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Glite Dictionary
☀️ To expose to sunlight 🖼️ To change photo tones 🏠 To add solar panels
to solarize

to solarize

8.6
To expose film or a photo to light so dark parts become light and light parts become dark
  • verb
  • /ˈsoʊləˌraɪz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : solarizar
  • He experimented with ways to solarize his prints for a more dramatic visual impact.
  • solarized print

Examples

  • The photographer decided to solarize the images to create a unique artistic effect.

  • As you gain more experience, you may find that you can fulfill your creative urges by making montages, bas-relief, and texturizing or solarizing your prints.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Large water drops on the print tend to be visible in black areas of the solarized print.

    Academic text (2003)

  • B/W: Solarizing the negative: Sabattier effect

    Academic text (1993)

  • By accidentally leaving the film in the sunlight too long, she managed to solarize the photographs.

How Tone-Altered

to solarize
  • Specialized
8.6
to expose
16 5.2

Surface Forms

solarize infinitive
solarized past
solarized past participle
solarizing present participle
solarizes third person singular

Morphology

solarize = solar (semi-transparent) = solar + ize

Built from 'solar' + '-ize', but the photographic meaning (tone reversal/effect) is a specialized technical usage not obvious to all learners.

Etymology

The photographic sense of solarize also comes from sol 'sun' plus -ize 'to make', and it describes exposing film or a photo to bright light so the dark and light parts can reverse or look very different. That's why photographers solarize images to get a strange, high-contrast effect.