I realize that most readers of this post will likely not be able to make use of the information here until 2024, but I wanted to document the preparation and work that I did in the days and weeks leading up to the eclipse and the techniques and settings that I used on the day of the solar eclipse. I hope that you find the information useful, but more important than that, I hope that you get the chance to make use of it during a total solar eclipse in the future.
None of the pictures or videos that you have seen since Monday compare to what it was actually like in person. I promise you that. I was very excited to travel to Kentucky to see the eclipse (more than anyone else in my family), but even I was surprised at how incredibly cool it was to witness firsthand. Now that they have seen it themselves, my family is now as excited as I was. Read more about our trip in Caroline’s post here.
In order to be successful at taking pictures of the eclipse, there are really three main areas that have to be addressed before the eclipse starts. They are preparation, research, and practice. If you work on those areas before the eclipse, you have a good chance to get the shots that you want on eclipse day. Additionally, there is the fun part where you actually take the pictures on eclipse day, and then editing your photographs using computer software to really make your images pop.
Preparation
Here is a list of things that you will need on eclipse day in order to view the eclipse and to photograph it:
- Safety Equipment
- Eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2:2015 certified)
- Solar filter or solar film (to make your own filter) for your camera
- Photography Equipment
- Camera
- Tripod
- Cable release for your camera
- Electrical (good) or Gaffers (best) tape
You need to get a pair of ISO certified eclipse glasses so that you can view the eclipse to know what you are photographing. Buy these glasses from a reputable manufacturer and from a reputable retailer to ensure that you are getting a quality product and to ensure that the product is authentic. We bought Rainbow Symphony eclipse glasses from Amazon, but there are many different reputable manufactures such as American Paper Optics, Baader Planetarium, Celestron, Lunt Solar Systems, and Meade.
The eclipse glasses protect your eyes during the eclipse, but you also need protection for your camera sensor. In order to protect your camera, you can order a solar filter to fit the lens you plan to use, or you can do what I did and just buy the solar filter film and create your own custom filters.
In order to create my filters, I used the Baader Planetarium Density 5 Safety Film in A4 size. This was enough to create a filter for a 77mm Nikon lens, a filter for a Canon Powershot G7X Mark II, and two filters for a pair of 10×50 Nikon “Nocaleers” (as my youngest daughter calls them). I also had some left over. The film comes with directions on how to make the filters (you will need double-sided tape, paper glue, white poster board, a compass, scissors, and a razor knife).
Research
In addition to collecting and/or creating the items described above, I had to do some research on how to take the pictures that I wanted. Initially, I wanted to get landscape shots with the eclipse phases in the background using my Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens, but the time of the eclipse this year meant that the sun would be almost directly overhead at the time of totality, which meant that it would be impossible to get any sort of decent foreground in the shots. I decided instead to switch to the longest lens that I had (the Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens that came with my Nikon D7000 camera) and to take pictures of just the sun at all different phases of the eclipse.
Once I decided on the approach I would take for my pictures, I researched the camera settings that should be used during the eclipse. I searched the internet for solar eclipse photographs that I liked and took note of the settings used to capture the image where the photographer made them available. I also eventually found Mr. Eclipse’s (Fred Espenak’s) Solar Eclipse Exposure Guide. Since Mr. Espenak had some of the most amazing solar eclipse photos that I saw, I decided to start with his guidelines.
The guide told me that there were really three different phases of the eclipse that had to be planned for: the partial phases before and after totality, the diamond ring effect immediately preceding and following totality, and totality itself.
Using them and my camera’s capabilities, I decided that I would set my camera to manual mode using an ISO of 100, an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 with the solar filter in place for all of the partial phases of the eclipse on either side of totality. Because I would not get a second chance to get the exposure correct, I also decided to bracket every one of those photographs with one that was 2 stops underexposed and one that was 2 stops overexposed. The camera has a 3f +/-2 mode with the BKT button, which was perfect for me. I would simply take 3 pictures of each phase immediately after one another and the camera would do all of the work for me.
After my final partial phase picture was complete, I would have very little time to make changes in order to capture the diamond rings. Because of that fact, I wanted to change as little as possible in the settings of my camera. Referring back to the Solar Eclipse Exposure Guide, I could see that Mr. Eclipse recommended a shutter speed of 1/250 without a filter while keeping the ISO and aperture the same.
I continued to bracket these exposures using the same settings as before (3f +/-2). I also knew that with the shutter speeds that he recommended, I would need to remove my solar filter for these shots. The removal of the solar filter also meant that I would not be able to look through the viewfinder (to protect my eyes), so I switched to live view on the camera and used the LCD screen to center the sun in the frame.
The final part of the eclipse that I needed a plan for was totality itself. This is the only part of the eclipse that I would not bracket my shots for because I knew that I would have to take a range of exposures of totality and then digitally combine them using Lightroom and Photoshop after the fact. I bumped my ISO up to 200 and left my aperture at f/5.6, then decided to take a range of photographs using shutter speeds between 1/2000 and 4 seconds. With a maximum time of only 2 minutes and 40 seconds of totality, I knew that it would be pretty frantic trying to get all of these shots while changing the camera settings between each one. I also still wanted to have time to actually enjoy the eclipse myself without messing with the camera.
After totality, I would just repeat my plan for the diamond ring and the partial phases on the other side of totality.
Practice
To practice, I just took my camera outside on a sunny day and used my solar filter to test out my settings on the uneclipsed sun to ensure that it looked like it would give me a good chance to get the images that I wanted on the day of the eclipse. Once I dialed in my middle exposure, I hoped that the bracketing would allow me to still capture the shot if weather conditions varied.
Additionally, I practiced transitioning the camera settings from one phase to the next so that I could do it quickly and without mistakes. Once we were set up at our site on eclipse day, I practiced everything one more time about an hour before the eclipse would start. This practice allowed me to not worry too much about what I was doing during the eclipse and actually allowed me to enjoy it and not spend all my time messing with my camera and taking photographs.
Eclipse Day
Before the Start of the Eclipse
My first step on eclipse day (once we found our location for viewing the eclipse) was to write out my plan on a sheet of paper. I taped this “cheat sheet” right to my tripod so that I could refer to it throughout the eclipse. On this sheet of paper, I wrote a timeline of when I wanted to take pictures during the partial phases, when I would change settings on the camera, when I would remove the solar filter and my glasses, and when I would put them back on.
I also purchased and downloaded an app to my devices called Solar Eclipse Timer for $1.99 (available for Android and Apple devices). This app actually gave me the times that I wrote on my plan so that I could take equally spaced photographs of the partial phases before and after totality. Finally, I used my phone to check the official time from the atomic clock and I synced my watch to that time. I wish that I would have also remembered to sync the time on my camera to the official time as well because it would have made working on the images once I got home much easier if the capture times had been accurate. As it turns out, every picture was about an hour (time zone) and 6 minutes (clock skew) off of the official time.
Once I had all that done, I set up my gear to take the practice shots that I mentioned in the previous section. I used the solar filter, the viewfinder, and autofocus to focus on the sun and take pictures of the uneclipsed sun. Once I was happy with the shot, I set the camera to manual focus and taped both the focus ring and the zoom ring in place using electrical tape to ensure that it would not shift during the event. Gaffer’s tape would have been better, but I did not have any of that.
During the Eclipse
The actual techniques that I used to take the series of photographs was that I had my tripod setup, but because the sun was directly overhead, I set the center support of my tripod to be almost horizontal and off-center. This positioning allowed me to be back away from the tripod a little bit and helped me to not bump the legs while trying to compose my shots. I also had my plan taped to the tripod as I mentioned and I had my cable release attached to the camera.
I set the camera up for the initial photographs using my partial phase settings. About 30 seconds before first contact (the very start of the eclipse – C1 on my sheet), I used the cable release to take my first set of bracketed shots of the uneclipsed sun. Just before each time on my plan for a photograph, I would adjust the tripod to get the sun in the center of the frame, and take another series of three photographs. In between these shots, I would use my eclipse glasses and the binoculars (with solar filters) to view the eclipse. The binoculars were very cool because they made it very easy to see sunspots.
Around Totality
Once I took my last partial phase shot (#10 at 13:24:56), I quickly removed the solar filter, changed the settings of the camera to the diamond ring settings, and changed to live view mode to protect my eyes. At about 10-15 seconds before totality started, I began to take three bracketed exposures as quickly as the camera would allow until totality. I would always be able to pick and choose the best one after the fact. During this time, I was only looking at the live view screen and not at the actual sun because I did not have my eclipse glasses on for this phase.
When totality started (second contact or C2 on my sheet), the app announced for me that glasses could come off and I took that as my cue to change the camera settings to the totality plan and start taking pictures of the sun using the shutter speeds that I had previously planned to use. I would take a picture, change the shutter speed and take another picture. For this phase, it was perfectly safe to look directly at the sun and I took every opportunity to do so.
Once I finished my series of shots during totality, I reset to the diamond ring settings and enjoyed the rest of the time just looking up. Once the app announced that totality was over (third contact or C3 on my sheet) and that glasses should go back on, I immediately started taking shots as fast as I could for 10-15 seconds. This was just a repeat of the 10-15 seconds just before totality and again required me to only look at the live view screen.
After Totality
Once that was done, I changed back to my partial phase setup (including the solar filter again), and waited for the first time on my plan to start my partial eclipse photos again. I just repeated the same procedure as before again and took my final picture about 30 seconds after forth contact (C4 on my sheet) which signifies the end of the eclipse.
Image Editing
Once I got back home, I immediately downloaded my images to the computer. I was very excited to see the results of all of my preparation. I looked at them after the fact on my camera screen so I knew that some of them looked very promising. Until you get them home and can look at them in full resolution, you can never be sure.
All of my image editing was done using either Lightroom (version 5), or an ancient version of Photoshop that I got in college (CS2). The editing that I did can be broken up into three different categories. They are individual frames, the corona during totality, and the composite of all of the phases of the solar eclipse stitched together.
Individual Frames
I had a specific plan for the pictures that I took of the corona during totality and of the partial phases of the eclipse, so these frames were handled using different methods described below, but any of the other frames that I wanted to stand alone, I edited just like I would edit any other picture that I took. Using Lightroom exclusively, I edited the white balance, exposure, color, sharpness, and noise to make each photograph look it’s best. Some of my best shots are in the slider below.
Corona
One of the reasons that no picture can actually compare to being to a total solar eclipse in person is because no camera can capture the dynamic range of the suns corona. Our eyes can adjust and see the subtle differences where it is very bright close to the moon, but gets much dimmer as you move farther and farther away. There are ways to combine exposures to try to mimic what your eyes can see, but none of them are as good as being there.
As you remember, I took a series of photographs during totality with varying shutter speeds. I decided that 8 of them would be useful for my final image. I found many different methods online to pull out as much detail as I could of the sun’s corona. After trying a few different types of processing, the method that worked best for me was a combination of the Pellett method with the modification described by Benjamin Gomes-Casseres in this AstroPix article.
Basically, I would use Photoshop and create a radial blur on each frame, then subtracting it from the original using Photoshop’s Apply Image command. These difference files were then saved as new pictures. I then used the Apply Image command again to multiply each difference file with it’s corresponding original photo. If I numbered my frames from the fastest shutter speed to the slowest one from 1 to 8, I then used the Apply Image command again to add the multiplied photos using this method: 1+2, 3+4, 5+6, 7+8, 12+34, 56+78, 1234+5678. For each of these additions, I tried different combinations of scale factors and offsets to get the best results. My final image is below.
Composite of All Phases
The final image that I wanted to create was a composite of the partial phases with the pictures from totality. In order to do this editing, I also spent some time researching what to do online. Photoshop was again the tool, and each of the images that I wanted to use was opened as a single layer in new (much larger) image. The background layer was filled with Black. Every other layer had a blend mode of Screen which allowed anything that wasn’t black to show through the other layers.
It was then just a matter of moving each layer so that they were aligned in order. Photoshop could then export a new image file (I chose tiff format) that contained the information from an image of the uneclipsed sun before the eclipse started, five partial eclipse images from before totality, my best diamond ring before totality, my final image of the corona, my best diamond ring after totality, five more partial eclipse images from after totality, and finally, another image of the uneclipsed sun after totality. This image was then imported back into Lightroom where I did some basic cropping and edits for my final image.
Here are some of my best pictures from the day of the eclipse. I hope you enjoy. If you took any great pictures of the eclipse, let me know in the comments. If you weren’t able to make it to see totality this year, no worries because there is another one coming in 2024 and now you will have everything you need to take some awesome images while you are there.
I am amazed with your preparation and skills. Know this….your pictures have amazed me! I could never do what you do….I don’t have the patience! What an awesome experience you and Caroline have given your girls!