I completely forgot to mention one important thing: how do you know exactly when to pop off the filter, and when to put it back on? For the 2017 eclipse I used 'Solar Eclipse Timer App', and it looks a little spartan, but it worked perfectly, and sounds a tone when it's time to view totality without eye protection, and when it's time to put eye protection back on. Check it out at www.solareclipsetimer.com and sorry I completely forgot to mention it in the video! The author of that app also has a nice book with a ton more resources about the eclipse. Any other tips or suggestions? Leave them in a reply below!
The experience was personally incredible back in 2017. You need to make sure that you don't spend all the time trying to take photos. Make sure you fully experience the actual event, hopefully around other people too. Listen to your environment, look at the shadows, make a day of it if you can. There isn't another significant US total eclipse for 20 years.
Exactly. I knew I would waste too much time taking photos, so i let RPi do that work.. All I had to do was remove and replace the filter at the right times...
The photo aspect was the one thing I regretted about the 2017 eclipse. I had mounted my camera on a newtonian mount that I roughly aligned, and I had an intervalometer, but I had to manually advance the mount as I didn't have a motor for the mount. The constant need to manually adjust the mount to track the sun every minute or two made it difficult to really enjoy the experience. Still, I do remember some amazing things (the bugs getting loud, the horizon being a ring of light with darkness above, shadows vanishing and suddenly reappearing as totality began and ended)
Yay! Thank you Jeff. I'm in Texas, so got to 'practice' on the Annular eclipse in October, but for some reason, I didn't consider practicing on a sunny day with my filter on. Oh, and I'm taping my cardboard universal filter on my lense hood so I can take it off and on quickly.
Thank goodness for all of this fancy photography in case it's cloudy here on the Ohio river that day! But as for me & THE golden hound dog?! - We just plan to be there with the funny sun glasses on... Our jaws agape in wondrous amazement! - Cheers!
As a fellow Missouri resident, you're absolutely right about the weather. In the past seven days in my small town we had a few days of T-shirt weather, one day of sudden cold and snow, two more days of T-shirt weather, and then sudden cold and snow for a day again. Also, I 100% love the suggestion to practice taking the photos beforehand. Being prepared can be the difference between astounding success and crushing failure, and not everyone remembers to do the prep work (we're only human, we need reminders).
Haha yeah two days ago I wore shorts the first time this year. Today we have 3" of snow on the ground and it's like 15F! Hopefully we get lucky and have a nice, clear day April 8. We'll see!
I experienced a total eclipse in my back yard, 30 years ago, here in Thailand. I still remember the excitation in the nature and in everybody when the eclipse suddenly became total, there is no mistake on that magic moment.
Thanks for sharing passions of photography and capturing eclipses in this latest episode. I appreciate all the hard work and research that goes into each video. Truly amazing work.
Good luck! The other option is to basically grab some cardboard (like a cereal box), and cut out a hole, then leave some overhanging with some velcro or a rubber band so you can easily pop it over the end of a lens. Or grab one of those universal filters like I link in the description, they're only a little more expensive than buying the solar filter film itself.
Great tips! I was at the Sparta, IL world shooting and rec complex the last time the eclipse came through. Was a cool experience I hope to show my oldest if the weather plays nice. Make sure you take photos of shadows too. Pretty cool how the eclipse messes with light
With less than two months to go, I still haven't decided if my telescope is good enough or if I should upgrade my equipment. If it's cloudy, spending that extra money is going to be highly disappointing. I already tried photographing sunspots and I learned a lot. I also realized that the standard camera app on the iPhone was not good enough, so I've been testing a more professional camera app.
I was in your neck of the woods in 2017. I stayed at the Moonrise hotel and watched the eclipse in Carbondale. In April I'll be going to Austin with my two boys and hope to make better pictures this time. I was hoping to see the eclipse in Chili in 2020 but there was this Covid thingy. Thanks for the links, very much appreciated!
I can see that from this video's views that this type of content doesn't get a lot of attention. I recently got into astronomy and I LOVE it. I'm starting off with some binoculars and was planning to purchase solar filters for my binos but now I'm looking into making my own from the information you shared. This will be the first total solar eclipse of my life and I'm very excited. I don't think I'm quite ready to start doing eclipse photography but all your tips are still invaluable ❤
Nice video and your KNVB shirt 😊 Educational value is high and easy to follow what youre trying to explain. Even your viewers reactions are good to learn from. Thanx!
Thanks for the wonderful video. I agree a total eclipse is pretty amazing. The 2017 was my first total eclipse. Thank you for all the detail you provided.
2017's was pretty fun. Eclipse glasses were all sold out, so I used a cheap Barska 20-60 x 60mm spotting scope from Amazon and a cheap tripod and projected the sun onto the driveway onto some printer paper, then took pics of the projected image. I got the projected image to be about a foot in diameter.
Yeah I do remember how the glasses ran out pretty quick leading up to the eclipse. That's partly why I wanted to post this video nice and early-hopefully anyone I know will have time to buy enough for everyone they're with! I bought 15 this year, so I'll have a few extra to pass out to anyone else nearby that forgot theirs.
Thanks! I live in Mazatlán (supposedly it is one of the best places to see the eclipse) and I hope to put into test your tips and tricks to photograph the eclipse!
Thank you. I need to make some filters for the video cameras at work, I think we are on the edge of totality and I want to try and grab some stock footage we can use with our students. I just hope for clear skies that day.
I used that app back in 2017, but as you can see from my avatar, I was so excited that I forgot to move my camera during totality! LOL I'll be using it again this year, only this time I hope to get the whole event in the frame. Great video in a condensed format.
haha, oops! that's one reason I thought about buying a motorized mount this year, but I'll just zoom out a little extra so I get enough room in case I don't move the tripod enough!
Thanks. LOL I have since bought a tracking mount. I have practiced with it some and will be practicing with it more intensely the week just prior to the event. @@JeffGeerling
Hey Jeff, Great video! One thing I'll mention about using a filter that threads on is the potential to mess up the focus when you take it on and off. It also takes time. I normally recommend either making a cap out of cardboard or even 3D printing one that you can quickly take on and off. I'll be driving to Texas (from Boston) with 4 different imaging rigs. I've also been doing a ton of solar outreach online and offline and I've worked with Dr. Gordon Telepun (creator of Solar Eclipse Timer) to create a demo of his app recently. I'm also an avid Raspberry Pi user and I *may* use it for one of my imaging rigs. If you want to chat about the eclipse, safe solar viewing, imaging techniques, etc., let me know.
For securing lenses and other items, use gaffer tape, also called gaff tape. It leaves no residue behind. When the mechanism to slide the windscreen of my sunroof down broke, I used gaff tape to cover the retract button. Gaff tape can be found at photography/video stores. DO NOT USE DUCT TAPE! Particularly on rental equipment or you may be charged for repair work.
Gaff tape is one of the wonders of the world. I use it around the studio quite often, and so far I've _never_ had a piece leave any residue (though the longest I've left any up at my old space was less than a year... so that helps too). Plain duck tape goes for maybe a week or two before it starts gumming up.
Spot on Jeff.. In 2017, we were gonna go to St Joseph Mo, but decided to head to Tennessee when the weather progs started to shift- good choice. Got lucky and got some great images including prominences , Bailey's Beads, and Regulus. In 2017, I let Python and an RPi control my camera to take the images. This year , in addition to taking the images, it will also control an RP2040 servo controller to remove/replace solar filter at the right times.. Good luck to you this year
@@JeffGeerling I don't yet... But am thinking about doing that. It's rather back burner as I am fitting this project in-between the rest of stuff I've got going on. And yes, I know myself and I would waste too much time taking photos, hence the automation... The real thing, photos or not, is to experience the time in Totality... It is amazing. If I get a blog post up, I'll let you know. Failing that, I can send you photos.
I started taking shots of the sun on the last eclipse. I also made a solar funnel for my neighbors to watch via my telescope. I have taken a lot of photo's of sunspots ever since... I run a sigma 150-500mm lens and solar filter media... I buy larger sheets because I use them on a lot of lenses... it is also interesting to look at the shadows during the eclipse....
I spent a lot of attention on my camera and shadow box in 2017. Got some good results with the latter. This time I'm just going to take in the moment and not worry about all that.
I had no idea you are also an astrophotographer! I am not going to get to travel to get somewhere in the direct path, so I plan to just bring a telescope to work that day and share the partial eclipse with my coworkers visually. With a filter of course. I was lucky enough to see the 2017 eclipse, but I wasn't as into doing astronomy myself at that time.
Good stuff. Yes, in the Cleveland area so now just need the weather to cooperate! Thanks for the animation link, that was helpful. Wondering if you have any suggestions for what metering mode to use during totality?
@@JeffGeerling Thank you. I believe during my practice shots using a solar filter I was using full screen metering as opposed to center weighted or spot.
@@SirRommy Ah, in that case, I would go with center weighted or use spot and put the spot on one of the edges of the sun (some cameras have more cross-point focus spots, others have better focus on horizontal or vertical lines). Best bet is to try both and see how they work on a sunny day, and good luck!
One very important missing information is to focus _right before_ totality, otherwise the lens may defocus due to temperature variations or from being pointed up for a long period of time. I've seen so many blurry pictures of the 2017 eclipse because photographers thought they could just focus on the Sun early during the partial phase and automate out everything else.
Hi, nice video, I watch almost al your videos! How do I know a brand is reputable to buy from for the eclipse shades? I live in Belgium if that is useful to know.
I traveled to see the 2017 eclipse and almost got skunked by clouds. Plan this time is to go to my folks in Southern IL as long as the cloud forecast is ok, and if not go to Arkansas where the forecast will be slightly better. One thing I do need to do is get a solar tracker printed up and working (or figure out how to motorize my newtonian mount). Having to keep adjusting the tripod to follow the sun was not ideal for enjoying the moment.
I still have my stacks of ND filters for my Canon I got back for the 2017 eclipse. The welders glass I used for the video camera was left at my old job.
Hi Jeff, and thanks for the good video. I'll be shooting the total eclipse from a great location in Texas in April, and have a couple questions for you as I start practicing with my homemade solar filters and the Sky Adventure tracker. First, does it matter whether the dark or lighter side of your solar film faces the sun? I bought the Thousand Oaks film and took some practice shots today. The second question is does your image sharpness depend on how close you get the filter to your front element of your telephoto or can it be farther away on the end of your lens hood? My first attempts look not quite sharp, though I can easily see a good sun spot. I'm wondering of the filter needs to be closer. Ill reusing a APSC Fuji mirrorless XT3, Fujis 100-400 zoom with Fujis 2X converter on it as well. I have downloaded the timer app you referenced and it's great. Thanks much in advance for the help. Now I just need to learn how to use the Sky Adventure.
The main thing is to make sure the solar filter is clean-try to only touch the edges. But the "mirror" like side should be facing the sun. The darker /matte side should face your camera. Then it's a matter of trying to get focus perfect. This can be difficult!
I had my tripod very close to the ground since I didn't extend the two segments of the legs. I figured that if wind blew the rig over that, falling from a height near the ground would cause less damage than if I had the legs fully extended. From that angle, I couldn't find the sun, trying to shield my left eye. That didn't work, so I draped a windbreaker over the camera to block the sun. I also hung a sandbag from the center column of the tripod, just in case. It wasn't the sandbags used to protect property from flood damage, but those could be used to be used at the base of legs.
I learned my lesson of not using the full height of my tripod if I don't need it. The taller they are, the harder they fall. I was doing night photography, actually, just one photo. I took a photo of the International Space Station when it passed over our house. The photo had been taken, and I accidentally tripped on one of the tripod legs.
There's a radically different low-tech approach - for the 2017 eclipse I was outside the path of totality so I built a quick and dirty Pinhole Camera and photographed the result with my smartphone This is kid buildable and if you have more than one kid they can build one each.... Enjoy
For just observing an eclipse, I used my old electric arc welding face shield for the last one. It's an option if you have one. Just a word of caution, auto tint does not always work for the sun. (It's not bright enough.) You have to have a manual full dark setting for those. Also, DO NOT use gas welders goggles. They're not nearly dark enough tint to protect you from the sun. -- 73
Huh, this is the first time i have heard someone pronounce the word “eclipse” with emphasis on the letter “e”. I have always heard it with a emphasis the letter "c" instead.
Hi Jeff, as I practice with full sun with my tracking and exposures I'm finding that I have to hit a high ISO like 3200 and shutter speeds like a 30th at f11 rather than the native 100 or 200 for my Fuji XT3 in order to get even an underexposed photo of the sun on a clear day. I keep seeing experienced eclipse shooters talking about ISO 100 and 1/250th of a second at f8. I'm using the thousand Oaks film but unless there are various densities of it, do you have any idea why I'm having to use the exposures I'm describing? I do have a Fuji 2X on my 400, so f11 is as wide open as it gets.Thanks again.
If you pop off the teleconverter (I'm assuming that's what you mean by the 2x), and go down to f/8, are you able to bring down the ISO a bit? And are you shooting on a bright sunny day with the sun higher in the sky, or towards morning/evening or with some cloud cover?
2:45 the problem i did go down that rabit hole, something batter than that film is weldels glass , glass its much fagale and you have to 3d print but its better.
Please make a video about turning a old phone into GSM voice gateway and integrating with 3CX as voice gateway to make and receive calls from 3CX from remote locations
There will be no sunshine in Australia untill then!? Nahhh,.. you can try solarphotography every (sunny) day. Just start totay by checking the sun coolspots to train for your total eclipse. 😊
@JeffGeerling - I'm new to photography and recently purchased a Sony A7 IV camera. I have the basic lens that came with the camera 28mm-70mm. I would love to get great shots of the eclipse in April. I watched the video and noted all of your recommendations. I have a couple of comments and questions: 1. Thank you for letting me know about rental lenses. I was about to drop serious coin. I think I will run the gambit of rentals as a try before you buy approach. 2. Would the 28-70mm be at all useful for an eclipse? 3. For the aperture, you show f/8. The lens I see on the rental site shows Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS. Would this lens be appropriate for the purposes of an eclipse? 4. Do you have any rental website recommendations or exact lens I should use in pairing my model specifically? Thank you.
Check that, you did illustrate the screenshot and stated that some online rental places "were already out of stock on better lenses" and showed the exact one I asked about. Thanks for the help!
Thanks for this great video on photographing the Total Eclipse next month. I do plan to try to take a Total Eclipse Selfie on April 8th. What are your recommendations for taking a Total Eclipse Selfie?
Surprisingly, the lighting during totality would be great for getting a shot with you and the eclipse exposed well. My plan is to have a GoPro recording the whole thing from the ground in 4K, and at some point, I can look back to it and wave. Then I'll pull a picture of that out and use it. Just make sure to stay still, since during totality the light will probably result in slower shutter speeds.
Its sad that i live on the other side of the planet in germany and cant witness this phenomenal moment. I was 2 years old, when the last total solar eclipse happened around here. I do remember a near total solar eclipse about 10-15 years ago, but i bet its still a different thing to witness a total one. Hopefully i will see one in my life :D
I never get to see these because I'm hundreds of miles out of the path usually (Desert Southwest). :\ I did take a sunburst shot in high school 15+ years ago which looked cool. I've since forgot everything I knew about photography and using a camera professionally though lol.
I have it linked from my blog posts-it's up on Flickr too, at a fairly high resolution. For personal use, I'd be fine with you downloading a copy and printing it. Just don't try selling your own prints :)
I can't wait to check out the 12K HDR video some are trying to capture and the people who have Apple Vision Pro to get a spatial video of the event. What are your thoughts on Texas? Seems like everyone's saying it's the best spot weather-wise.
It certainly has some of the best chances in terms of clear skies. Also, the closer you get to Mexico, the (slightly) longer the time in totality will be.
A good plan! We're set on a place and booked a hotel, but if the forecast that day is bad, we might drive another hour or so out of the way if that gets us out of a storm's path!
I took a picture of a partial solar eclipse with an old TZ80 and 2 floppy drives filters (one on top of the sensor and another on the lens), it was effectively free
Honestly I considered going that route, but just don't have the time to build something that would stand up for driving a long distance and be somewhat kid-safe (in case one of the little ones got ahold of the tripod).
Good point; I’ve read upon stepper motor control in a failed attempt to build a Pi-steerable altitude-azimuth mount. Turns out it’s really difficult to increment/decrement angles in e.g. steps of 0.1 degrees. If anyone knows of such a kit or prebuilt setup for a Pi I’d be interested as I would like to mount a Pi HQ camera on it and track stuff. Timing wouldn’t be an issue since I have a couple of NEO-M8T Timing HATs for this very thing.
FYI your framing is a little too low for viewing on a phone with a wider aspect ratio. I noticed LTT does extra wide videos that perfectly line up with the notch or cut out for the front facing camera
@@JeffGeerling interesting, so a difference of only about 1.5 stops? I would have expected the difference in exposure between eclipsed and naked sun to be a lot more.
@@aspuzling - Depending on haze, it could end up more, but yeah it's not that much difference to expose for the prominences / flares vs the sun itself. If you want to expose for moon or stars, then you need a much larger difference (5-10 stops), but it can then get tricky pulling the detail without blowing things out too (especially with older sensors).
Emphasizing the first syllable of "eclipse" sounds so weird to me... not sure if that's a regional thing (west coast for me). I was at the 2017 total eclipse (before I got into astrophotography, so nothing more than a monocular on hand) and it was definitely a life experience. Everybody who has the means should try to attend at least one in their lifetime, because there's nothing else quite like it on the planet. Also confirming that a total and partial/annular eclipse are entirely incomparable experiences. Partial ones are kinda neat, but less than a tenth the wow factor compared to a total eclipse.
Not a good one, but I have a mediocre telescope and try to take images and bring my kids out for any major events when they're visible around STL! We also have a pretty cool planetarium where we can explore the stars in the city.
Even if you don't want to photograph the eclipse, go experience. Let others photograph the eclipse. You want to make sure you *experience* a total solar eclipse at least once in your life.
There will certainly be a few hundred thousand excellent photos of it, for sure. That's why I'm keeping my setup simple this year... was considering a live stream, or making a video, but that's just too much pressure and I and my family wouldn't be able to enjoy the moment as much.
about observing the sun: first rule to follow IMPERATIVELY: we cannot observe the sun without filters with the naked eye or with a telescope! ! otherwise it will be the last thing we see (becoming blind like that is permanent). with the necessary precautions, a solar eclipse through a telescope (properly filtered) or with specific filtering glasses for solar eclipses, remains a magical spectacle
Ye, I don't think pixels was the only thing he burnt that day @3:17 *. Not that he had many left! The only eclipse I care about ingests keyboard inputs. Jokes aside, thank you for the video. It was educational even if I really do not care taking photographs of anything. The technology is always interesting. Good luck to all trying to capture the solar eclipse :) * One second earlier and it would have been a perfect wrestling/Texas reference
I'm planning to go to Buffalo ( and also see family maby ) I am hoping to attempt to live stream it. Not sure how that's gonna go but I'm up for a challenge. (if interested it will be on this account < ). I don't know if it'll work but I'm gonna try, it'll at least be a video of it getting dark. Attempted photos last time around and they came out OK for having minimal knowledge and prep with basic equipment.
Hi Jeff, great video (apart from missing pop on pop off filter). Jeff, I know you are American, but it's an eclipse, not an eee-clipse 🤣🤣🤣. You make it sound like an e-book or something. Maybe electronic clips !🤣🤣😎
I was told at 6 years old to not look at a total eclipse. It was in Victoria Australia around 1977. I was told it could hurt your eyes like looking at the sun directly. I would check before saying you can look at one. Good video nonetheless and let me know if I'm wrong.
During a total solar eclipse, assuming you're in an area covered by totality, the entire disc of the sun is covered by the moon, meaning you can look directly at where the sun is in the sky-you won't see the sun, but instead just features like solar flares / prominences, which are not bright enough to harm your eyesight.
That's one of the more 'advanced' techniques I mention later in the video-though I do usually pull back some shadow detail in Photoshop / Lightroom when I'm processing the RAW image files. Combine a few using Photoshop and you can get a well-toned HDR image that doesn't look overprocessed. That can be an interesting look but I try to make something that resembles more of what I see with my eyes on the day of, rather than something that pulls details out of the depths and looks processed. But to each their own!
@@JeffGeerling I forgot that these days decent cameras can pretty much match our eyes in terms of dynamic range. Crazy when you think that you used to need 9 exposures when HDR imaging first started.
@@jfolz Yeah I remember back when I had my first digital camera, I would take a bunch of photos then spend hours post-processing to get something resembling HDR. Nowadays one photo with a modern high-end mirrorless camera has like 9-12 stops of usable range, and you can pull decent stuff out of pitch-black shadows! It's crazy.
Ooh, potentially excellent content - I'm hoping it means we can all spend a week in Mauritius, Tahiti, Borneo or the best parts of the Caribbean.... Checks where this year's eclipse happens... Oh, North America. Nice Not sure I'll buy a ticket
@@CyclingSteve like I said, I‘m an American, and until today I would have been sure that Americans in every region put the emphasis on the second syllable rather than the first.
I completely forgot to mention one important thing: how do you know exactly when to pop off the filter, and when to put it back on? For the 2017 eclipse I used 'Solar Eclipse Timer App', and it looks a little spartan, but it worked perfectly, and sounds a tone when it's time to view totality without eye protection, and when it's time to put eye protection back on.
Check it out at www.solareclipsetimer.com and sorry I completely forgot to mention it in the video! The author of that app also has a nice book with a ton more resources about the eclipse.
Any other tips or suggestions? Leave them in a reply below!
Well no Firebending on the 8th April
Didn't realise you made astrophotography and solar photography content! Absolutely love them both.
Not much, since it performs pretty poorly, but it's a passion of mine. One I only get to feed from time to time :)
The experience was personally incredible back in 2017. You need to make sure that you don't spend all the time trying to take photos. Make sure you fully experience the actual event, hopefully around other people too. Listen to your environment, look at the shadows, make a day of it if you can. There isn't another significant US total eclipse for 20 years.
I agree. It was a cosmic experience.
The experience is much much more than what one sees in videos.
Exactly. I knew I would waste too much time taking photos, so i let RPi do that work.. All I had to do was remove and replace the filter at the right times...
The photo aspect was the one thing I regretted about the 2017 eclipse.
I had mounted my camera on a newtonian mount that I roughly aligned, and I had an intervalometer, but I had to manually advance the mount as I didn't have a motor for the mount. The constant need to manually adjust the mount to track the sun every minute or two made it difficult to really enjoy the experience.
Still, I do remember some amazing things (the bugs getting loud, the horizon being a ring of light with darkness above, shadows vanishing and suddenly reappearing as totality began and ended)
Yay! Thank you Jeff. I'm in Texas, so got to 'practice' on the Annular eclipse in October, but for some reason, I didn't consider practicing on a sunny day with my filter on. Oh, and I'm taping my cardboard universal filter on my lense hood so I can take it off and on quickly.
Thank goodness for all of this fancy photography in case it's cloudy here on the Ohio river that day!
But as for me & THE golden hound dog?! - We just plan to be there with the funny sun glasses on...
Our jaws agape in wondrous amazement! - Cheers!
As a fellow Missouri resident, you're absolutely right about the weather. In the past seven days in my small town we had a few days of T-shirt weather, one day of sudden cold and snow, two more days of T-shirt weather, and then sudden cold and snow for a day again.
Also, I 100% love the suggestion to practice taking the photos beforehand. Being prepared can be the difference between astounding success and crushing failure, and not everyone remembers to do the prep work (we're only human, we need reminders).
Haha yeah two days ago I wore shorts the first time this year. Today we have 3" of snow on the ground and it's like 15F!
Hopefully we get lucky and have a nice, clear day April 8. We'll see!
@@JeffGeerling Fingers crossed! Your first composite turned out really well. It'd be awesome if you got two in a row.
I experienced a total eclipse in my back yard, 30 years ago, here in Thailand. I still remember the excitation in the nature and in everybody when the eclipse suddenly became total, there is no mistake on that magic moment.
Thanks for sharing passions of photography and capturing eclipses in this latest episode. I appreciate all the hard work and research that goes into each video. Truly amazing work.
So glad I saw this. Was already wondering how to make my own filter, didn’t even think to use a step up ring.
Good luck! The other option is to basically grab some cardboard (like a cereal box), and cut out a hole, then leave some overhanging with some velcro or a rubber band so you can easily pop it over the end of a lens.
Or grab one of those universal filters like I link in the description, they're only a little more expensive than buying the solar filter film itself.
Thanks so much Jeff for putting this together. I got good results in 2017. This time it’s in MY backyard. So 2017 was a good warm up for 2024.
Lucky! There are some folks I know in Southern Illinois who are in the bath for both, I am jealous of their location!
Great tips! I was at the Sparta, IL world shooting and rec complex the last time the eclipse came through. Was a cool experience I hope to show my oldest if the weather plays nice. Make sure you take photos of shadows too. Pretty cool how the eclipse messes with light
With less than two months to go, I still haven't decided if my telescope is good enough or if I should upgrade my equipment. If it's cloudy, spending that extra money is going to be highly disappointing.
I already tried photographing sunspots and I learned a lot. I also realized that the standard camera app on the iPhone was not good enough, so I've been testing a more professional camera app.
I was in your neck of the woods in 2017. I stayed at the Moonrise hotel and watched the eclipse in Carbondale. In April I'll be going to Austin with my two boys and hope to make better pictures this time. I was hoping to see the eclipse in Chili in 2020 but there was this Covid thingy. Thanks for the links, very much appreciated!
Heh, covid knocked out so many plans.
Thanks, this has been on my mind and I was planning to start taking practice photos soon.
I can see that from this video's views that this type of content doesn't get a lot of attention. I recently got into astronomy and I LOVE it. I'm starting off with some binoculars and was planning to purchase solar filters for my binos but now I'm looking into making my own from the information you shared. This will be the first total solar eclipse of my life and I'm very excited. I don't think I'm quite ready to start doing eclipse photography but all your tips are still invaluable ❤
I'll be flying to Dallas to see totality. Thanks for this video! It'll help me prepare
Nice video and your KNVB shirt 😊
Educational value is high and easy to follow what youre trying to explain. Even your viewers reactions are good to learn from. Thanx!
Thanks for the wonderful video. I agree a total eclipse is pretty amazing. The 2017 was my first total eclipse. Thank you for all the detail you provided.
I didn't expect this video from you but thanks I needed a video like this thanks
Not the video we expected, but the video we deserve.
My band is playing the Total Solar Eclipse Festival at Shawnee Cave in April, should be fun and near STL
Instead of switching settings and filter, just use two cameras, one for visible sun, one for full eclipse.
Another good option, if you have two!
2017's was pretty fun. Eclipse glasses were all sold out, so I used a cheap Barska 20-60 x 60mm spotting scope from Amazon and a cheap tripod and projected the sun onto the driveway onto some printer paper, then took pics of the projected image. I got the projected image to be about a foot in diameter.
Yeah I do remember how the glasses ran out pretty quick leading up to the eclipse. That's partly why I wanted to post this video nice and early-hopefully anyone I know will have time to buy enough for everyone they're with!
I bought 15 this year, so I'll have a few extra to pass out to anyone else nearby that forgot theirs.
Thanks! I live in Mazatlán (supposedly it is one of the best places to see the eclipse) and I hope to put into test your tips and tricks to photograph the eclipse!
Oh nice! You'll end up with the longest period of totality pretty much anywhere. Good luck!
Didn't know you were an astro guy too, good luck with the weather!
Thank you. I need to make some filters for the video cameras at work, I think we are on the edge of totality and I want to try and grab some stock footage we can use with our students. I just hope for clear skies that day.
I used that app back in 2017, but as you can see from my avatar, I was so excited that I forgot to move my camera during totality! LOL
I'll be using it again this year, only this time I hope to get the whole event in the frame. Great video in a condensed format.
haha, oops! that's one reason I thought about buying a motorized mount this year, but I'll just zoom out a little extra so I get enough room in case I don't move the tripod enough!
Thanks. LOL
I have since bought a tracking mount. I have practiced with it some and will be practicing with it more intensely the week just prior to the event. @@JeffGeerling
Hey Jeff, Great video! One thing I'll mention about using a filter that threads on is the potential to mess up the focus when you take it on and off. It also takes time. I normally recommend either making a cap out of cardboard or even 3D printing one that you can quickly take on and off.
I'll be driving to Texas (from Boston) with 4 different imaging rigs. I've also been doing a ton of solar outreach online and offline and I've worked with Dr. Gordon Telepun (creator of Solar Eclipse Timer) to create a demo of his app recently. I'm also an avid Raspberry Pi user and I *may* use it for one of my imaging rigs.
If you want to chat about the eclipse, safe solar viewing, imaging techniques, etc., let me know.
For securing lenses and other items, use gaffer tape, also called gaff tape. It leaves no residue behind. When the mechanism to slide the windscreen of my sunroof down broke, I used gaff tape to cover the retract button. Gaff tape can be found at photography/video stores.
DO NOT USE DUCT TAPE! Particularly on rental equipment or you may be charged for repair work.
Gaff tape is one of the wonders of the world.
I use it around the studio quite often, and so far I've _never_ had a piece leave any residue (though the longest I've left any up at my old space was less than a year... so that helps too).
Plain duck tape goes for maybe a week or two before it starts gumming up.
Headed to Austin, Texas for Eclipse, then staying for the MotoGP in the following weekend.
Spot on Jeff.. In 2017, we were gonna go to St Joseph Mo, but decided to head to Tennessee when the weather progs started to shift- good choice. Got lucky and got some great images including prominences , Bailey's Beads, and Regulus. In 2017, I let Python and an RPi control my camera to take the images. This year , in addition to taking the images, it will also control an RP2040 servo controller to remove/replace solar filter at the right times.. Good luck to you this year
Oh cool! Do you have a blog post or something with the details of that setup. Sounds awesome, you could just go on autopilot!
@@JeffGeerling I don't yet... But am thinking about doing that. It's rather back burner as I am fitting this project in-between the rest of stuff I've got going on. And yes, I know myself and I would waste too much time taking photos, hence the automation... The real thing, photos or not, is to experience the time in Totality... It is amazing. If I get a blog post up, I'll let you know. Failing that, I can send you photos.
No matter, I hope you have a great experience this year, and no clouds!@@MikeToll-uh4kb
I started taking shots of the sun on the last eclipse. I also made a solar funnel for my neighbors to watch via my telescope. I have taken a lot of photo's of sunspots ever since... I run a sigma 150-500mm lens and solar filter media... I buy larger sheets because I use them on a lot of lenses... it is also interesting to look at the shadows during the eclipse....
I always wondered about that picture in the background
Love astrophotography!
I spent a lot of attention on my camera and shadow box in 2017. Got some good results with the latter. This time I'm just going to take in the moment and not worry about all that.
I had no idea you are also an astrophotographer! I am not going to get to travel to get somewhere in the direct path, so I plan to just bring a telescope to work that day and share the partial eclipse with my coworkers visually. With a filter of course. I was lucky enough to see the 2017 eclipse, but I wasn't as into doing astronomy myself at that time.
Good stuff. Yes, in the Cleveland area so now just need the weather to cooperate! Thanks for the animation link, that was helpful. Wondering if you have any suggestions for what metering mode to use during totality?
I would go full manual; most cameras don't meter that well for shots of just the sun, sadly. They'll usually over or underexpose.
@@JeffGeerling Thank you. I believe during my practice shots using a solar filter I was using full screen metering as opposed to center weighted or spot.
@@SirRommy Ah, in that case, I would go with center weighted or use spot and put the spot on one of the edges of the sun (some cameras have more cross-point focus spots, others have better focus on horizontal or vertical lines). Best bet is to try both and see how they work on a sunny day, and good luck!
@@JeffGeerling AWESOME, thank you.
One very important missing information is to focus _right before_ totality, otherwise the lens may defocus due to temperature variations or from being pointed up for a long period of time. I've seen so many blurry pictures of the 2017 eclipse because photographers thought they could just focus on the Sun early during the partial phase and automate out everything else.
I think you would like going down the rabbit hole of astrophotography. You have the storage for some serious lucky imaging sessions.
Hi, nice video, I watch almost al your videos!
How do I know a brand is reputable to buy from for the eclipse shades?
I live in Belgium if that is useful to know.
I traveled to see the 2017 eclipse and almost got skunked by clouds.
Plan this time is to go to my folks in Southern IL as long as the cloud forecast is ok, and if not go to Arkansas where the forecast will be slightly better.
One thing I do need to do is get a solar tracker printed up and working (or figure out how to motorize my newtonian mount).
Having to keep adjusting the tripod to follow the sun was not ideal for enjoying the moment.
Happy weather! We are out here in Europe.
I still have my stacks of ND filters for my Canon I got back for the 2017 eclipse. The welders glass I used for the video camera was left at my old job.
Hi Jeff, and thanks for the good video. I'll be shooting the total eclipse from a great location in Texas in April, and have a couple questions for you as I start practicing with my homemade solar filters and the Sky Adventure tracker. First, does it matter whether the dark or lighter side of your solar film faces the sun? I bought the Thousand Oaks film and took some practice shots today. The second question is does your image sharpness depend on how close you get the filter to your front element of your telephoto or can it be farther away on the end of your lens hood? My first attempts look not quite sharp, though I can easily see a good sun spot. I'm wondering of the filter needs to be closer. Ill reusing a APSC Fuji mirrorless XT3, Fujis 100-400 zoom with Fujis 2X converter on it as well. I have downloaded the timer app you referenced and it's great. Thanks much in advance for the help. Now I just need to learn how to use the Sky Adventure.
The main thing is to make sure the solar filter is clean-try to only touch the edges. But the "mirror" like side should be facing the sun. The darker /matte side should face your camera.
Then it's a matter of trying to get focus perfect. This can be difficult!
I had my tripod very close to the ground since I didn't extend the two segments of the legs. I figured that if wind blew the rig over that, falling from a height near the ground would cause less damage than if I had the legs fully extended.
From that angle, I couldn't find the sun, trying to shield my left eye. That didn't work, so I draped a windbreaker over the camera to block the sun.
I also hung a sandbag from the center column of the tripod, just in case. It wasn't the sandbags used to protect property from flood damage, but those could be used to be used at the base of legs.
I learned my lesson of not using the full height of my tripod if I don't need it. The taller they are, the harder they fall.
I was doing night photography, actually, just one photo. I took a photo of the International Space Station when it passed over our house. The photo had been taken, and I accidentally tripped on one of the tripod legs.
There's a radically different low-tech approach - for the 2017 eclipse I was outside the path of totality so I built a quick and dirty Pinhole Camera and photographed the result with my smartphone
This is kid buildable and if you have more than one kid they can build one each....
Enjoy
You know this method is gonna be good. It incorporates Geerling Engineering!
Im so excited that my college is basically at the center of the path!
Nice! You won't have to move at all.
For just observing an eclipse, I used my old electric arc welding face shield for the last one. It's an option if you have one. Just a word of caution, auto tint does not always work for the sun. (It's not bright enough.) You have to have a manual full dark setting for those. Also, DO NOT use gas welders goggles. They're not nearly dark enough tint to protect you from the sun. -- 73
Goes to show you how important eye protection is for welding too!
Huh, this is the first time i have heard someone pronounce the word “eclipse” with emphasis on the letter “e”. I have always heard it with a emphasis the letter "c" instead.
I think it's a difference in the way we pronounce it in much of North America.
Yup, E-clips here in New Mexico.
Yeah it was taking me out of it every time I heard it 😭😭
Hi Jeff, as I practice with full sun with my tracking and exposures I'm finding that I have to hit a high ISO like 3200 and shutter speeds like a 30th at f11 rather than the native 100 or 200 for my Fuji XT3 in order to get even an underexposed photo of the sun on a clear day. I keep seeing experienced eclipse shooters talking about ISO 100 and 1/250th of a second at f8. I'm using the thousand Oaks film but unless there are various densities of it, do you have any idea why I'm having to use the exposures I'm describing? I do have a Fuji 2X on my 400, so f11 is as wide open as it gets.Thanks again.
If you pop off the teleconverter (I'm assuming that's what you mean by the 2x), and go down to f/8, are you able to bring down the ISO a bit?
And are you shooting on a bright sunny day with the sun higher in the sky, or towards morning/evening or with some cloud cover?
2:45 the problem i did go down that rabit hole, something batter than that film is weldels glass , glass its much fagale and you have to 3d print but its better.
Saw the last one from southern Illinois. We have friends that have travelled to several.
I'm hoping to catch this one, just praying that Missouri weather can cooperate!
Please make a video about turning a old phone into GSM voice gateway and integrating with 3CX as voice gateway to make and receive calls from 3CX from remote locations
I'm taking a trip from Michigan to Indiana and gonna combine it with a ham radio Parks On The Air activation.
Thanks for the fantastic step by step! Here in Europe, we'll be missing all the fun :(
Down here in Australia, we have until 2028 to practice our solar photography.
There will be no sunshine in Australia untill then!?
Nahhh,.. you can try solarphotography every (sunny) day. Just start totay by checking the sun coolspots to train for your total eclipse. 😊
@JeffGeerling - I'm new to photography and recently purchased a Sony A7 IV camera. I have the basic lens that came with the camera 28mm-70mm. I would love to get great shots of the eclipse in April. I watched the video and noted all of your recommendations. I have a couple of comments and questions:
1. Thank you for letting me know about rental lenses. I was about to drop serious coin. I think I will run the gambit of rentals as a try before you buy approach.
2. Would the 28-70mm be at all useful for an eclipse?
3. For the aperture, you show f/8. The lens I see on the rental site shows Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS. Would this lens be appropriate for the purposes of an eclipse?
4. Do you have any rental website recommendations or exact lens I should use in pairing my model specifically?
Thank you.
Check that, you did illustrate the screenshot and stated that some online rental places "were already out of stock on better lenses" and showed the exact one I asked about. Thanks for the help!
Thanks for this great video on photographing the Total Eclipse next month. I do plan to try to take a Total Eclipse Selfie on April 8th. What are your recommendations for taking a Total Eclipse Selfie?
Surprisingly, the lighting during totality would be great for getting a shot with you and the eclipse exposed well. My plan is to have a GoPro recording the whole thing from the ground in 4K, and at some point, I can look back to it and wave. Then I'll pull a picture of that out and use it. Just make sure to stay still, since during totality the light will probably result in slower shutter speeds.
Thanks for your Total Eclipse Selfie tips! @@JeffGeerling
Since the eclipse won't be visible in totality here in St Louis, are you going to be taking a trip somewhere like Poplar Bluff?
Down to southern MO - there are a bunch of places along I-55 that would be good viewing locations... just hopeful there is no cloud cover!
Its sad that i live on the other side of the planet in germany and cant witness this phenomenal moment. I was 2 years old, when the last total solar eclipse happened around here. I do remember a near total solar eclipse about 10-15 years ago, but i bet its still a different thing to witness a total one. Hopefully i will see one in my life :D
I never get to see these because I'm hundreds of miles out of the path usually (Desert Southwest). :\
I did take a sunburst shot in high school 15+ years ago which looked cool. I've since forgot everything I knew about photography and using a camera professionally though lol.
Do you have a link to the composite picture of the total solar eclipse? If it's a poster, could you provide the link to buy it?
I have it linked from my blog posts-it's up on Flickr too, at a fairly high resolution. For personal use, I'd be fine with you downloading a copy and printing it. Just don't try selling your own prints :)
@@JeffGeerling ohh, thank you so much for the information. I primarily want to use it as a wallpaper for my ultra wide monitor hahaha.
I can't wait to check out the 12K HDR video some are trying to capture and the people who have Apple Vision Pro to get a spatial video of the event. What are your thoughts on Texas? Seems like everyone's saying it's the best spot weather-wise.
It certainly has some of the best chances in terms of clear skies. Also, the closer you get to Mexico, the (slightly) longer the time in totality will be.
@@JeffGeerling I'll take every picosecond of it.
My shop is right on the edge, might have to go for a short drive south.
Do it! Though the edges of the path have a slightly longer "Bailey's beads" effect
I have a 300mm lens and a 500. The 300 is from cannon and has autofocus but im in california so i dont know how good a view i will get
I missed 2017 and deeply regretted it. This time I've booked the time off (months ago) and we're going to drive to wherever it looks clearest.
A good plan! We're set on a place and booked a hotel, but if the forecast that day is bad, we might drive another hour or so out of the way if that gets us out of a storm's path!
I took a picture of a partial solar eclipse with an old TZ80 and 2 floppy drives filters (one on top of the sensor and another on the lens), it was effectively free
why do you keep saying E clips
I'm going to Buffalo to see the Eclipse. Just hope there are no clouds in the sky!
Pair a good camera with a Pi, a tracking mount and an OCP-TAP Time Card and you’ve got one heck of an observatory.
Honestly I considered going that route, but just don't have the time to build something that would stand up for driving a long distance and be somewhat kid-safe (in case one of the little ones got ahold of the tripod).
Good point; I’ve read upon stepper motor control in a failed attempt to build a Pi-steerable altitude-azimuth mount. Turns out it’s really difficult to increment/decrement angles in e.g. steps of 0.1 degrees.
If anyone knows of such a kit or prebuilt setup for a Pi I’d be interested as I would like to mount a Pi HQ camera on it and track stuff. Timing wouldn’t be an issue since I have a couple of NEO-M8T Timing HATs for this very thing.
Here from smarter everyday and glad to subscribe
3:31 I somehow have a few lights at home that I can see with eclipse glasses.
FYI your framing is a little too low for viewing on a phone with a wider aspect ratio. I noticed LTT does extra wide videos that perfectly line up with the notch or cut out for the front facing camera
You mean in terms of where my head is in the frame? I haven't considered that... what phone are you using?
@@JeffGeerling S22 Ultra.
I see you used 1/80s exposure during totality but what did you use before and after? If it's mentioned in the video then I think I missed it.
I seemed to settle on 1/250 back in 2017, for the shots before and after.
@@JeffGeerling interesting, so a difference of only about 1.5 stops? I would have expected the difference in exposure between eclipsed and naked sun to be a lot more.
@@aspuzlingthe shots at 1/80 are also without the very dark filter!
@@anatali121 ah very good point!
@@aspuzling - Depending on haze, it could end up more, but yeah it's not that much difference to expose for the prominences / flares vs the sun itself. If you want to expose for moon or stars, then you need a much larger difference (5-10 stops), but it can then get tricky pulling the detail without blowing things out too (especially with older sensors).
Emphasizing the first syllable of "eclipse" sounds so weird to me... not sure if that's a regional thing (west coast for me).
I was at the 2017 total eclipse (before I got into astrophotography, so nothing more than a monocular on hand) and it was definitely a life experience. Everybody who has the means should try to attend at least one in their lifetime, because there's nothing else quite like it on the planet.
Also confirming that a total and partial/annular eclipse are entirely incomparable experiences. Partial ones are kinda neat, but less than a tenth the wow factor compared to a total eclipse.
zomg you're an astrophotographer too! 🥰🥰🥰
I'll be in TX with a C11 and a dslr/catadioptric on a go-to/tracker.
Not a good one, but I have a mediocre telescope and try to take images and bring my kids out for any major events when they're visible around STL!
We also have a pretty cool planetarium where we can explore the stars in the city.
6:33 Did you avoid the word Corona for algorithm reasons here? 😅
but during the eclipse at a certain point you take off the solar filter, right?
Only during totality (assuming your in its path).
For me, I care more about what the light does to the ground than to the eclipse itself.
I'm really glad Smarter Everyday told us about shadow bands. These were freaky. It made the eclipse feel like a supernatural event.
The whole thing is a crazy event! And yes, definitely bring a white blanket or something so you can watch that stuff too.
What you are not going the extra PI mile ;-) , looking forward to hear about your experience after the eclipse
I remember seeing mine like, what was it 6 or so years ago now on Eastern US/Canada
More photo content please
Need to get back into things with the Pi 5 and some new mounts... we'll see!
I also have some new AI tools I'd like to play with a bit more.
@@JeffGeerling oooo consumer grade custom and home run AI is something that I would love to see more content of as well!
I don't think I've ever heard anyone prior to this consistently pronounce "eclipse" with the accent on the first syllable
Even if you don't want to photograph the eclipse, go experience. Let others photograph the eclipse. You want to make sure you *experience* a total solar eclipse at least once in your life.
There will certainly be a few hundred thousand excellent photos of it, for sure. That's why I'm keeping my setup simple this year... was considering a live stream, or making a video, but that's just too much pressure and I and my family wouldn't be able to enjoy the moment as much.
about observing the sun: first rule to follow IMPERATIVELY:
we cannot observe the sun without filters with the naked eye or with a telescope! !
otherwise it will be the last thing we see (becoming blind like that is permanent).
with the necessary precautions, a solar eclipse through a telescope (properly filtered) or with specific filtering glasses for solar eclipses, remains a magical spectacle
Ye, I don't think pixels was the only thing he burnt that day @3:17 *. Not that he had many left!
The only eclipse I care about ingests keyboard inputs.
Jokes aside, thank you for the video. It was educational even if I really do not care taking photographs of anything. The technology is always interesting.
Good luck to all trying to capture the solar eclipse :)
* One second earlier and it would have been a perfect wrestling/Texas reference
I'm planning to go to Buffalo ( and also see family maby ) I am hoping to attempt to live stream it. Not sure how that's gonna go but I'm up for a challenge. (if interested it will be on this account < ). I don't know if it'll work but I'm gonna try, it'll at least be a video of it getting dark. Attempted photos last time around and they came out OK for having minimal knowledge and prep with basic equipment.
Hi Jeff, great video (apart from missing pop on pop off filter).
Jeff, I know you are American, but it's an eclipse, not an eee-clipse 🤣🤣🤣. You make it sound like an e-book or something.
Maybe electronic clips !🤣🤣😎
Is it just me or does Jeff say eclipse weird? I've only ever heard ee-KLIPS not EE-klips.
I'm from Missourah :)
I see that the next total eclips in my country is in 2090
Aww, well hopefully there'll be some opportunity to travel to a place where one will occur between now and then!
I was told at 6 years old to not look at a total eclipse. It was in Victoria Australia around 1977. I was told it could hurt your eyes like looking at the sun directly. I would check before saying you can look at one. Good video nonetheless and let me know if I'm wrong.
During a total solar eclipse, assuming you're in an area covered by totality, the entire disc of the sun is covered by the moon, meaning you can look directly at where the sun is in the sky-you won't see the sun, but instead just features like solar flares / prominences, which are not bright enough to harm your eyesight.
I feel like in the Rick and Morty dimension where everything is normal but people say eeclipse funny.
What about some HDR photos?
That's one of the more 'advanced' techniques I mention later in the video-though I do usually pull back some shadow detail in Photoshop / Lightroom when I'm processing the RAW image files. Combine a few using Photoshop and you can get a well-toned HDR image that doesn't look overprocessed.
That can be an interesting look but I try to make something that resembles more of what I see with my eyes on the day of, rather than something that pulls details out of the depths and looks processed.
But to each their own!
@@JeffGeerling I forgot that these days decent cameras can pretty much match our eyes in terms of dynamic range. Crazy when you think that you used to need 9 exposures when HDR imaging first started.
@@jfolz Yeah I remember back when I had my first digital camera, I would take a bunch of photos then spend hours post-processing to get something resembling HDR. Nowadays one photo with a modern high-end mirrorless camera has like 9-12 stops of usable range, and you can pull decent stuff out of pitch-black shadows! It's crazy.
Cries in Australia (we don't get the eclipse at all here)
Ah, well hopefully you get a chance to see one somewhere in the world, someday! Otherwise, I recommend NASA's coverage.
Ooh, potentially excellent content - I'm hoping it means we can all spend a week in Mauritius, Tahiti, Borneo or the best parts of the Caribbean.... Checks where this year's eclipse happens...
Oh, North America.
Nice
Not sure I'll buy a ticket
Teasing aside, this is an absolutely fantastic guide to photographing the eclipse - top advice
why is this "solar filter" so expensive it it's just a piece of aluminium foil?
I am not a native English speaker, is it really pronounced e-clipse? How kept thinking of an electronic eclipse, maybe that is what you meant?
That's how we say it in North America at least.
euclups
e clips
Interesting, I’m originally from Ohio, and have only ever heard e-CLIPSE, rather than E-clipse. I wonder if it‘s different by region.
It's an American thing, like I-rack rather than Ir-aq for Iraq.
@@CyclingSteve like I said, I‘m an American, and until today I would have been sure that Americans in every region put the emphasis on the second syllable rather than the first.
I've experienced a total eclipse, I think it was 25? years ago. I would avoid photographing it and try to just experience it instead. Weird as hell!