Solarize Effect

How Solarization Works

Solarization (also called the Sabattier effect) was originally discovered in darkroom photography when a print was briefly exposed to light during development. The digital version works by selectively inverting pixel values:

• For each pixel channel, if the value is above the threshold, it gets inverted: output = 255 - value
• If the value is at or below the threshold, it stays unchanged
• This creates the characteristic look where bright areas become dark and dark areas remain, producing surreal tonal reversals

The per-channel option lets you solarize only certain color channels (R, G, B) independently, creating color-shifted effects. The Psychedelic preset applies different thresholds to each channel for maximum color distortion.