Man Ray style solarisation/sabattier

Steve

Steve

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I love the Man Ray sabattier effect portraits, typified by skin that looks like aluminium and with black Mackie Lines.

I enjoy a bit of solarisation in the darkroom but using the effect on paper gives a very different result from Man Ray. Solarisation in photoshop is an abomination that should be banned.

I couldn't find much guidance on how Man Ray achieved his effects as he kept them a secret. It's known that he was exposing the negative to light during development rather than paper at the printing stage. Some forum posts I read suggested it couldn't be replicated now as modern film reacts differently to old film.

So having failed to determine the method used, it seemed that trial and error would be the only way to find out. I took two rolls of an identical photo of my daughter with strong bright light for a high contrast against a black background. I then cut each roll into 6 parts to ensure each part had one whole image I could use. The idea was then to develop each mini piece of fim separately and changing the variables each time to compare results at the end. The variables include total time of development, how far through development before exposing the negative to light, what type of light used, how close to place the negative to the light, length of time exposed to light, length of time to continue development after exposure.

For my first test the film needed 12 minutes total development. After 6 minutes I poured the developer into a jug and used a stop to arrest further development. Then in total darkness I removed the film from the tank, patted it dry. It was then placed 2 feet away from a white light for 2 seconds. The film was then put back on spiral and back in tank and developer added to continue development for the remaining 6 minutes. Then stopped and fixed as normal

And here is the result:


Kit 2 secs 50% by SteveGam, on Flickr

I know it's not quite right, but I'm delighted with it as first go in the trial and error process. The black Mackie lines are there and the skin needs to be lighter so I think I will keep all the variables the same for next try but reduce the exposure from 2 to 1 seconds (or maybe longer but use a redlight rather than a white light).

I appear to have mangled the negative a bit.... not sure if it's a good idea to try and dry the negative at exposure stage as I imagine the emulsion is very soft, which has maybe caused the numerous scratches and marks.
 
You can do this techique at the printing stage. by exposing to white light during development.
this gives rather more goes at it.
 
Really well done. I'd agree about not drying the neg - a film of moisture will have far less effect than the harm you risk doing the emulsion.
 
wasnt his technique a bit of an accident. His bit on the side and quite accomplished tog herself, Lee Miller, once accidentally flicked the lights on in the middle of the processing which gave his film this effect. Its quite nice and like you say, nothing like the photoshop version.
 
The spirit of Man Ray lives, you have achieved a very authentic look, excellent work in my view.
 
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Jeez Steve ..... the fact that you got the distinguishing effects in your first shot is really impressive ....
I didn't know about the likely accidental white light flash .... Will defo have a go at that too
 
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Steve, That is very good, I just love the eyes and the more you look the more details you actually see. Quite fascinating.
 
im just wondering if the developer ( 2nd dose ) would actualy do any further developing after its been stopped .once you've got stop in there it would contaminate the dev , i would have maybe just took the top off the pot and flashed it without pouring the dev out ,,

having said that , i think you've done a brilliant job on what is an experimental picture ,,,,i think it woiuld make a superb print ,,,,
but i feel you have more to come , so i look forward to seeing the results
 
I like it. The lines are great and I agree that I don't think that you could replicate such a tactile image using digital techniques. I admire your dedication.
 
Very impressive, you have captured the spirit of Man Ray, keep up the good work.
 
Thanks for the lovely comments, ideas and encouragement.

I will continue experimenting over the weekend and hopefully be able to post an improved version. :)
 
wickerman said:
You'll find details of Man Ray's technique here http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/wljeme/Chapt3.html
Click to expand...

David...many thanks for that link. I hadn't seen that before and didn't realise that Tabard had printed Ray's 'secret' thus ending their friendship. Sounds like a modern day 'selling story to the Sun' kind of betrayal.

Some very useful information in there that I can also try out over the weekend.
 
Used to play with solarisation many years ago but only at the final print stage. A quick peek at the link above suggests a paper negative stage. Not sure what equipment Man Ray used but if it was large format, it would have been tray developed rather than tank/spiral, which would have made the re-exposure easier (and more even!) I suppose MF film could be cut and used as mini sheets then individually developed - probably easier than trying to cut rolls after exposure. (?)Orthochromatic film could be handy too (if that's the stuff that's safelight proof!)
 
So after a lot of experimentation, here are the final results.

Method 1.

Expose negative to white light 30% of way through development for 2 secs. I think this is my favourite outcome, but it's the hardest to get right too:

Man Ray experiment - solarised negative by SteveGam, on Flickr

Method 2.
Develop negative as normal, but solarise print in the darkroom to get this:

Solarised print for Man Ray experiment by SteveGam, on Flickr

This solarised print then used as a paper negative to produce the Man Ray effect. This is a close second in my opinion to method 1 in terms of the result, but is so much easier that if I ever wanted to repeat the effect I would use this method:



Method 3.

Use photoshop. Just 2 clicks of the mouse:
1. Filter/Stylise/Solarize
2. Image/Adjustments/Invert

The result isn't as great as the methods above proabably because the eyes look wrong, but it really was just 2 clicks of the mouse compared to a very long time in the darkroom. And I imagine with 5 minutes of editing it would be just as good or better than above.


Man Ray experiment - photoshop method by SteveGam, on Flickr
Man Ray experiment - solarised print as paper negative by SteveGam, on Flickr

Thanks again to everyone who helped and offered advice for this experiment :)
 
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Method 1 is strees ahead of the others... streets! Great work, Steve...
 
Method 1, it might be the hardest but it yields the best result by far, well done Steve.
 
Yes I have to agree, its method 1.
 
Agree with the above, #1 is the most pleasing to me as well. The second (paper neg) one doesn't show the Mackie lines as much and the digital version looks very thin, although with a few extra clicks it would probably approach the look of #1. Very interesting even if my darkroom days are years behind me (small house and soups give me headaches!)
 
Thanks all....was a fun experiment to try :)
 
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