Sitting just outside of Banff while a meteor shower was happening I took this shot in hopes of a shooting star over Rundle. I was surprised at the colour when I got this back from the lab, as the sky was pitch black when I composed.... the lights from Banff and Calgary lit the sky. Now that I have seen the colours, once I get some money, Velvia will be the way to go.
My question is why is the sky a bit grainy? The exposure should have been long enough (or was it too long?) Any ideas?
Kim, it sounds like you did not achieve exactly what you were after here, but I like it, it is grainy but is a rather neat effect. The composition is excellent.
Great composition and good colours. I like how the bottom is framed by trees and the mountain is a nice backdrop. I don't think you overexposed to cause the grain. The grain here is characteristic of printing to compensate for underexposure. That's one thing when shooting print film. The print you get is not exactly as you shot it since the guy working at the lab might have compensated for under/over exposure or added a filter to correct any colour cast, or both. Check the density of your neg and compare it with others. That's one advantage about slides - what you shoot is what you get. But of course, the exposure latitude is much narrower.
I think if you were trying for a more "black" sky, then yes you over exposed. I am no way an expert on this subject but I think you might have cut your time down just a little. When I do shots as this I will use a whole roll changing the aperture and the shutter on each shot to try and get the result I want. I recently took one of the full moon and shot every where from 5 seconds to 45 seconds and at each f/stop on the lens. The best one I got I still wasn't happy with, because it blew out the detail of the moon, but I got some interesting glows from the moon. Keep at It!!!
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