 Yo, what up? Welcome back to another episode. Well, it's Halloween the day dentists all across the nation fear and I think the clear winner of the unofficial unannounced grain gang Halloween costume contest is this legend for recreating my Instagram photo your friends and family were Probably confused as shit as to who you were supposed to be but hey keep doing what you do. You're going places kid So today we're going to be pushing Ilford Delta 3200 down the stairs and denying all responsibility for insurance purposes Wait, no today. We're going to be pushing Ilford Delta 3200 two stops and seeing if it doesn't look like complete grainy static Hell this could even be our grainiest episode yet spoiler alert though the results like Halloween are very scary Let's get into it. Ilford Delta 3200 is a black-and-white 3200 ISO speed film Though in the research that I did for this process a lot of people seem to suggest that this film is actually a 1,000 speed film disguised as a 3200 speed film like three kids stacked on top of each other disguised in a trench coat Trying to buy beer. I don't shoot a lot of Delta 3200 because I've never really felt the need for it Generally whenever I shoot at night I usually bring a tripod but I did catch myself wondering the other day if I could indeed shoot hand-held at night By pushing the film since we're going to be pushing our film two stops I am going to rate it at 12,800 ISO but just to have all my bases covered from a technical perspective 12,800 ISO is actually a tiny bit over two stops according to the logarithmic scale of the ISO system Which actually rounds the number to 12,500 ISO However, because I'm not a nerd and I don't want to calculate 364ths of a stop and find a way to apply it to my camera settings as well as the fact that my light meter doesn't even support 12,500 ISO for this experiment. We'll be shooting at 12,800 ISO now 12,800 ISO is pretty far up there for film and even by digital standards. It's pushing it You might think since the ISO we're pushing to is so high that this film will be able to literally see in the dark like SEAL Team 6 commandos rating an Abitabad compound. Truth is that's not really how it works My understanding of pushing film in the development is that it does not increase the overall brightness But instead amplifies the information that's already captured on the negative That means highlights and mid-tones go up while shadows and darks pretty much stay in the same place So it's important to note that by pushing your film You're not going to magically reveal any details in the shadows that weren't originally captured by the negative Additionally, this process naturally adds more contrast and more grain. Anyway, I grabbed my sexiest camera the Pentax 6x7 And we hit a nearby neighborhood that was getting ready for the purge Since our ISO would be sky-high it kind of made sense to do some night photography We brought along our chupacabra backster for protection Here's a pro tip. Don't forget your lens hood at night I chose to shoot medium format for this because of the quality and because the shutter sound on the Pentax is loud enough to Easily establish dominance over any photographers in a 15 mile radius But yeah, also Delta 3200 is already somewhat grainy and could use the increased resolution Especially since we were going to nuke the film and development So I thought it might be an interesting comparison to expose one of my shots at 3200 and still have it be pushed two stops Theoretically this shot should be far far brighter. Perhaps even an aggressively blown out hot mess like my senior prom To my surprise this shot actually came out quite well except for the motion blur Maybe shooting a camera with a giant mirror that literally slaps the out of the body every time the shutter goes off Was not the best idea for handheld low-light photography So perhaps exposing at 3200 and pushing two stops is not a bad way to go in the future Just remember to bring a tripod So I think it's worth mentioning once again that if you decide to push your film You have to push the entire roll or not at all Additionally be prepared for extra charges from your lab and for the roll to be processed a little slower than usual So the results were actually a lot better than I expected lots of grain for sure So I wouldn't really recommend trying this on 35 millimeter though I don't know. Maybe you're a freak and grain is your thing My favorite shot was definitely this one the contrast and the composition were just pure buttery black and white Perfection will I push ill for Delta 3200 two stops in the future. Yeah Maybe I can see this technique being useful if you're strapped for light and need to get some shots out I don't really know what situation that might be other than like a tastefully nude photo shoot under moonlight in a graveyard, which is also conveniently next week's episode