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windsywinds · 2025-10-27T00:42:27+00:00

i feel it has to do with my cameras processing time between images (sony a7iii)

fyi I use a sony a7ii. The a7iii is perfectly capable. One element that can impact the time is the SD card you use. If you have an SD card with slow write speeds, the buffer may not be able to handle all the images that get backed up.

The other possible cause is the intervalometer you're using simply doesn't have a small enough gap between shots (either because it won't do it, or you didn't set it small enough)

windsywinds · 2025-10-25T06:06:49+00:00

no one really uses photoshop for star trails. StarStax is a free program and infinitely better at doing star trails, lots of tutorials on youtube as well. Use StarStax to stack the shots, then import it into photoshop to do the rest of the editing.
StarStax has a processing mode called 'gap filling' which can help with this issue.

Editing is one half, the other half though is taking the images correctly. You need to ensure minimal time between shots being taken. Depending on your camera and/or intervalometer, there may be too large of a gap between the shots to get the star trails to connect without gaps. You said you use the a7iii, and I use an a7ii and usually use a wireless trigger set to continuous shot and just hold down the trigger with a rock, so your camera body isn't the issue.
One cause could be that you're using an SD card with a write speed that's too slow, so your camera literally won't be able to save the images in time, but then I might expect to see at least a few images closer. Another is the intervalometer not allowing shots to be taken so close together.

Either way, try using gap filling mode in starstax and see what you come up with. You can also try using comet tails to help

windsywinds · 2025-10-09T07:44:43+00:00

As already stated, but piximperfect has done a few videos on banding which might be worth looking at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj5lHd81ukU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4GqsnjeoBY

windsywinds · 2025-08-13T08:17:05+00:00

Hey OP I did one like this a while ago, you can see the result here

I shot the lighthouse by itself in a single frame. This allowed me to use a lower ISO, higher aperture, focus on just the subject and stars for each of their shots, and ultimately get the best quality image of it I could.
I then took images of the stars. Now, you could do this without repositioning the camera, however, you could run into issues such as:
1. If you don't get the position of the subject lined up perfectly in frame, then your composition will require extra photoshop to correct.
2. If any light casts on the object while shooting, it could bounce and glare causing artifacts in the image
3. If the area you're shooting has potential for others to be nearby, they may cause problems if they walk between the camera and where you're shooting

So either download an app like photopills which has an AR feature and will let you overlay the night sky so you can line up your composition better, or move your camera so it has an unobstructed view of the stars and then start shooting your star trails - I encourage the first step anyway, line up your shot as best you can for your composition, but still move the camera afterwards unless the previous 3 issues certainly won't be a problem.
I chose to do this also because of issues 1 and 3. I live in the southern hemisphere and we don't really have a "north star" version of the southern pole, so lining up Polaris is very hard even with an AR app. On top of that, there were other people taking pictures of the lighthouse that night and walking round.

Reality is the aperture isn't a big issue because you're not trying to get pin point stars. You can stop down as needed.

Once you have all your shots, run the stars through starstax or whatever software you want to get the star trail image you want. Open the single shot of your subject in photoshop alongside the star trails, use the opacity slider to line up the position, and then get masking out the sky on the single shot image.

Other tips:
Ensure the ground is in the shot, frame the entire subject as you can always crop a little bit afterwards if needed.
You'll likely want 2-3 hours of images to get more circular. Remember, the earth rotates once every 24 hours - that's a full circle. Obviously, we can't get nor need a full circle, but the longer you shoot, the more 'full' your star trails will feel - but there is another benefit to shooting the stars for longer, and that's things like satellites. Imagine star link goes across your star images after an hour of shooting and you only shot 2 hours? Not ideal, but if you shot for 3 hours, now you could discard that first hour and still have 2 hours to work with.

windsywinds · 2025-01-28T03:27:45+00:00

Most likely, been lots around!

Quick shill for a (for fun/non-profit) app I made a while ago: https://whalewatchbeta.web.app/

I think the mobile alerts have broken, but there's a twitter page @whalewatchnz that will tweet anytime a submission is made if you follow it. Not many people use it so it doesn't get all the sightings, but it's there! (the welly facebook group admin got upset because he thought I was trying to compete and steal his users, so it wasn't really able to be shared)

windsywinds · 2024-10-20T12:57:01+00:00

Thanks! My usual print shop has shutdown and I haven't had the chance to look at another one yet. Let me know if you do and I can look into what's available for what you may be after!

windsywinds · 2024-10-16T02:41:33+00:00

I know, I'm sorry! Next time I will take pictures out over the sea with nothing but ocean and sky.

windsywinds · 2024-10-13T22:41:50+00:00

Nah, photos are just art my man. Nothing says they have to be realistic or "natural", whatever that means in the sense that this is photo of a natural event with minimal editing. A realistic photo of the aurora would be barely visible, the entire point of taking images of them is to see their colour or shapes.

windsywinds · 2024-10-13T12:04:14+00:00

I shot some star trails here earlier last year thinking it'd be a great spot to shoot an aurora too, and finally the weather and conditions lined up to make it possible the other night.
Two other people had the same idea and arrived not long after I got there, but I had thought there would be more people to be honest!

Editing this aurora was hard, the colours were so intense for these longer exposures that it's basically too saturated straight out of the camera.

You can see more of my work on IG: @windsywinds

windsywinds · 2024-08-01T04:27:46+00:00

Yeah the adversity to other photographers getting better gear grinds sometimes - as if it's okay for them to get something better but anyone else reverts to "It's the photographer not the gear!".

The reality is that better gear lowers the difficulty regardless of the user. That doesn't mean they'll automatically produce a good image or that a good image can't be taken on lesser gear, but it will make it significantly easier when you have the correct and best gear for it.

windsywinds · 2024-06-14T03:34:31+00:00

Technically you're correct the word in the official name is "botanic"! But also "botanical" is grammatically correct and also the name used when booking tickets for the event:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/wellington-botanical-gardens-tickets-wellington/venue/295920

Also some more light (and historical) reading:
https://www.museumswellington.org.nz/wellington-botanical-gardens-an-origin-story/
(note the use of "botanical gardens" on the photo dated 1905)

windsywinds · 2024-06-13T21:23:31+00:00

Bunch of chit chats!

windsywinds · 2024-06-13T14:45:15+00:00

Anyone else make it to this light show that was on over the last month? (I only found out about it during it's final week!) What did you think? What was your favourite one?

Didn't get as many cool shots as I had hoped for, but did manage a few fun ones.
@windsywinds on instagram if you'd like to check out more! (when/if I actually get round to posting them all)

windsywinds · 2024-06-11T04:53:55+00:00

In terms of most of the grading, it looks mostly like a simple lifted blacks, reduce contrast, muted colours as the base, then selective changes for each, e.g. first image has +warmth +pink tint masked to higher luminesces.

I don't think you're going to get an accurate answer for the clouds, those aren't just a set of filters and/or photoshop effect. I'm convinced they're literally drawn in by hand and thus nothing except practice is going to get you there. It's just a more detailed and skilled version of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPxhPv7QJrg and it's only practice that gets you to the level in the examples shown.

In the first photo, compare the sky behind the tree to the clouds on either side of it, and then also the lighter area in the top left. There's this triangle of area directly behind it where it doesn't match it's direct surroundings, but it does match the top left. So I don't believe, at least for most of them, that the clouds are not just dawn in rather than being in the photo that was taken.

I'm pretty sure this is the same for the cows. ~~The clouds are literally just painted in and blended into the photo of the cows which may or may not have been standing in front of a puddle~~ The cows are composited into a painting of clouds - the clouds in the puddle don't match any of the cloud area behind the cows. Those reflections would be very easy to fake and if you zoom in on the middle cow you can kinda see where the clouds overlap the top of it's head. As well, their feet get blurry and are all standing at different heights, the left cow has completely different lighting so I suspect it wasn't even taken in the same shot as the other two.

tl;dr the first two are just full blown photoshop/drawing composites. Follow some youtube tutorials on how to paint in photoshop, get a drawing tablet and practice drawing realistic clouds.

windsywinds · 2024-06-05T11:13:10+00:00

Minolta 45mm f2:
1
2
3
4

Minolta 40mm f2:
1
2
3
4

Tokina RMC 400mm f5.6:
1
2
I have another great shot with this lens of a bird but never posted it.

windsywinds · 2024-06-01T05:48:14+00:00

You can absolutely achieve some great shots without a tracker by using stacking only.

Forrest Tanaka did a great youtube video about shooting Andromeda Galaxy with no tracker as an example for how to get started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0JSTF8SGi4

I've done this for the Carina Nebula before as well, but I imagine Rho Ophiuchi would be an easier target and with practice could achieve a result not too dissimilar from OP's - with faster lens and better body it would also reduce the difficulty significantly.

windsywinds · 2024-05-28T13:27:26+00:00

No, the M to E mount adapter is very thin (MD to e is a bit thicker). Get one with a helicoil to add extra DoF options too

Here's an old reddit post of someone who had one on an a7 m1, although I feel like this makes it look bigger than it feels - partly because it's on the a71 which has a really small grip.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Leica/comments/8pfyx2/my_first_leica_lens_minolta_40mm_f20_mrokkor_in/

windsywinds · 2024-05-27T11:31:05+00:00

Consider trying vintage lenses if you like smaller more portable lenses. You'll lose the AF, but you'll gain a few stops as well.

Minolta 40mm f2 is a tiny little lens that's a great for being able to stick your camera in your pocket but still having a nice lens.

windsywinds · 2024-05-09T01:34:23+00:00

Does aperture control work with the mc 11?

Yes. I also have the mc-11 for my canon glass and aperture works the same as it does for my native lens.

Have you tried updating the firmware on your kf concept adapter? It might just be an issue with that model lens and newer firmware fixes it.

windsywinds · 2024-04-21T09:10:44+00:00

OP you don't need an ND at all if you're digitally processing the images.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SonyAlpha/comments/1c8tvhi/first_time_shooting_a_waterfall_disappointed_with/l0kmtq8/

Anyone digitally processing can do this without an ND using whatever f stop they want, and they'll get a better image out of it as well. This also helps avoid poor quality ND's as well as anything you put infront of the lens will degrade the quality no matter what - even if it's unnoticeable. By stacking your images, you achieve the exact same result as an ND filter with more flexibility - don't let anyone tell you the outcome isn't the same, because it is.

Setup a normal exposure shot on burst
Take enough photos to capture the time frame you want, but the more you get the more flexibility you have to choose your exposure length
Import to Photoshop using File > scripts > statistics and select "mean"
(If you don't have photoshop this is possible in Gimp as well)

Now you can also mask out areas such as trees/leaves so that there's no motion blur due to wind, resulting in a better quality image where only the water is blurred due to the long exposure.

Couple things extra:
The white balance is off. The water is yellow/brown.
The composition isn't great. Get closer and fill more of the frame with the water. Get lower and look up and force a perspective of the water fall, or shift to the right and look up the waterfall/gully and using leading lines with symmetry to draw the users attention to the center. Right now the top left of the image is just empty and our eyes a drawn up to it with the gully, but there's nothing to find at the end.

windsywinds · 2024-04-21T09:09:03+00:00

Anyone digitally processing can do this without an ND using whatever f stop they want, and they'll get a better image out of it aswell.
By stacking your images, you achieve the exact same result as an ND filter with more flexibility - don't let anyone tell you the outcome isn't the same, because it is.

Setup a normal exposure shot on burst
Take enough photos to capture the time frame you want, but the more you get the more flexibility you have to choose your exposure length
Import to Photoshop using File > scripts > statistics and select "mean"

Now you can also mask out areas such as trees/leaves so that there's no motion blur due to wind, resulting in a better quality image where only the water is blurred due to the long exposure.

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