Who's going to shoot the Total Eclipse?

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
One month from tomorrow, a total eclipse of the sun will pass over a chunk of the USA. I plan to drive a few hours to see it. Anyone planning some special way to shoot it?
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Not doing anything special. Wife and I going down to South Carolina to get along the path (about 8 or 9 hours). Plan on driving down Sunday and Home on Tuesday. That will give us the whole day to goof off and get the camera ready. Already got my solar filter for the 70-300 and solar glasses for the wife and I.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I'm going to take my camera, put the lens cap on, turn it off, and leave it in the truck.

I have the same feeling. Better to just observe it and look at professional photos later. Be in the experience... I did the same thing at the last shuttle launch. No pics, just watched.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
I have the same feeling. Better to just observe it and look at professional photos later. Be in the experience... I did the same thing at the last shuttle launch. No pics, just watched.

My feeling is: It's gonna be another 7 years before the next one rolls around. I may not be drawing breath by then. So I want to experience this one.

Experience is the operative word here. I'm going to have a whopping 2:27 of totality where I plan on parking my carcass for it. Two and a half minutes. That ain't much time to mess around with a camera. Fiddling with settings, chimping the images, changing this n that.

No thanks. I'd rather have the whole even saved on my Gray Matter Hard Drive instead. Besides, there's folks who spend their lives chasing eclipses all over the world with much more experience (both scientific and photographic) that will produce images that will make anything I take look like I'm 6 years old and shooting with a Brownie.

IF (another operative word there) the sky cooperates and I get to enjoy such a sublime and stunning event, and I just happen to be able to get to my brothers' place south of Dallas in 2024, I may try a camera then.

A total solar eclipse is usually a once-in-a-lifetime event. I'm going to do everything humanly possible to get to this one. I'm getting to my location a week ahead of time to (hopefully) secure a decent camp site. Once that's done, I'm going to tool around and enjoy the local sights then take it easy while the area gets flooded on the weekend.

Monday morning, I'll get up and have a heapen' pile of bisquits and gravy for breakfast. Then tromp up the hill with a chair, some snacks, some water and some sunscreen. Sit, wait, watch and soak it all in.

All of it.


As a side note; IF you can find a copy of it, Totality by Fred Espanek is a great non-technical book on the subject. And don't forget to order your eclipse glasses.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
One month from tomorrow, a total eclipse of the sun will pass over a chunk of the USA. I plan to drive a few hours to see it. Anyone planning some special way to shoot it?

I'm going to a witch burning, which will stop the dragon from eating the Sun. It always works and the Sun always re appears.
 

makinsphoto

Senior Member
i'm driving about 10 hours to see it. bringing my family and camera; although it won't look professional, at least i'll have my own picture and experience.
 

nikonpup

Senior Member
staying home, i will get a 90%+ look at the eclipse here in cowiche. Oregon traffic is a mess, long delays, running short on gas and good
spots to camp and shoot are costing $$$$.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
I'll be at the airport. Was hoping maybe my flight would be airborne during the eclipse, but looks like I'm missing that by right about an hour.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dave Hamilton

Senior Member
I hate to say that I'm not into this, but I'm watching it on TV. We are only getting a partial and that is enough sun to damage your eyes pretty bad. We have been told that 30-40 percent of the glasses sold are either fake or are not dark enough to do what they are supposed to do. I'm not taking any chances.
 

hark

Administrator
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Contributor
Here's my question on this: when photographing the solar eclipse, if you take landscape photos with the sun in the photo, why is it more damaging during the eclipse than on other days when getting the sun in a photo? I'm looking at some articles but not finding anything specific to answer this. I know a sensor can get cooked for long exposures at any time of day, but how is this different than a normal photo taken with the sun in it? :confused:
 

hark

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I came across this video which shows what is supposed to happen during a total eclipse. Although I'm not in the path of a total eclipse (70-73% here), I'm wondering if the glowing horizon will be visible in my area. I might try to take photos at my church and see if the glowing horizon is visible without getting the sun in my frame.

 

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I came across this video which shows what is supposed to happen during a total eclipse. Although I'm not in the path of a total eclipse (70-73% here), I'm wondering if the glowing horizon will be visible in my area. I might try to take photos at my church and see if the glowing horizon is visible without getting the sun in my frame.


My understanding is that it takes about 90% coverage to notice any difference in daylight.
 

hark

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My understanding is that it takes about 90% coverage to notice any difference in daylight.

From previous photos with the sun in them, I know that stopping down the aperture captures more of the sun's rays than shooting wide open--especially with wide angle lenses. But I'm not planning on having the sun in the photos. I want to take church building photos without the sun in hopes of capturing the glow near the horizon. And I'll be using an ND filter in case any stars are present. Even if I can't see them with my eyes, maybe they will show up in the photo. We'll see. ;) It might be a total bust, but it will be a learning experience.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
SunSunSpots.jpg

Here's a pre-eclipse test shot of the sun... if you look at about the 8 o'clock position, you can see some sun spots. I plan to shoot as many shots as I can tomorrow... hoping for the weather to hold up... We're projected to see about 85% here in Florida...
 

hark

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View attachment 265555

Here's a pre-eclipse test shot of the sun... if you look at about the 8 o'clock position, you can see some sun spots. I plan to shoot as many shots as I can tomorrow... hoping for the weather to hold up... We're projected to see about 85% here in Florida...

Fred, what type of filter did you use when you shot this?
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
I used a 28-300mm Nikon lens... it's a 77mm filter size. I use Cokin P filters... and have 3 ND filters... I think they're an ND2, ND4 and an ND6... I tried all three stacked, and it wasn't enough. I ordered a 77mm Ice ND1000 off Amazon for $15ish... so I screwed on the ND1000, and then added the Cokins to the front of that...that, theoretically is 22 stops... but they're all cheap knockoffs so I can't attest to their accuracy... I want to hand hold because this lens has VR, and I'm extremely hesitant to lock the camera down to a locked focus position aiming my sensor at the sun... so I wanted fast shutter... I started at /14000... turned my ISO down to lo.1 (iso 50) and started working back from f28... This is on the D600 full frame... This configuration seems to be my sweet spot... I did have to adjust the temp in the white balance in LR to get from a white sun to an orange one... The fast shutter also produces the black background... when I was shooting slower, I was getting some cloud wisps in the image and the sun was blowing out...
 
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