Solarisation… of the Sun! “Black Sun effect” - Have you done it? How did it go?

[lenicolas]

Hi all!

The recent eclipse photos reminded me of examples of photos where the sun appears black due to solarisation.

Ansel Adams did it brilliantly (https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02691_0110_000(ansel_adams_the_black_sun_tungsten_hills_owens_valley_california_1939).jpg), Minor White also has an image showing the effect (https://monovisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/in-the-beginning-minor-whites-oregon-photographs-04.jpg)…

I’ve made it my goal for the summer to capture that effect!

But with the price of film being what it is, I’d like to keep the experimenting to a minimum.
Also, I plan to use the technique with live subjects, in circumstances that cannot be reenacted if I fail to get the picture, so I’d like to have it down to a sure repeatable process, if that’s even possible.


So for those who have tried this stuff before, what works and what doesn’t?
Should I pop an orange filter to keep the sky from being too overexposed?
Do classic emulsions work better than T-grain? Or should I even go orthochromatic?
How overexposed are we talking about? Can I ever hope to do this handheld or do I need multi-second exposures to make the solarisation?
Is a multicoated lens the right choice to point at the sun or should I avoid coatings?
Do I want a proper blue sky day, or does the lower contrast of a dimmer, milky day help?

Any thoughts and musings are welcome, but I’d love to hear from someone who’s actually achieved the effect, and can share notes about their process.

Have a lovely Sunday!

[Myriophyllum]

Hi,

I had this effect with Ilford PanF Plus:

https://live.staticflickr.com/1544/25976602712_381c76f596_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/FzsSYy)Kalmitsonne (https://flic.kr/p/FzsSYy) by , auf Flickr

I don't think the exact set up is decisive (here an uncoated Tessar 7.5cm, yellow filter, 6x6 on 120, Moersch MZB dev.). Film and a lot of light do the trick...

[Tin Can]

I have one I cannot find

It was made by too much light with

double exposure on Polaroid

with 1/2 light and a second exposure with double

[lenicolas]

Hi,

I had this effect with Ilford PanF Plus:

https://live.staticflickr.com/1544/25976602712_381c76f596_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/FzsSYy)Kalmitsonne (https://flic.kr/p/FzsSYy) by , auf Flickr

I don't think the exact set up is decisive (here an uncoated Tessar 7.5cm, yellow filter, 6x6 on 120, Moersch MZB dev.). Film and a lot of light do the trick...

Cool picture! Thank you for sharing!

[Corran]

Efke 25 can solarize the sun. Here is one image I made a few years ago at the top of Mt. Yonah in north GA:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdM1OELZO7A5KS9AxHO7Anmh2K9MQNsLQV7zslm9ud5mBleBpzMVZteUn51rblHyyDCYRCLnlHtYO5cQXQMCgcIQhr-hJXb2RCO2mEHaJp3JUGRUnEbB_ved-yuh94TtT9XluVwehLm5Ns_baVHnJ7DCn5FoT0DkAzq6T97lFcrIK38vIjjObyTggjzUZH/s1000/blacksun.jpg

[Mark J]

Easier to get with Pyro developers. I have one from near Moab a few years ago. I will check which film.

[Graham Patterson]

I did it by accident once using my Zeroimage pinhole camera. The sun was in the frame, but the subject was in shadow, so the exposure was several 10s of seconds on Delta 400 at f180-ish. I have never managed it deliberately.

[Mark Sampson]

Good one, Corran!

[LabRat]

Solarization was "solved" earlier in the 20th century by adding an ingredient to emulsions that severely restrained that effect (read that in last century photochemistry texts) as it was a problem many would encounter...

Process films did not have that addition, so might be worth testing some to see if they reverse easier...

Steve K

[lenicolas]

Corran, that’s a beautiful picture.

[lenicolas]

Solarization was "solved" earlier in the 20th century by adding an ingredient to emulsions that severely restrained that effect (read that in last century photochemistry texts) as it was a problem many would encounter...

Process films did not have that addition, so might be worth testing some to see if they reverse easier...

Steve K

That’s interesting Steve.
I use FP4 mainly, maybe the formulation is “classic” enough that it might work?

Otherwise I saw earlier in this thread that Myriophillum managed it on pan F…
Otherwise

[Mark J]

I checked in the files and found very useful information. From a trip I did in 1999 in Utah, I have two shots taken a couple of minutes apart. It's a shot of a back-lit tamarisk tree, with the sun in the shot in both cases. First shot is end of roll of FP4+ in PMK, no solarisation. Second shot on a new roll of Pan F+, also PMK - obvious solarisation.

[lenicolas]

I checked in the files and found very useful information. From a trip I did in 1999 in Utah, I have two shots taken a couple of minutes apart. It's a shot of a back-lit tamarisk tree, with the sun in the shot in both cases. First shot is end of roll of FP4+ in PMK, no solarisation. Second shot on a new roll of Pan F+, also PMK - obvious solarisation.

Very useful info indeed!

I guess tomorrows mission will be to buy a roll or two of Pan F.

[ic-racer]

One can do this easily with Instax instant film.

[LabRat]

I don't know if this might work, but I myself might try taking unexposed film and pre-washing/drying (in complete darkness) before exposure to potentially wash out the ingredient (+ anti halation backing) to see if it reverses easier... (The AH layer would come off, but would not effect reversal, but can cause interesting halation effects???)

Distant memory, but I think I read old films would go into reversal with massive overexposure and densities would thin to more normal eventually, but they added the ingredient so super hot highlights would not reverse... Older films could also be exposed for massive times (like a weekend), and get a normal (ish) density after standard development...

But I might be wrong/wrong, but traveling photographers used to exploit this reversal effect for single step tintypes/paper prints at the fair or boardwalk...

Steve K

[lenicolas]

One can do this easily with Instax instant film.
I don’t have an instax camera unfortunately.

[Thodoris Tzalavras]

Back in 2012, Harman Direct Positive paper gave me some excellent results with true-solarization.
Not sure if the current version has the same properties though.

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