IMPORTANT NOTE: Despite what I said in the video, a "solar film" filter will provide a sharper and higher contrast view of the sun than a glass ND filter. If you are looking for the best image quality, this would be my recommendation: bhpho.to/3OH2Ito
Now you say a ND100000 16-stop filter is good to use now what about a K&F Concept ND1000000 Ultra Dark ND Camera Lens Filter 20-Stops Fixed Neutral Density Filter with 28 Multi-Layer Coatings Waterproof & Scratch Resistant (Nano-X Series)? I'm using my Nikon D7100 and using my 70-300mm lens.
@@lynnsphotographygreenart8098 My suggestion, which matches the above post, is to replace any sort of neutral density filtering with an approved ISO 12312-2 certified solar filter, instead. They're special to the purpose, behave differently, are safer for yourself and your equipment, and, as mentioned in the pinned comment, also apparently give a better result, photographically.
I have several 18 Stop Tiffen Solar Flters (82, 77, 62, and 46mm, and a 62mm Variable ND plus a step up ring 46-62mm ) from B&H awhile ago and am using them on a couple of my F and Z lenses. They split the difference between the 16 and the 20. The Tiffen VD is for the Total Eclipse from an angle outside of the Eclipse belt just in case I can't look at the partial/total with the naked eye, If it is too bright. I do have my certified glasses for most of the Eclipse from an angle. I believe I am prepared for most eventualities. Incidentally, while I was In the U.S. Navy 1966-1971, I was stationed at the Norfolk, VA. D&S (Destroyer and Submarine) Piers on 07 March 1970. That was the last Full Continental USA TEOTS. I was jogging on one of the Piers with my "pinhole camera" and I was right there with a clear sky watching the whole process. First, the wind off the Atlantic Ocean slowed and then stopped, Second, all of the birds(sea and land varieties) landed on the ground and in the trees and some appeared to have fallen asleep. Several squirrels were perplexed as to what to do or what not to do. Some climbed up the nearest tree and curled up with their tail. and napped. The Eclipse was really total! As the Eclipse wained the Sun's rays moved rapidly over the open land and scurried over the Atlantic. As the Eclipse finalized, all critters were back to their normal existence. What was funny to watch was the difference in the effect on my fell❤😂qow Sailors. Some heard about the Eclipse, some had no clue about the Eclipse and said nothing happened. Others were upset that it messed up lunch. ha, ha. I am so happy that I Full filled my promise to be alive to see the same TEOTS 54 years later. 🎉 Raymond
Going to be in a 3+ min totality area, shooting beginning and ending phases, but during totality only shooting for half and meditating with the female the other half with some crystal sound bowls.
It's been windy and cloudy all day (Saturday 4/6). It's supposed to rain too but on Monday, the forecast is a little cloud cover. We are located at 4 minutes and 23 seconds of totality near Italy, Texas!
Great video. As an astrophotographer, this was accurate and well explained. I've only shot 1 total eclipse before and concur that practice, practice, practice is key! It's very easy to get overwhelmed during the event, and the 2-3 minutes of totality seem like seconds. Also agree to take time to view totality with your eyes. A camera image cannot capture the true beauty of the event. Thanks again for the video - great job!
This is by far the best video on photographing the eclipse (and I've watched many lol). I really appreciate the detailed information on the astronomy of what is happening as well! Talking about perigee makes me want to jump back into Kerbal Space Program 😂
33:03 - and the only thing I'd add to that is don't forget to look down sometimes, too. Especially in the ~90 seconds before C2 and after C3. And/or with a colander or other thing with holes in it. And observe temperature, animal life, etc. There's a great rundown of things to look for on the Smarter Every Day channel (and the extended cut has good stuff, too.)
Great explanation, very clear and professional, it really taught me a lot, this will be the first time I photograph a solar eclipse from Toledo,OH. I thank you very much for your class on this subject
Excellent! Wish I could afford a DSL mirrorless bracketing camera, tripods, filters, etc. Gonna do what I did in 2017 with my 1970's Minolta 35mm and a 300mm lens..... WELDING HELMET! Yeah, everything's got a green color, but it worked for me. I think I could afford a tripod this time around.
Wow, this is just what I needed! Thank you! I'm driving for 5 days from Seattle to shoot a 5 minute event! I am so stoked! and I'm going to practice, practice, practce. Thanks again!!
Went out and practiced with my camera, glad I did! I know the sun is bright but when the camera is pointed at the sun and you try to adjust, you constantly get hit with it in your eye (I have a digital viewfinder and the solar film was on my lens). Learned how important the pull out screen is on the Fuji x t2, I then just kept looking down at that. Much easier than adjusting with solar glasses on.
Thanks for the great, detailed presentation. I'm still really anxious about the shoot, but I think the practical information given will really help. I'm going to go out tomorrow and do some live "drills" to make sure I get it down. Also, thank you for the viewfinder warning. I have seen a few other videos, and yours was the first to mention this. I use a Canon, and they reiterated your concerns and said to use the Live View function (and they put that in all caps and red letters, too).
Good summary and tips! It is poor focus not poor exposure that ruins most eclipse photos. There’s lots of latitude for exposure, but none for focus. Practice focusing on the filtered Sun, and touch up the focus a few minutes before totality, as focus will shift on long lenses as the temperature changes.
I believe that thing about temperature, humidity, atmospheric anomalies, fog, dust, jostling of the gear, and having to move at the last minute you need to check your focus. So the Moon is 240,000 miles away, but the Sun is 93,000,000 miles away and any camera lens or telescope just can't be put on "infinity" and leave it there. There is on earth infinity then there is between the Earth and Moon infinity, and then there is between the Moon and the Sun Infinity. Ther is also real electromagnetic change, speed of light change, and colour shift of light and the curvature of light change that factors in. You just can't focus once and leave it or lock it down. Hope that helps. Raymond
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I watched it a few times, took notes and practiced. Shot my first eclipse yesterday and am so pleased with the results!
33:00 Give yourself time to relax into terror. :: Before I watched the Tour De France I got the best advice ever... "you can either watch the bikes ride by, or you can photograph them" You won't have time for both. Granted we'll have 4 minutes (if you are in the center), but still, in 2017 I had a moment of terror where my brain said "we're all going to dye unless the sun comes back" it was thrilling, but it took time just being in the moment to get my brain to that state.
I got my 2 solar filters in March from B&H, pretty inexpensive, and the store throw in a pair of solar glasses. The rim has to be folded into a circular shape. Practice the day before, perfect. They ran out of solar filters for cellphones, so I used the second filter on my cellphone - just kept it flat. Worth every dime.
EXCELLENT INSTRUCTIONS!!! I am in ITALY, TEXAS on our farm with 4 minutes & 23 seconds of totality! I love your suggestions & thank God I am OLD SCHOOL, learning all about f-stops, shutter speeds, ASA ISO with a manual 35mm Nikon FM back in the '70s as a photojournalism major at UNT. I have my Nikon DSLR ready. Two filters and I even have a filter for my cell phone! HA! Thanks again! And I'll bet you are in TEXAS as I am typing this. We'll be located between Hillsboro & Italy on the east side of Interstate 35.
The 2017 eclipse was about 2 minutes. The 2024 eclipse will be between 3.5 minutes (in the north) and 4.5 minutes in the south, if you are near the center of the track of totality.
I live near DFW airport and will be able to photograph in my backyard. Giving a presentation on my 2017 Eclipse, that required me traveling to shoot, at my camera club in a few weeks. This will help with my preparation for that speaking engagement.
Was able to catch the one back in October while visiting Page,AZ. Great picture from only my iPhone on tri-pod. When I felt the temp drop, started clicking away with a remote.
I live in Cleveland, which is in the path of totality, and we have friends coming from Chicago for the eclipse. Of course, it being on April 8, I'd put money on it being cloudy that day, but at least we will have had our friends visit. I'm 56, and this will be the first total eclipse I've ever witnessed. Pretty stoked!
This is an amazerful resource! I've been prepping; not just for the day but also for a vid on the experience. It truly is once in a lifetime...at least for me - I am finally in the zone baby! I'll be directing my admittedly small viewership to your video for in depth prep.
I will be using the Solar Quest and my Canon R5 and my R100-500mm lens. I'm going to set my camera on auto bracketing. I'll keep my F7.1, ISO 200 at 500mm the same throughout the entire event. So you said you did 6 stops +/-? I was going to do 3 but I think I need to do more. C1, C3 and C4 (at the partial phases) I''ll have my shutter speed at 1/2000 sec with my solar filter on. I can still bracket the shots 6 stops +/- with knowing I'll get good exposure shots. Keeping my camera on auto bracketing, I can change my shutter speed to 1/230 before the start of the diamond ring and do 6 brackets shots and I can get Baily's Beads without changing anything. But I will have to change my shutter speed again for the Corona shots. Anyway, thank you. I'm making a chart to help with the C2 phase.
unfortunately being that the eclipse is basically almost a month away If you haven't made travel plans or booked your flights or purchased or photo equipment you're going to spend a small fortunate at this point. Prices for rooms in Texas along the path of totality arranging in the thousands and scalpers are starting to sell solar filters and photography equipment for almost three times the price. If you're lucky enough to live in the path of totality this won't be a problem but if you need to travel BOOK NOW!!! or forever hold your peace.
@@anthonycollins1284 I actually went to the one in 2017. If you think you're going to drive an hour's worth of distance in the time span of an hour You're way off....
FYI: for the eclipse....I travelled to Canada (near the AstroLab in Lac Megantic). THANK YOU so much for the tips on how to, what gears... etc. I'm really proud of my photos. I got amazing photos of the eclipse, from the start to the end, the corona, the diamond and even some with some flashes of solar flare !!! Wow. THANKS :))
One tip for camera settings. Setup the starting point camera values to a custom key, so you can quickly move the dial and get the settings quickly. Set one for the partial phases, one for diamond ring, and finally one for totality.
In 2017, I used ISO 1600 and f/8 the entire time. For the partial portion, with a mylar filter, I shot 5 bracketed shots @ 1-stop increments from 1/2000 - 1/125, and for totality, 7 bracketed shots @ 2-stop increments from 1/8000 - 1/2. Perhaps a little extreme for the totality portion (which I might adjust for this year), but it did yield great results for every phase of the eclipse. Maybe this will help someone.
Your overview is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with such eloquence and articulation. I loved your excitement at the end 🤗. I’m excited too!! Hoping for some clearings during our cloudy forecast for SE Michigan.
Good content and @33:09 the only one thing I want to say if focusing!! OOOOP's no worries I believe most know the routine with manual focusing the stars, and moon.
19:29 one important remark about dedicated H-alpha telescopes, they block _all light_ except the chromospheric hydrogen emission and are not particularly useful for total eclipses - you won't be able to see corona with one. They're great for partial eclipses and everyday solar imaging, though.
Hi there! I am glad I watched your video photographing the Solar Eclipse the night before April 8, 2024. I captured the solar eclipse although my gear that I've used could be better.I am satisfied with the results that I've got. I use canon gear with the 70-200mm. The settings F/5.6 1/1000th and ISO 200 that you have mentioned work great.Thank you so much.
Could you shoot the totality of the eclipse with the filter on and still get an okay shot? I’m worried about damaging my equipment and as a teenager it will take me forever to work up the money to replace everything.
I don’t know if anyone will see this, but I got the photo! They’re the tiniest bit fuzzy because I’m not completely used to manual focusing, but overall I’m really proud!
I got this filter I hope this works 77mm Solar Filter ND1000000,20-Stop Solid Neutral Density Filter Celestial Event Photography Filter with 28 Multi-Layer Coatings for DSLR Camera Nano-X Series
Love the video. Thanks so much. I wanted to ask you 1) what camera and system you employed to take the wide field composite of the various phases, 2) the bracketing-is that just during the unfiltered potion at totality or all throughout? You said to them on Auto Bracketting, right? Again-for the entire duration or just for the totality portion 3) if I do a wide angle composite, how do you get the FG if you have tracked filtered shots going? In your composite with the tree in the FG showing the arc of the eclipse path, can you please share your process of how you did that? 4) is it possible to have a video running to capture this as well? Especially the change in light, the experience of the crowd, birds chirping, etc. If so, what setting you’d recommend please? Once again, so grateful for this video 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thank you! 1. That was a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 16mm lens set to take a photo every couple of minutes throughout the process. 2. Auto bracketing throughout, manual bracketing during totality as you will need a very large range of exposure times from darkest to lightest. 3. I setup the tripod before dawn and captured a shot of the foreground right before the sun came up. Once the sun was up, I put the filter on, shot through second contact, removed the filter for totality, then reinstalled the filter for the rest of the eclipse. When all was said and done I put it all together in Photoshop with the "Lighten" blending mode. 4. Yes! I'd just use manual and expose for the full daylight so when the sun eclipses, it gets visibly dark in the video.
Do you have any recommendations for focusing for 1st & 2nd contact images with the filter on? I'm using a 70-300mm lens, with crop sensor camera. I am assuming manual focus, but haven't been able to get focus correct in bright sunlight conditions, as I can't use the live viewer in sunlight. I'm assuming I shouldn't use the viewfinder. thank you
Last eclipse I used thick brown paper, 300mm zoom lens, solar filter from telescope. Since the front of my 300mm rotates on focus I made a sleeve out of the brown paper slightly long and bigger than the lens (held together with tape. Once on the tripod and aimed at sun I put the solar filter on the end of the paper tube... My pictures were great... just be prepared to remove the filter as soon as the eclipses goes full.
New question prompted by a photographer friend with whom I shared your video (which he deemed excellent & will share with his camera club friends!). Any suggestions on focusing? I believe I just used AF through the mylar filter in my previous partial eclipses. I don't think AF would work through the 16-stop filter. Appreciate any suggestions on focusing, especially with long lenses. Thanks, Forest!😁
I've always found AF to work fine with my Nikon DSLR when using a "mylar" type filter. I use spot focussing on the edge of the sun where there is greatest contrast.
AF should actually work fine with the filter. 16-stops is a lot, but that means that there is a ton of contrast between the bright sun and the black background sky so AF shouldn't have any issues. In general however, I avoid AF when possible and will be manually focusing with the digital zoom feature on my camera to increase precision.
From what I've seen explained on other videos about the topic, AF would work okay during the partial phases with the filter if your camera's focus area includes some sun edge, but when it goes total (as well as during partial if you're not using a tracker and allow the sun to move out of the center of the frame) your AF is likely to go haywire. So the prevailing advice is to use AF beforehand on a sun edge to get a good focus, then switch to MF so that it doesn't change after that. I don't know how much effect temperature will have on the focus (that has been mentioned by several people, but this will be my first eclipse, so I haven't experienced such a sudden temperature change personally), but AF won't help you during the total phase, so you'll just need to tweak if necessary with MF. I don't own a DSLR/mirrorless but only a high-end Canon Powershot (SX50 HS), so I sadly don't have a focus ring - the MF focus adjustment is more cumbersome, so I'm just going to hope that the temperature doesn't affect it too much in my case. Perhaps I'll try to wrap something insulating and reflective around the lens to reduce the change.
🪐🪐 Tremendous info and I can’t thank you enough, brotha 🙏🏼 33:31 I just want to get this right since I blew it in 2017 in Hopkinsville. For the diamond ring and baileys bead is the filter off.?? I’m trying to go grasp just what the precise moment is to take it off being that the transitional period happens so quickly.
Thank you very much for the great video. I will be coming to Texas from Germany for those four minutes. And you are so right about the excitement during the minutes of totality. In 2017, I actually FORGOT to take off the filter. My exposure series didn't help either. I was heartbroken. Now I just have to come back!
One option I'm surprised to left off are square filters. Lot of people who do landscape photography already have square filter systems and square 100mm solar filters are there to be had,
ABSOLUTELY practice ahead of time! I had a horrible problem with bad distortion using live view instead of using the viewfinder. Can't explain it; but I had to troubleshoot that DURING the last eclipse. Don't do that. Go out with your solar filter and practice on the sun beforehand.
Yes practice and simulate. There is software that helps, it is called orchestrator or maestro depending on OS. It helps getting down the routine and timings. 3-4 minutes totality is short.
I have a fujifilm xt-5. I understand your settings at high and low for 3 shot bracketing?. Perhaps I missed it but my camera as you say will take three shots at once. What did you use for your settings between the high and low? And also doing totality did you ever adjust these settings? My thought was to do a 3 second time lapse sequence for the whole eclipse, changing the settings only during totality. Do you think that will work?
In 2017, I was able to photograph the eclipse from my brother’s back yard. This time I will have to travel about 1.5 hours away to be in the totality. In 2017 I used my Canon Rebel T6 with the included 75-300 f/4.5-5.6 kit lens. It turned out okay, but could have been sharper. This time I have a Canon 90D with a 70-200 f/4 L lens with a 2x teleconverter. I’ll be using the T6 for a wide, time-lapse shot.
Great video! Although you can buy ready-made solar filters for your camera, you can make your own with some solar sheet and cardboard (or 3D print the housing). The costs can be as low as a few bucks and if stored properly, they'll last a long time. I've been making my own since the 2012 Venus Transit. I normally use Thousand Oaks Optical solarlite sheets, these are safe for both visual and photography and I make my own housing with state-of-the-art technology...cardboard. Thank you for mentioning that ND filters are not for visual! One thing about using threaded filters is that they take time to take on and off and they can potentially adjust your focus. So the mylar cardboard cover you mentioned is the better option, but making your own is also a great option. This is not an issue for those who won't be in the region of totality. I'll be imaging with 4 different rigs, including an h-alpha rig. Hoping most, if not all, will be automated (will still have to manually pull off the filters). And I've been doing a lot of solar outreach both online and offline talking about safe solar viewing, imaging techniques, gear, etc., and would love to connect if you plan to create more eclipse content because the more people that know about this topic, the better it'll be come April 8th.
Hey friend, thanks for the great video! I would like to take a shot like the one at 12:20 with more of the landscape. I am wondering if a solar filter is required in this circumstance? Is it all about what you're focusing on? If I am focusing on the foreground trees for example is that ok or will my sensor get burned?
Great question! Yes, a filter is required for that image except for the few shots taken during totality. Focusing on the foreground trees will work well too.
Last time I used a stack of lower ND filters topped of with. UV filter, I used 1/1250 with F8, and they came out pretty darn good, I will be using the same this year.
8:45 - what even is an ND100000 filter? Oh, while the three links you give for filters don't claim to be that, I see that one does at least claim to be a 262,144x ND filter, or 18-stop. And I found a different filter not in your links that uses the ND1000000 terminology, i.e. 16 2/3 stops, or an optical density (the number I'm used to seeing after ND on the neutral density filters I have) of 5.0. Got it. Never mind. Though I've answered my own question (with help from B&H's "A Guide to Neutral Density Filters" article), I'll leave the comment anyway as a humble request to maybe give that number multiple ways in the future (not to mention matching your links. ;) )
