For many people, total solar eclipses are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So if you are, or you are going to be, on the
The first thing is please do not look at the Sun
This is even more important when you consider lenses. If you are using cameras, binoculars, or telescopes, use them only with the appropriate filters in the lead-up to totality. Seeing the sun with the naked eye is very risky; putting your camera equipment or eyeball in the way of a magnified and collimated sunlight is destructive. If a lens can use sunlight to start fires, you do not want to put something you care about behind it.
How to best photograph the eclipsed sun
Now that the warnings are out of the way – seriously, protect your eyes – this is how you should approach photography of the Sun during an eclipse. Make sure you have a filter if you are planning to take shots before or after totality. At
You do not need fancy equipment to photograph totality. Make sure you are in the right position and maybe consider if you want to include the panorama as well! The sky gets weirdly low on the horizon during an eclipse, like a
If you are using a DSLR or another camera, consider a good zoom lens to get a nice close-up shot of the Sun. For DSLR cameras, the best way to determine the correct exposure is to test settings on the uneclipsed Sun beforehand. Using a fixed aperture of f/8 to f/16, try shutter speeds between 1/1,000 to 1/4 second to find the optimal setting, which you can then use to take images during the partial stages of the eclipse.
During totality, the corona has a wide range of brightness, so it’s best to use a fixed aperture and a range of exposures from approximately 1/1,000 to 1 second; but, you could try to do something more complex. Renowned astrophotographer
“That photo was captured using automatic settings and a 300mm telephoto lens on an extremely old DSLR. This year I will be capturing a much more technically complex shot, which will be a high dynamic range photo using several telescopes and cameras all working simultaneously for the four minutes of the eclipse. The resulting image will have much more detail and dynamic range if I succeed,” McCarthy told IFLScience.
You can find more details about the shot and general eclipse photography in