How to Photograph the Great American Eclipse
On April 8, 2024, millions of people will journey to a narrow strip of land stretching across Mexico, the United States, and Canada to view a total solar eclipse. Many will bring their cameras, hoping to capture images of this astounding event. Since capturing these images is quite challenging, I’ve provided answers to common questions below.
What equipment should I bring?
If possible, you’ll want to bring a tripod and a digital SLR or mirrorless camera with a long telephoto lens of at least 300mm. Experienced photographers can also use a star tracker, which moves your camera along with objects in the sky. This will allow you to take exposures up to about 10 seconds to capture more detail on the moon’s surface. However, a star tracker is not necessary to capture great images of the eclipse.
If you own a point-and-shoot camera or a camera phone, you can use it to capture a few quick snapshots of the eclipse using your camera’s automatic settings. Since it will be difficult to capture great images of the eclipse with such a camera, you might be better off shooting the spectacle of all the people watching and shooting the eclipse. During totality, I’d recommend spending most of your time simply viewing the eclipse, as your camera won’t come close to capturing the amazing sight you will see with your own eyes.
Regardless of the camera you use, make sure your flash is turned off. It will in no way help your images and can disrupt the viewing experience of those around you. If you’re unsure how to turn your flash off, you can place black electrical tape over it.
What camera settings should I use on my camera?
Make sure your focus is set precisely at infinity before the total eclipse begins. You can do this by auto-focusing on a very distant object prior to the eclipse, like a cloud or a far-off object near the horizon. Alternatively, if you have a solar filter for your camera, you can focus on the sun before the total eclipse begins. Make sure to remove the solar filter during totality. When you have the focus set, you can change the lens to manual focus and tape the focus ring in place. You should then take a test shot to make sure very distant objects are in focus.
You should set your camera to manual exposure mode. I recommend using the widest aperture on your camera (like f5.6) and setting the ISO to its lowest number, like 100 or 64. Then, take many bracketed exposures as quickly as possible throughout the total eclipse. I recommend using a wide range of shutter speeds from about 1/4000 sec to ½ second (or up to 10 seconds if you have a star tracker). This will allow you to capture the enormous range of brightness in the sun’s atmosphere. You can later pick out your favorite exposure or blend all of the images into a high-dynamic range (HDR) image using a software program like Adobe Lightroom or Photomatix.
Do I need any special filters?
You won’t need any special filters on your camera during the total solar eclipse and should make sure all filters are off. However, if you want to capture the partial eclipse before and after the total eclipse, you will need a solar filter. The sun will be too bright to capture good images without one, and it could even damage your camera.
You should also use solar glasses whenever viewing the partial solar eclipse. You should take the glasses off during the total eclipse.
Can the land be included in an image with the eclipse?
The sun will be high in the sky throughout the eclipse, so it will be difficult to include the land in your shots. The sun will be a little lower if you are in Newfoundland, Canada. You can use software programs like Google Earth, The Photographer’s Ephemeris, and Stellarium to plan for the eclipse to be over a tall natural or man-made feature.
Since the sun will be so high, you will need to use an ultra-wide-angle lens and possibly stitch multiple images together to include the land in your image. If you do this, the sun will be rendered very small in the shot (though the corona will stretch out quite a ways from the sun if you can get a good exposure of it).
To get the best results, you should combine an exposure (or multiple exposures) of the eclipse with an exposure of the rest of the scene. If possible, I recommend doing this with two cameras set up on two tripods. With one, you can use a long telephoto lens to capture a good close-up view of the eclipse. With the other, you can use an ultra-wide-angle lens to capture the scenery. Before totality, you could set this camera to automatically take an image every few seconds using autoexposure on your camera. This will make it more difficult to get the exposure just right but will allow you to focus on getting good images with your longer lens during totality.
You can later downsize the close-up shot of the eclipse and blend it into the image captured with the wide-angle lens. This is obviously quite challenging to do in the short time you have to photograph the eclipse and is better suited for more experienced photographers.
What other creative options do I have for photographing the eclipse?
If you have a solar filter for your camera, you can take images of the various stages of the partial eclipse. Later, you can create a composite image showing all of these stages, along with the total eclipse in the center.
You could also create a time-lapse video by taking an image every 30 seconds or so during the partial eclipse and every second or so during the total eclipse. Then, create the video by playing all the images you took at 10-30 frames per second.
If you attempt a composite or a time-lapse, take your solar filter off during totality and put it back on when totality ends.