I always thought that was just the method certain photo editors offer for negative adjustment?
Corel Photopaint for example offers solarize but I don't think it has a negative option...actually, I just inverted the photo (I presume that's their negative) and it came out just like a solarized that is on default setting. So I think they're the same or very similar, except solarize allows for a level adjustment.
The Solarize filter makes your image look like a negative photographic image. Try the Invert filter for a similar effect. This filter supports all color models except black-and-white.
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I'll wait to hear from a former film photographer (which I'm really not) to get more details. I'm pretty sure there's some more subtle difference, but I have no problem with allowing more than one technique -- just trying to keep things simple.
Out of interest: I yoinked this from a web photoshop tutorial "Solarize:....What this filter does is to invert both the color and the brightness of the lightest portions of the image."
solarization is quite different from a negative. Solarization is a darkroom printing technique, in which you expose your image onto paper, then you put the print in the developer, but at some point in the developing process you expose the whole print to light for maybe a second or two, and it gives that effect on the image...it's most obvious on the print near the contrasting lines and tones of the image.
In 'curves' terms, negative simply is a one to one reversal of all the tones in the image - light to dark. An RGB curve that is a straight line starting at the top left and going to the bottom right.
Solarisation is as described earlier, a darkroom technique where light is used part way through the developing. It ends up being more like a U or V shaped curve in a curves dialog.
