How I photographed a Solar Eclipse

Brandy Fortune
Aug 27, 2017 · 5 min read

The story of how I ventured out to photograph my first solar eclipse, with no prior experience. I cover what equipment I used, how I set it up, and what settings I used.

When I realized there was going to be a total solar eclipse in North America I was immediately excited. When I learned that totality was a mere half a days drive I got really exicted.

Totality of the North American Eclipse of 2017. Shot from Newberry, South Carolina.

My first instinct was to want to photograph it. I grew up with a darkroom in my house, and at a very young age helped my father by holding his heavy flash to bounce light. Photography is in my blood.

My kit compromised of a Canon 5D Mark III, and my longest lens was a mere 135mm. I was concerned this would not be long enough but couldn’t justify a new lens and felt at a loss for what to do, until mere weeks before totality an article I was reading mentioned using an extender.

I95 was a parking lot of cars.

I quickly found a used extender on B&H for a very reasonable price, an EF 1.4X which took my 135mm as close to 200mm as I could ask for on such short notice. I had the luck of owning the LEE filter system, and I had to make the very hard decision of investing in a proper solar filter. There was a paper option also of about $30 but once I had invested in the extender and the new tripod I didn’t want to skimp on the glass. In photography, glass is the place you invest the most.

I had read hundreds of solar photography articles by then, and many had mentioned that a safe starting point for settings was 800-8-800 which basically meant an ISO of 800, a shutter speed of 1/800 and an f-stop of 8. I decided to trust those who had been before me and those settings did not let me down. I auto-bracketed and used live-view and manual focus. Trying to find the sun without live-view was incredibly hard. Without it you would have to cut out solar film and put in on the viewfinder so you could find the sun with your eye.

The tripod wth some cloth covering it durring the first half of the eclipse.

The tripod I used allowed the camera to be aimed straight up, which was also assential and to avoid camera shake I set the internal timer to 2 seconds and shot with a slight delay for a sharper shot. I did a test shoot at home to make sure I was comfortable setting everything up.

On the day of the eclipse I was nervous, I set my expectations low in capturing something beautiful. I didn’t want to disappoint myself and I was starting to regret the money I had spent on the extra gear.

Photographing the eclipse prior to totality was a fairly calm affair as there is almost a full hour to photograph the movment of the eclipse.

Suddenly though it’s about to happen. It started to look a bit dark out, and the air gets cool. I was not sure if totality was happening yet, we kept looking in the paper glasses and wondering if it was time to look with our eyes. I shot off extra pictures not really sure what I would get. Quickly though, I noticed all sorts of weird bands of light on the ground. We stood in a deserted parking lot behind a high school and we could see the whirling bands of light all around. It didn’t seem real. I was looking at the ground instead of up and everyone was yelling because of what we were seeing.

Seconds before or after totality, the “Diamond Ring” effect from the 2017 Solar Eclipse.

I don’t believe I took many pictures during that moment because I was too busy yelling in delight with my family. I knew however that once that light show ended it meant we could take off our glasses and look with our bare eyes at the sun (and remove the solar filter!). I raced to take a few pictures, and then forced myself to look up and enjoy the moment. My heart was beating fast the entire time, I would look at the sun for a few seconds, then take a picture, then look around, then look back up. It was dizzying and a blur of events. It was so dark I could not see the buttons on the back of my camera, and so I could not change the ISO during totallity.

After everything was over we packed up our gear and jumped back into the car in hopes of avoiding traffic. I pulled out my laptop to download the images while we moved at a snails pace down the highway. I could not believe my eyes. I was stunned the photos turned out so well, despite having seen the preview on the back of the camera. I had one glorious shot with lens flare I could not have dreamed of. That LEE filter was worth every penny.

The bucket list has a checkmark and I have the images to prove it.

My kids enjoying the eclipse in all its glory.
)
Brandy Fortune

Written by

User Experience Designer @ Capital One with a focus on Information Architecture & Usability.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade