Bough Beach in Kent, UK, taken 2 nights before full moon. I took this only about 20 minutes after moonrise, about 3 hours after sunset. As the moon wasn't all that high I left the shutter open for 7 and a half minutes - a little long for the sky, still, I'm amazed by the amount of colour the film picked up on the trees in the distance. This was my first attempt at this sort of thing. I did get some better exposed shots, but they came out all greenish. If anyone can suggest film they've had success with I'd be very interested to hear as well. Thanks :).
Aside from using a different angle (point downwards onto water off a clifftop so that the sky is not in the shot at all) try using different lenses: maybe even a wide angle fish-eye lense. If you don't own one, you could rent one from a camera shop for professional photographers.
Hi Megan; You don't actually say what sort of effect you were looking for, but from your comment about some better exposed shots, I take it you wanted something darker...
I don't think Velvia is a problem as from my perspective, reciprocity failure is just another tool in the bag once you learn what it does in a given situation and with a given film... What I like about this shot is the soft muted colours... hard to achieve in any other light...
I guess what I'm trying to say is there are some charactheristics here which are very nice, and rather than saying the picture or technique is somehow wrong, you might look at it as something to build upon...
The picture above is really quite wonderful if you were to crop some of the sky away and present it as a panorama. Some dominant form in the foreground might also have created more visual interest, particularily if there were a shadow cast by the moon upon the beach.
This is a good reminder that I've been wanting to try something like this. Velvia is very prone to reciprocity failure with exposures of this length, but I actually like the other-wordly colors that you've got here. If you want to avoid reciprocity failure, though, give Provia 100F a try. You'll gain a stop straight off, obviously, but you can also shorten the exposure time or stop down thanks to the better reciprocity characteristics.
The results on the trees, water and beach are actually more than I'd ever hoped for under moonlight- to pick up the colours this way. On thinking about it I've decided that perhaps I should look for places where I can point downwards onto water off a clifftop so that the sky is not in the shot at all.
Hi Megan. I shoot digital not film, but I know you need to understand the basics of reciprocity failure. This info should be listed in the inside of the box for the film you are using. Another thing you might want to try to be cognizant of is that in this shot you have an aperture of f2 at 7 and a half minutes. f2 is pretty wide open and lets in a LOT of light. I'm not sure what you were really going for here, but to get the darkened, more night like, sky you could have used a smaller aperture. All in all though, I must say I like this!
Megan, I read your post in the forum and thought I'd take a look. I don't think that the problem is the film, as Velvia can be just as good for night shots as fast film, but that you left the exposure open too long with the moon out. The moon acts just like the sun, just a little less vibrant. Heres' a link to an image I did a few years ago, trying to get star trails but the moon was out. DISASTER! http://www.usefilm.com/image/14055.html Try some different length exposures with bracketing on either side, as well as if you can get back here when there is no moon at all you should still get some nice atmospheric glow on the water and see some stars in the sky. The framing looks like it would have been a cool shot.
Well Hi Megan, long time no see on here. This is great. I think I can help you fix that sky. It is amazing how much detail that you can get with this long an exposure and that late in the evening. Will talk to you later. Don.
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{K:4294} 9/25/2003
