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It’s hard to get a great photo of a total solar eclipse, so I asked for help from a NatGeo photographer.
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Babak Tafreshi has been photographing solar eclipses for 30 years. He has seen them on all seven continents.
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The most challenging part for him is to control his own excitement enough to take a clear shot.
Total solar eclipses aren’t something you see every day. Monday’s eclipse was the last one we would see in the United States for another 20 years.
When these things happen, it’s natural to want to document them. But capturing the perfect shot is difficult. If you do not take the necessary precautions, you may damage your eyes and camera.
I knew I wanted to take a great eclipse photo, but I had no idea what I was doing. I needed professional guidance. So I contacted National Geographic photographer Babak Tafreshi, who has been photographing eclipses for 30 years.
Following Tafreshi’s advice, I was able to take over 50 photos of the eclipse using both my iPhone and DSLR camera. Here are four tips that made these photos possible for me.
Protect yourself and your equipment during the eclipse
Be sure to protect your lenses. This goes for your eyes and your camera too. Unless you are within the window of totality, you should make sure to protect yourself and your equipment from the sun’s harsh rays.
It is never safe to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection. Before and after the eclipse, you need to wear eclipse glasses to safely view the eclipse.
Direct sunlight is also not good for your camera or smartphone. UV radiation can cause damage when it flows directly into your camera lens.
Tafreshi said you should use an ND filter of at least 10 stops, preferably 16 stops, to protect your equipment when photographing the partial eclipse. ND filters are like sunglasses for your camera; They reduce the intensity of the light coming into your lens. You can also buy a solar filter for your smartphone.
I didn’t pre-purchase an ND filter for my DSLR, so I only used that camera to photograph integrity; when it is safe to photograph the eclipse without a filter.
To take photos of the partial eclipse, I used my iPhone camera, which I protected with spare eclipse glasses. I just held the lens of the glasses over my iPhone camera lens and viola!
Keep calm and use a tripod
Solar eclipses are exciting, especially during total eclipse, when the moon’s shadow completely blocks the sun and plunges you into darkness.
For some, wholeness is a visceral experience. Your physical reaction to sudden change in light and temperature can make it difficult to hold the camera steady and focus on getting the right shot, Tafreshi said in an email statement.
“The hardest part is [of eclipse photography] “Of course, it’s how you control your senses,” he wrote. “Because integrity affects something that is very deep within us and difficult to control.”
And he was right. When totality hit, I was stunned by the drop in light and temperature, the beautiful view of the sun’s corona, and the sunset-like colors on the horizon. It took me a while to catch my breath and refocus on the task at hand.
Tafreshi explained that any shaking or shaking of your camera will ruin your eclipse shot. This is especially important to remember during totality when you use higher exposure. It’s best to use a tripod if you think your hands will shake during the experience.
I used a 50-inch tripod to keep my camera steady while taking integrity shots. It helped keep my camera steady, but I didn’t have a remote shutter release to prevent movement when taking photos. When you zoom in you can see that my integrity photos are a little blurry.
Use manual camera settings
Cellphone cameras worked well during the eclipse, but those using a regular old camera may have learned that it’s best not to rely on automatic settings, especially if you’re using a DSLR, Tafreshi said.
That’s because your camera’s sensor can become confused by the sudden drop in light in the final moments before totality, Tafreshi said. Although totality does not cause pitch darkness, he said, “The decline in light is so rapid that we feel like everything is turning pitch black.”
Your camera’s automatic settings cannot quickly adapt to this rapid lighting change. Manual settings give you the dexterity you need to transition from photographing a partial eclipse to a total eclipse.
For example, to capture the final moments before totality (when the diamond ring effect appears), you want to use a shutter speed of approximately 1/1000 of a second. But as soon as the last rays of the sun disappear, you need to switch to a shutter speed of 0.5 to 1 second.
When shooting totality with my DSLR, I set the ISO to 100, my aperture to f/9, and used exposure bracketing, which allows you to take multiple photos at a variety of exposures at the same time. It helps make sure you don’t end up with an over- or under-exposed image.
Be creative
“The best photo of an eclipse is not necessarily a clean, sharp, close-up of the image,” Tafreshi said. said. “This is what everyone aims for. Find your own signature and creativity in this unique phenomenon.”
He suggested adding interesting elements in the foreground, such as other eclipse watchers and their reactions to the event, or a beautiful landscape, such as mountains or water, in the background.
When I wasn’t shooting totality, I tried to take some photos of the dark horizon and the silhouettes of excited eclipse watchers.
Switching between shooting partial eclipse, totality, sunset-like horizon, and people definitely challenged my photography skills. But thanks to Tafreshi’s advice, I actually managed to capture the main event quite clearly.
Read the original article on Business Insider