientific photography it was soon observed that when using photographic films with very high contrast (also known as lith films), the image produced by the Sabattier effect exhibited a multitude of lines of various width, representing a specific amount of exposure within a certain range. This led to the use of the Sabattier effect for obtaining first and second order equidensities for photogrametry and equidensitometry.
Interpretation or measurement of an image is sometimes aided by simplification of the density pattern. By use of tone separation or equidensitometry a continuous-tone image can be converted into a single iso-density line delineating a contour of equal density. This results in data reduction and enables keying (areas or lines with iso-densities to unique patterns, grey values or colors). This keying to singular grey- or colour values is known in modern image processing as using L.U.T.s.
Some applications for equidensitometry are:
As said above, it is very difficult to manage all parameters for yielding consistent results when using the Sabattier effect and therefore other means of obtaining equidensities have been pursued.
As a guide, an exposure of 1 second to a 25Watt lamp at 2 metres distant at around the end of the first minute of a 2 minute development can produce acceptable results. If the exposure is made with the developing print still in the tray of developer, it is important to stop agitation at least 10 seconds prior to exposure to allow any bubbles on the surface to disperse and to ensure that the print is lying flat. Solarising colour prints is more difficult because of the more careful control of temperature and timing that is required and because most amateur processing is undertaken in a processing drum rather than a dish.
In colour photography, different coloured lights can be used to effect solarisation, but the results become even less predictable.
It is possible to solarise a negative and subsequently solarise the print made from that negative. The results of such double solarisations are rarely successful, usually producing muddy and poorly defined images.
came on the market with a special type of darkroom film, called Agfacontour Professional Film. Agfacontour simplified the process of obtaining consistent results for images that looked very similar to pseudo-solarisation images and therefore it was widely used in equidensitometry and art .
The Agfacontour film contained special emulsions and in combination with the Agfacontour developer (containing chemical fogging agents) no exposure was necessary during the developing phase
.
Early video synthesiser
technologists concerned themselves with achieving arbitrary curves not limited by film chemistry. A goal was to extend the range of solarisation effects possible to a computer specified curve. They then applied the defined solarisation curve to real time video images. A video lookup table
was often used to implement this.
Using this enhanced solarisation technology, still photos could also be passed through a grey scale or colour lookup table with the advantage that the effect could be previewed and progressively improved, instead of a procedure based on darkroom exposure calculations applied on a one time basis to a volatile light sensitive film or print, as described above. This was an especial advantage for creating colour solarisations with 3 primary colours.
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
in which the image recorded on a negative
Negative (photography)
In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...
or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark. The term is synonymous with the Sabattier effect when referring to negatives, but is technically incorrect when used to refer to prints.
In short, the mechanism is due to halogen ions released within the halide grain by exposure diffusing to the grain surface in amounts sufficient to destroy the latent image.
The Sabattier effect
Initially, the term solarisation was used to describe the effect observed in cases of extreme overexposure of the negative in the camera. Most likely, the effect was first observed in scenery photographs including the sun (e.q. sol, sun). The sun, instead of being the whitest spot in the image, turned black or grey. See Minor WhiteMinor White
Minor Martin White was an American photographer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.White earned a degree in botany with a minor in English from the University of Minnesota in 1933. His first creative efforts were in poetry, as he took five years thereafter to complete a sequence of 100 sonnets while...
's: The Black Sun 1955
The solarisation effect was already known to Daguerre and is one of the earliest known effects in photography.
John William Draper
John William Draper
John William Draper was an American scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian, and photographer. He is credited with producing the first clear photograph of a female face and the first detailed photograph of the Moon...
was the first to call the overexposure effect solarisation. Already in 1840 observed J.W.F. Herschel
John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...
the reversal of the image from negative to positive by extreme overexposure. L. Moser reported in 1843:"....., that the light in the camera obscura produces at first the well known negative image; with continued action of the light the image turns into a positive image.... and recently I have obtained in fact on occasion a third image which is negative".
The effect generated in the dark room was then called pseudo-solarisation. Spencer defines the Sabattier effect as: "Partial image reversal produced by brief exposure to white light of a partly developed silver halide image". Many other ways of chemical and actinic radiation "exposure" can be utilised for the partial image reversal. The use of chemicals for image reversal is also known as 'chemical fogging'.
The pseudo-solarisation effect or Sabattier effect was described in print by H. de la Blanchere in 1859 in L’Art du Photographe. It was described again in 1860 by L.M. Rutherford and C.A. Seely, separately, in successive issues of The American Journal of Photography, and in the same year by Count Schouwaloff in the French publication Cosmos. Sabatier published near the end of 1860 a process of obtaining direct positives, but according to the description, this process did not seem to have any connection with the Sabattier effect as no mentioning was made of any exposure of the Kollodium plates after development had started. The phenomenon should have been christened the Blanchere Effect, for it was not described by Sabatier correctly until 1862. However, Sabatier could not find an explanation for the phenomena.
The effect was usually caused by accidentally exposing an exposed plate or film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
to light during developing
Photographic developer
In the processing of photographic films, plates or papers, the photographic developer is a chemical that makes the latent image on the film or print visible. It does this by reducing the silver halides that have been exposed to light to elemental silver in the gelatine matrix...
. Artist Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
perfected the technique which was accidentally discovered in his darkroom by his assistant Lee Miller
Lee Miller
Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller, Lady Penrose was an American photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer...
. It is evident from publications in the 19th century that this phenomenon was invented very many times by many photographers as it tends to occur whenever a light is switched on inadvertently in the darkroom while a film or print is being developed.
In modern film
Photographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
photography, this effect can be emulated for artistic effect by briefly exposing the film to actinic light
Actinic light
Actinic light is either light that affects photographic film, or will facilitate photosynthesis or stimulate light sensitive species.-Photography Use:...
during chemical development
Photographic developer
In the processing of photographic films, plates or papers, the photographic developer is a chemical that makes the latent image on the film or print visible. It does this by reducing the silver halides that have been exposed to light to elemental silver in the gelatine matrix...
. However, because of the speed of modern films, the effect is much more commonly seen in printing.
There is a further characteristic effect: a narrow band or rim of low density, called the Mackie line
Mackie lines
In photographic science, a Mackie line is an adjacency or border effect created during development, at the border between areas of high and low densities....
, is formed at the boundaries between adjacent highlight and shadow areas. If the film negative is treated, the line is light, which produces a dark line in the print; when the print itself is processed it produces a white or light line around areas of high contrast. It is therefore always possible to determine whether the negative or print has been used to produce the solarisation effect. However, researchers have shown that Mackie lines are not part of the Sabattier effect itself.
In scientific photography it was soon observed that when using photographic films with very high contrast (also known as lith films), the image produced by the Sabattier effect exhibited a multitude of lines of various width, representing a specific amount of exposure within a certain range. This led to the use of the Sabattier effect for obtaining first and second order equidensities for photogrametry and equidensitometry.
Interpretation or measurement of an image is sometimes aided by simplification of the density pattern. By use of tone separation or equidensitometry a continuous-tone image can be converted into a single iso-density line delineating a contour of equal density. This results in data reduction and enables keying (areas or lines with iso-densities to unique patterns, grey values or colors). This keying to singular grey- or colour values is known in modern image processing as using L.U.T.s.
Some applications for equidensitometry are:
- Interferometry
- Photoelastic Stress Analysis, using polarized light and birefringent models of the object under test.
As said above, it is very difficult to manage all parameters for yielding consistent results when using the Sabattier effect and therefore other means of obtaining equidensities have been pursued.
In the darkroom
Careful choice of the amount of light used and the precise moment in development to provide the additional exposure gives rise to different outcomes. However, solarisation is very difficult to manage to yield consistent results.As a guide, an exposure of 1 second to a 25Watt lamp at 2 metres distant at around the end of the first minute of a 2 minute development can produce acceptable results. If the exposure is made with the developing print still in the tray of developer, it is important to stop agitation at least 10 seconds prior to exposure to allow any bubbles on the surface to disperse and to ensure that the print is lying flat. Solarising colour prints is more difficult because of the more careful control of temperature and timing that is required and because most amateur processing is undertaken in a processing drum rather than a dish.
In colour photography, different coloured lights can be used to effect solarisation, but the results become even less predictable.
It is possible to solarise a negative and subsequently solarise the print made from that negative. The results of such double solarisations are rarely successful, usually producing muddy and poorly defined images.
Agfacontour Professional Film
During summer 1970 AgfaAgfa-Gevaert
Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...
came on the market with a special type of darkroom film, called Agfacontour Professional Film. Agfacontour simplified the process of obtaining consistent results for images that looked very similar to pseudo-solarisation images and therefore it was widely used in equidensitometry and art .
The Agfacontour film contained special emulsions and in combination with the Agfacontour developer (containing chemical fogging agents) no exposure was necessary during the developing phase
.
Solarisation in digital media
Graphs describing solarisation curves typically place input range of tones on the x axis, with black at 0 and white to the right, and the output range of tones on the y axis with black at 0 and white up. A curve then defines the input to output mapping.Early video synthesiser
Video synthesizer
A Video Synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal.A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators, as seen in the stillframes of motion sequences shown above. It can also accept...
technologists concerned themselves with achieving arbitrary curves not limited by film chemistry. A goal was to extend the range of solarisation effects possible to a computer specified curve. They then applied the defined solarisation curve to real time video images. A video lookup table
CLUT
A colour look-up table is a mechanism used to transform a range of input colours into another range of colours. It can be a hardware device built into an imaging system or a software function built into an image processing application...
was often used to implement this.
Using this enhanced solarisation technology, still photos could also be passed through a grey scale or colour lookup table with the advantage that the effect could be previewed and progressively improved, instead of a procedure based on darkroom exposure calculations applied on a one time basis to a volatile light sensitive film or print, as described above. This was an especial advantage for creating colour solarisations with 3 primary colours.