Upload an image to solarize
Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, WEBP, BMP, GIF (non-animated)
Paste (Ctrl/⌘+V) or drop an image — or import from a URL
Recreate the classic darkroom solarization — the Sabattier effect — without any film or chemicals. Image Machine's solarize tool inverts the bright tones of your photo while leaving the shadows intact, producing the dreamlike, part-positive part-negative look made famous by Man Ray. The Threshold slider decides how bright a colour channel must be before it flips to its negative, and the Amount slider controls how far it flips, so you can go from a subtle highlight reversal to a full psychedelic inversion. Each channel is processed independently, which is what gives solarization its characteristic shifting colours. Everything runs locally with exact per-channel math, so there is no quality loss and your photo never leaves your device.
How It Works
Choose a tool
Pick from 120+ tools to resize, convert, compress, or enhance your image.
Upload & edit
Drag and drop your image and adjust the settings. It stays on your device.
Download
Save your result instantly — no watermark, no sign-up required.
Why Image Machine?
Your files never leave your device
All processing runs locally in your browser. Your images are never uploaded to a server.
Completely free
Every tool is free, with no limits, no watermarks, and no hidden costs.
Lightning fast
No upload waiting — your images are processed instantly on your own device.
Professional quality
Pixel-perfect output with full control over format, size, and quality.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the solarize (Sabattier) effect?
Solarization is a darkroom technique where a partly developed print is briefly re-exposed to light, causing the brightest areas to reverse to negative while the shadows stay positive. This tool reproduces that digitally by inverting each colour channel above a brightness threshold, giving the same surreal, tone-reversed look.
What do the Threshold and Amount sliders do?
Threshold is the brightness level a channel must reach before it inverts — at 128 the upper half of the tonal range flips, while lower thresholds invert more of the image. Amount controls how strongly the above-threshold tones flip, from 0 (no change at all) up to 100 (a full negative of those tones).
How is solarize different from inverting colours?
A normal invert flips every pixel to its negative. Solarize only flips tones above the threshold and leaves darker tones untouched, so you keep a recognisable image with a striking part-negative effect. Setting the threshold to 0 with full amount reproduces a complete colour inversion.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The solarize is computed entirely in your browser with the Canvas API — your image is never uploaded, there is no sign-up, and the tool keeps working offline once the page has loaded.