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A place for the film photography/videography community to discuss whatever you want. This is the sister sub of r/analog, and is where all of the non-photo-sharing stuff happens!


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New Photographer (How do I push film?)

Gear/Film

I saw this video where a guy used Kodak Tmax P3200 and used a Nikon FE2 35mm with a 50mm camera - And he was able to some how “Push”? The film to like 6400 and it was able to have more grain.

Here is a video of the type of grain I want to achieve with a Nikon FE2, what lens would I need to have to achieve this, as I assume the film needed would need to be Tri-X 400 & Kodak TMAX P3200

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS_9l_P6o3E

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u/unifiedbear avatar

I saw this video where a guy

To "push" film occurs during development and simply means that you overdevelop the film. You typically pair it with an underexposure in-camera by the equivalent amount.

I strongly advise not pushing film until you have an understanding of the basics. Why? Because:

  • Results are less predictable, and depends on factors such as film type, developer used, agitation techniques, etc.

  • If you pay a lab to do this for you, they typically charge more for the service

  • Increased contrast and grain might be an artistic look you want to achieve, but you cannot really "undo" that later. You can always add grain and contrast to a scanned image.

u/rasmussenyassen avatar

co signed, but also -

  • you cannot add grain to a scanned image. i mean yeah you can but, come on. not like how you can add contrast. it's a photoshop filter that isn't going to act the same way as film grain.

  • the camera has NOTHING to do with this. absolutely zip. you can achieve the (unremarkable!) results in that video with any 35mm camera and any lens.

  • developer choice has significantly more to do with grain than pushing or even film choice. using rodinal diluted at 1+25 or 1+50 on any 400 speed film will generate approximately that much grain if not more, no push required.

  • shooting your film at a higher ISO will make it nearly unusable in daylight. i don't actually think that guy has it pushed much at all, maybe just around 1600 or so. cranking it to 6400 will lock you out of all daylight photography unless you have a neutral density filter or one of the very few cameras with 1/8000 or higher top shutter speeds. wondering why? learn about the exposure triangle.

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“Pushing” refers to a two step process in which you a) intentionally underexpose the film by rating it at a higher ISO and b) Overdevelop it to compensate for the underexposure. This effectively lets you use lower ISO film in low light conditions to which the film wouldn’t normally be suited.

Underexposure usually yields muddy and low-contrast images. Overdeveloping tends to heavily boost contrast (but also increases graininess). You can actually simulate how the increased contrast can make an image more usable with the contrast slider on your phone while editing a photo - just grab an example of an underexposed image on google and try it out.

To do this in practice, load your Tri-X and set the ISO to whatever higher speed you want to use it at, for example 1600 (2 stops faster) and mark “+2” on the canister when you give it to the lab, and note “push 2 stops” on the developing instructions.