First 6x6 transparencies

I am not sure what you mean by "on the nail for exposure", but I suspect you exposed it as if it were print film. With transparencies, you have to meter for the highlights, not the shadows. If you expose for detail in the shadows, as above, then, due to lack of latitude in the film, the highlights can be just blown away and the result is not pleasing to the eye. If you cannot eliminate the sky from the scene, then you would probably like the image better if you kept the highlight from being blown away and settled for less detail in the shadows. It is a question of which is more acceptable, because in a scene like this, you cannot have both with slide film.

Before somebody jumps all over me, I guess I ought to mention a polarizer and/or graduated neutral density filters as possible solutions. However, I think the basic problem of the difference in metering for highlights rather than shadows is what needs to be understood first. Then you can try compensating with filters and have a better idea of what to use where and how much you can get away with without the image getting too artificial.

A couple of things you might try. One meter on the lighter trees, a medium green is a good approximation of 18% grey and will get your highlights right. Then you could take a meter reading off the trees in the shadows. If they are more than 1 to 1 1/2 stops you could either; not take the exposure, shoot using your first meter reading and live with the dark shadows, or use a split neutral density filter to even out the exposure (I do a combination of the three). Remember with slides, shoot for the highlights, otherwise you will blow them out (no detail).

Hi

Just read the thread. A diagonally placed ND grad over sky top RHS 0.6 or 0.45 (2 or 1 1/2 stop) in strength with a hard transition should bring the sky into range, then a 0.3 or 0.45 one coming in and up diagonally from the bottom RH corner ought to handle the brighter water.

You are aiming to have less than 3 2/3 stops range from brightest to shadow. To just retain a tone in the highlight then set mid-tone at 1 2/3 stops less than this value. Otherwise choose your mid-tone and bring highlight down to this value with ND grads.

HTH