I *think* Fotohub underdeveloped my rolls. Need your help to determine.

[geoffliang]

Hi folks,

Need a bit of your advice here.

Problem #1
I shot 2 rolls of Velvia 50 (non-expired) recently on my FM2.


This is straight up exposure. Nothing tricky here.


Even for slightly trickier conditions, the entire shot—highlights and shadows—seems underexposed.


Another image for reference. Something is wrong with this shot, although I can't put a finger to it.

Granted some I've exposed wrongly, but if you look at my contact sheet, the shots generally seem underexposed.

At first I thought it could be my camera needs fixing or I really don't know how to expose, but judging by the picture below, I'm drawn to think otherwise.


This is a 60min f2.8 exposure on a moonless cloudless night. I have trees in the left third of the image. I took this picture in a Tioman resort. I have very little light pollution, but still I should have some trees. Instead, now it's like I shot in absolute pitch darkness.

What do you think went wrong?

Problem #2

Is it normal to have such intense contrast? Considering Problem #1, it looks like it's pulled. You might notice noise where the tree meets the sky but I think scanning in 16 base should resolve that.

 

[geoffliang]

Problem #3

What's that dark band across the top left? I used a polariser.

 

[zk-diq]

Your problem 3 is a norm if you use polar filter.
What is your others exp. Value ? In sunny day or ??
If it's sunny day tioman usually set at 125 f11 for Asa 50 film with a polar filter you need 2.3 stop extra exp.
Not suitable fir long exp. Reciprocal exp need 2 to 3 stop more at 60 sec.
High contrast? Out if the film exp. latitude. Avoid too harsh light condition.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Check your camera's meter against a handheld/spot meter of known accuracy with a grey card.

Bear in mind - Nikon calibrates their camera meters to 12% grey and NOT 18% grey.

That could explain why the general under-exposure.

Most Nikon guys I've seen 'permanently' set their DSLRs to +0.7 EC to compensate.

 

[Xtol19]

Labs don't underdevelop unless you tell them to pull a roll. The thing to worry about is chemical exhaustion.

Underexposure is easy to spot. Your shadows won't have detail; most likely will be grainy.

Your highlights look ok, hence I do not see evidence of underdevelopment or developer exhaustion.

Conclusion: you underexposed.

 

[madmacs]

look at the edges of the filmstrip. if the film manufacturer's name and film type/speed is clear and readable, the film was developed correctly. note that the latitude for slide film is very narrow so your exposure has to be spot on. if you screw up the exposure the results are there for the world to see.

 

[geoffliang]

Thanks guys for the inputs.

@zk-diq:
Is there a way for me to prevent the banding from happening then?
My shutter speeds were similar to what you mentioned. 1/15~1/60 generally.
Shall watch for harsh lighting conditions.

@Dream Merchant
shall try that out!

When I first received my rolls I noticed the slides were slightly brighter than the scanned images. Now that madmacs has mentioned my filmstrips, looking at them again they seem a bit better, although still under. I was sure about exposing correctly—I know Velvia 50 allows only plus/minus half a stop—so I guess I need to have a look at my camera's metering.

Thanks again folks!