Jan 17

Jan 17 Pushing Delta

One thing I love about film photography is all of the variations there are to experiment with. With experimentation comes failure and learning. While I love the convenience of digital photography it feels a bit like cheating. You get instant feedback and can course correct. I like the waiting, not knowing, remembering, and the confidence building that comes with film. You can't see what you have done so you had better be pretty sure about what you are doing. It was getting a bit dark so I decided to push a roll of Delta 400 to 1600 and see what I can get. It was a bit grainy for my taste but pretty acceptable and better than not shooting. Anything is better than not shooting.

If you are not familiar with pushing film it is the process of shooting a film at up to 2 stops faster than its rating speed. For example, I loaded 400 asa film but metered (exposed) like I had actually loaded 1600 asa film. When I go to get it developed I tell them to push it to 1600. You can do the same in reverse and its called pulling the film.

The wrong side of the tracks...

Todays' configuration: Leica M6-J with various Leica lenses shot on Ilford Delta 400@1600.