How to take photos of a solar eclipse (that don't suck)

[@smoldovo]

What a great info. Nothing comes for free and the importance of practice is the key to a successful picture. I am so glad I came across this video and hopefully got it all summarised right. "Everything happens so fast" all of a sudden so hopefully I will be ready to take a good picture(s) of the eclipse. Thanks for the time to create this tutorial.

[@erewhon42]

Thank you. Yes, it does all go by so quickly. That's why preparing, and especially being comfortable with one's camera and settings, and making sure you can take photos through a solar filter without blurring the images from camera shake. If you can do that, then you'll be in a good position for totality.

[@satellitesam]

Great video! This will be my second eclipse, I'm planning to use NINA with my DSLR this time around, definitely going to take the tip to practice beforehand!

[@erewhon42]

Thanks! And that sounds really interesting. I hadn't really considered using NINA, but it makes sense! I'm going to be using CaptureEclipse on the Mac. At least that's the current plan for my main camera rig. (I am tempted to try out Solar Eclipse Maestro on one of my old Macs. But that might be a bridge too far.) For automation you definitely want to make sure things behave as expected. When I was doing some tests with CaptureEclipse, it wasn't able to drive my Canon camera as fast as it could go. Good thing I uncovered that ahead of time!

[@KaraMiaSantaLucia]

My second as well. I only had my iPhone in Makanda, IL and simply covered the lens with some solar glasses. I actually got some great pics! This year I’m bringing my Nikon Z7ii w/500mm lens. Just remember to take the moment in. The experience alone is worth more than any image taken! Enjoy and hope everyone can see it without clouds! Looking at 0% where I’m heading in Illinois. 😊

[@erewhon42]

@@KaraMiaSantaLucia Agree. The experience is the biggest part. The 500mm should be good. Just make sure you're well stabilized or have a sufficient shutter speed. (I lost a few shots in 2017 because of too much shake.)

[@KaraMiaSantaLucia]

@@erewhon42 thank you. I’m mainly after totality. Lens filter off during Totality is ok. Got the tripod, filter and just bought the shutter controller. Tripod and shutter release is a must for no shake! 🌕🌚💫🌎

[@erewhon42]

@@KaraMiaSantaLucia Makes sense. Totality is definitely the highlight. By a long shot!

[@sunset986S]

Enjoyed your video...my first total solar eclipse was Feb. 1998 in Curacao. I spent so much time bracketing my shots from 1/1000 all the way down to 1/2 sec that I missed the diamond ring! I had binoculars hanging around my neck but never got to use them so I swore if I ever got another chance no pictures just my telescope and nothing else....April 8 will finally be my chance 🤩

[@erewhon42]

Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in the moment. I managed to catch the diamond ring a couple of times (albeit once wasn't great). Both times it was at C3 as I was so busy during the first part of the eclipse taking photos. My hope is I'll have enough automation in place (intervalometers with bracketing and one computer controlled camera) that I'll be able to watch the eclipse more this time. I just ran across a pair of binoculars in the house and threw them in my extra gear box for the eclipse. Good luck!

[@shanonymous2010]

Thanks for such a detailed tutorial! This will be my first total eclipse and I’ll be able to view it from my backyard!

[@erewhon42]

Good luck! I hope it goes well for you! And make sure you take it all in!

[@jeffginnow3561]

First, thanks for the videos, I’m a new subscriber and glad I found you. I’m also a new Seestar owner, which is how I found you in the first place. I have been hoping to be able to use my Seestar during the partial phases before and after totality. During totality, my plan is to use one of my astrophotography rigs to capture what I can of the corona. In my mind, the proper exposure for a 5% moon 95% sun picture would be different than a 95% moon 5% sun. I have been wondering what I will need to do with the Seestar to get that proper exposure. Your comment at 8:58 in the video “the same exposure will work through the entire partial phase of the eclipse”, was an eye-opener! Just to confirm, are you saying if I have the Seestar in solar mode, filter on, tracking the sun, in video or time-lapse mode (I haven’t decided which is best yet, suggestions?) no manual intervention by me will be required to get usable pictures from the beginning to the end of the partial phase on both sides of totality? That would be fantastic!

[@erewhon42]

So let me caveat this with your mileage may vary... but the brightness over the sun's surface is more or less constant. So assuming no other change (zoom, haze or whatever), since the amount of light hitting a pixel from the lit part of the sun is constant, the exposure should remain constant. At least that's the theory. :) In 2023 I used a fixed exposure from 0 to 85% and it worked fine. So I think my idea is sound. Now this is on a camera. For the Seestar... I think it will be fine to a point. I am concerned about deeper part of the partial phases. I was just looking at some Seestar footage from October from someone else, and it looks like at 50% the sun is properly exposed. At 75% it looks overexposed. Now... the caveat is that was a much older firmware, and there was no manual exposure compensation then. But I think it's certainly something to be aware of and keep an eye on. I'm currently planning on doing a timelapse with my Seestar. I might briefly stop and restart it during the partial phases just so the files don't get too large and in case of glitches I don't lose everything. (I haven't run into anything thus far, but I'm just being cautious.) I'm probably going to use video mode during totality depending on what else is going on.

[@ILove1DC2A]

Thanks for this great video on photographing the Total Eclipse next week. I do plan to try to take a Total Eclipse Selfie on April 8th. What are your recommendations for taking a Total Eclipse Selfie?

[@erewhon42]

That's a good questions. From 2017, I know that the cell phone cameras even back then could capture the overall ambience, the darkness, the weird blackhole-looking eclipsed sun in the sky in video. I think the biggest problem will be getting oneself in the picture since it's basically like twilight. You might have to use the selfie "flash" where it flashes the screen. (At least on iPhones. Not sure if any Androids have dedicated front-facing flashes.). Also probably the long exposure mode to capture the twilight effect. And if it does some kind of long exposure with the flash, you'll need to hold the camera still so the sun doesn't blur. (Although the phones these days have gotten a lot better.) I would make sure I had a photo or video of the eclipse before attempting the selfie.

[@KaraMiaSantaLucia]

Good luck. You will have the tripod with camera or just handheld camera angled 60 degrees or a bit under towards the sky. You would need a ladder I suppose or use photoshop and pull a Royal family number. Or have someone take a pic far away of you and the Eclipse in the background. However, the eclipse would be a dot in the sky most likely.

[@erewhon42]

@@KaraMiaSantaLucia Yeah it's small. But you can kind of tell it's an eclipse. The corona did show up in footage we took in 2017. So it is possible. But the angle will be a challenge.

[@orcaspest]

I learned a lot. Thank you very much!!

[@erewhon42]

Glad to hear that!

[@b.griffin317]

Lunar pictures approximate exposure levels for totality?

[@erewhon42]

So there are 2 ways where I think practicing with the moon might help. The most obvious is it's approximately the same size as the sun, so you get an idea of framing and reach with your lenses. The other is the exposure of the night time moon should be somewhere in corona exposure range. (Assuming moon isn't too close to horizon.) It would be dimmer than the inner corona, but brighter than the wider corona. And if you can get that exposure with the moon without shaking the camera, you should be able to do the same with the corona. (This is with the caveat that I'm not talking about a crescent. More of a quarter moon or so.) Now, prominences are a few stops brighter. But that's where bracketing is useful.

[@GinoLamNang]

Great video! I see you had a Sigma 150-600mm, which is the lens I’ll be using. During totality what will your base settings be with this lens? Thank you!

[@erewhon42]

I do indeed. It's a great lens! I'm going to shoot ISO100. I might shoot at f6.3 or I might shoot at f8. As far as exposure goes, it depends on what you're going for. I'm probably going to go as high as a 1000th of a second for the prominences, and as low as half a second or even slower for wider corona shots. In-between shutter speeds will give you mid-corona exposures. If you can cover those ranges without shaking the rig, you should be good. Baily's Beads need even higher shutter speeds up to around a 5000th of a second, but those are very transient. The good thing is even if you're just a few stops above or below, with RAW images you can still get a decent result. You might lose something in the high or low levels, but it won't be bad. And if you bracket a lot you'll be good. Finally, if you have an optical viewfinder, don't use it especially if you're going to try things like Diamond Ring or Baily's Beads.

[@duderlefebvre3869]

I have an fz2500 which has a 1/64 internal filter and a 1000-1600 shutter speed . Will this be enough to take pics of the eclipse? Will I kill my camera if I take test shots?

[@erewhon42]

I would not do it. If it's an ND64 filter, that's a 6 stop reduction. The ND filters I see listed as "solar filters" are 20 stops. So it's letting in over 10,000x too much visible light. And I'd be concerned that an ND64 wouldn't block IR / UV. So it would seem likely that you could fry the sensor. If you're on the path of totality, you don't need any filter during totality. So there's always that. But only during totality. At this point, unless you have a filter rated for solar use... really dark welding glass might work. (But only certain darknesses. I did a short video a few weeks about that. You have to be careful with that.) And I suppose if you're careful, and have an extra pair of solar glasses, you could probably rig something with cardboard. Where you embed the solar glasses in the cardboard, and then attach that to the front of your lens. It might work optically. You have to make sure no direct sunlight leaks into the camera. Just spitballing it...

[@duderlefebvre3869]

@@erewhon42 TYVM...I was hoping that I could do without a stronger filter but I guess a 2.5hr drive for 3 mins of totality will have to do. Again ty for your input.

[@erewhon42]

@@duderlefebvre3869 You're welcome! For the partial phases, you can also take photos of the shadows under trees, or if you have certain kinds of telescopes, you can project the sun's image on to a piece of poster board. You just have to be careful with that technique, and cover or otherwise block view finders. (Also, too big of a telescope or the wrong kind of telescope can be problematic.)

[@duderlefebvre3869]

@@erewhon42 I also have a dji mini 4 pro which I plan to launch right before totality and hover till the end, Not sure how high to go but perhaps 30-50 ft should be plenty to give viewers the contrast from daylight to dusk and back in 3 mins.

[@erewhon42]

@@duderlefebvre3869 Oh that will be cool! That would be great to see!

[@jeromejacobsen2130]

Taking a good photo of an eclipse, then,, is like how one gets to Carnegie Hall?

[@erewhon42]

I like that. 🙂. But yes, practice is very important. That said, modern cameras can take ok photos so long as you make sure the ISO isn't too high and the shutter speed is fast enough. (Or so long as you have a solid tripod and minimize shaking.) Also, given how short totality is and how infrequent solar eclipses are, it's worth doing a bit of prep beforehand.

[@jeromejacobsen2130]

@@erewhon42 I plan on shooting with a Canon EOS T7 with a 300 mm and my old Canon AE-1P with a 500 mm reflector (If I can get it going again, haven't used it in a while and am trying to get a new battery for it). I have tripods for them both, so I should be kept busy! I made solar filters for them both and for my cell phone and binoculars. Happy Eclipsing to you!

[@erewhon42]

@@jeromejacobsen2130 Cool. I'll be shooting with a Canon RP which I think came out just a few months after the T7 and it did well in October with the partial eclipse. 300mm with APS-C should give you good reach, but not too much for the corona. A Canon AE-1P... as in the AE-1 Program? The old film camera? If so... that's old school! I think I actually have an AE-1P in a camera bag somewhere. I used an old Canon T90 in Mexico in the 90s, but I didn't have a tripod so they were kind of a blurry mess. And I didn't know what I was doing. lol Happy eclipsing to you too!

[@jeromejacobsen2130]

@@erewhon42 AE-1 Program, yep. I bought it for a trip I was taking to Florida to watch a shuttle launch in the early 80's. A college friend was with the air force working with NASA at Houston and he got me a pass to get on the base at the cape. I used a 200 mm zoom with a doubler.

[@jeromejacobsen2130]

​@@erewhon42 Thanks again for your video advice, The event was a grand success! The local weatherman didn't sound hopeful in the week leading up to today. There was a pre C1 high cloud deck that seems to have evaporated away, leaving a few lower level cumulous types to shoot around til about 25% coverage. After that til about 25% coverage after totality the viewing and photography were very good.

[@jimsmith556]

Some of this information was useful. A lot of the video is irrelevant. Nobody is going to buy a star tracker for this event unless they have money to burn. People who have one already know how to set it up. Explaining what RAW is suggests you're speaking to an audience who do not shoot RAW and they wouldn't have a clue on how to import and edit them. Anyone who does shoot RAW will already know to do that. Good suggestion to get the filters and take practice shots before the big day! Thanks!

[@erewhon42]

Glad you found at least some value in it. I guess my thought with the RAW thing specifically is if someone doesn't typically shoot RAW, if they turn it on ahead of time, at least they have something from the eclipse and they can figure out the editing later.

[@SkyQuest2K8]

Not necessarily. I often shoot RAW+JPG on my Sony cameras, but have never actually sat down to process the RAW files. I have them for that purpose, if I so choose.