DSLR settings for USA total solar eclipse

[buzzc150]

Hi all

I shall be watching the eclipse in a few weeks in South Carolina. I'm looking for some advice on how to set up my camera to get the shot i want.

I shall be viewing with my family and the picture I'm imagining is the 4 of us in the foreground with the eclipsed sun behind us. I'll only have one shot at getting this right and don't want to miss the event fiddling with camera settings.

So, my question is, can anyone give me a good idea of how I should set the camera up, what settings, aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc to use. I have a remote trigger and tripod. I'll try plenty of practice shots in the nights before around dusk but that won't give exactly the right results I expect.

Thoughts please ?

[tooth_dr]

I've downloaded the eclipse book by Alan Dyer  I'd recommend it!

http://www.amazingsky.com/tablet/eclipsebook.html

 

[michael8554]

By the time you've got to totality you should have arrived at an exposure setting for the background scenery and the eclipse, you'll then need the combined  flash setting that fills in your family in the foregound.

Plus bracket setting if that's possible.

Michael

[jeannie]

8 hours ago, buzzc150 said:

Hi all

I shall be watching the eclipse in a few weeks in South Carolina. I'm looking for some advice on how to set up my camera to get the shot i want.

I shall be viewing with my family and the picture I'm imagining is the 4 of us in the foreground with the eclipsed sun behind us. I'll only have one shot at getting this right and don't want to miss the event fiddling with camera settings.

So, my question is, can anyone give me a good idea of how I should set the camera up, what settings, aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc to use. I have a remote trigger and tripod. I'll try plenty of practice shots in the nights before around dusk but that won't give exactly the right results I expect.

Thoughts please ?

Hi.  You actually have two photos there.  One is the eclipse itself in the background and the other is your family in the foreground.  Check this site for exposure information: http://www.mreclipse.com/MrEclipse.html .  To get both simultaneously, you will have to shoot at a low ISO, a slow shutter speed and a small aperture to pull this off, but if you do honey it is slick. You will need an off camera flash on a stand and a fully manual camera.  Assuming a 100 ISO, a 50mm lens (or equivalent on a DSLR) set the aperture and the flash to f16, focus on the family which should be at least 15 feet from the camera (on a tripod), and set the shutter to 1/15.  Use the remote trigger to open the lens, set off the flash and everybody hold still!  Do this when the eclipse reaches solar radii 0.2 (just the corona showing). You need the small aperture to get enough depth of field and you will need to practice to be sure you hit hyperfocal distance and get the sun in acceptable focus.  If you don't have an off camera flash, you might be able to do this with the built in flash but the critical part is  the long exposure.  Flash syncs on most camera at 1/200, however you can always use the flash at a slower than sync shutter speed.  You should go out and find a light source (like a street light or light on a barn) get a good distance away, put the family 15 feet away from the camera and practice. 

 

Or

 

You take two photos - one of the family with a flash during the eclipse, one of the eclipse using proper exposures for both.  Frame up on the family with the eclipse in the background and shoot that with the flash.  Shoot another exposure of the eclipse without moving the camera.  Stack the images using a photo editor like photoshop or lightroom (you can get free trials on Adobe's website.) You have to play around with it to match the density. 

 

The first method is advanced location lighting and it is what we did before we had photoshop.  Its hard, but if you practice it will work. Good luck. 

[Luna-tic]

On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 13:33, buzzc150 said:

Hi all

I shall be watching the eclipse in a few weeks in South Carolina. I'm looking for some advice on how to set up my camera to get the shot i want.

I shall be viewing with my family and the picture I'm imagining is the 4 of us in the foreground with the eclipsed sun behind us. I'll only have one shot at getting this right and don't want to miss the event fiddling with camera settings.

So, my question is, can anyone give me a good idea of how I should set the camera up, what settings, aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc to use. I have a remote trigger and tripod. I'll try plenty of practice shots in the nights before around dusk but that won't give exactly the right results I expect.

Thoughts please ?

This will be a very difficult shot to accomplish, as the Sun will be about 10 degrees beyond the zenith at totality (almost directly overhead) all along its track through SC. You'd be able to do some creative shooting by having the camera at ground level pointing up, and maybe get your family from the shoulders up with the eclipsed Sun above you.  A lens with a FOV wide enough to get the family close enough to see well will make the Sun a tiny dot in the background, and getting the exposure to show the corona will likely overexpose the family. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you'll have to be pretty creative. I'd say that Jeannie has a good idea with shooting two photos and stacking them. You could even do a family picture in a controlled environment in front of a neutral blank screen and superimpose them on a photo of the eclipse. Then you could enlarge the eclipse to a size that would show better.

I'm also planning to shoot the eclipse from SC, near Clemson. From 1st contact to 2nd contact, and 3rd to 4th, will be through a filtered C6 with a f/6.3 reducer, with my DSLR at prime focus.  Totality will be through an unfiltered 300mm zoom lens, hoping also to get a Diamond Ring and/or Bailey's Beads just at 3rd contact.  The last two weeks, whenever I can get outside, I've been bracketing shutter speeds and ISO trying to get the best combinations. I've been shooting around the approximate time of totality, and I'm only 1 degree north of where I'll be shooting on eclipse day. I'm basically pointed straight up.