It will soon disappear – complete darkness of the solar eclipse on Monday will continue Until 4 minutes 28 seconds It depends on where you are on the path of totality when the moon blocks the face of the sun.
Photos will be saved much longer. And some photographers have been preparing for the big moment for a long time.
Astrophotographer Stan Honda he told CNN last week. what he is aiming for Fredericksburg, Texas, with hope for sunshine. He plans to carry his four cameras, but you don’t need that many to capture this ultra-rare event.
“You can take good photos of the eclipse with almost any type of camera or lens,” Honda explained. “To stabilize the setup, I recommend a fairly sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release that allows you to take photos without moving the camera too much.”
Here are some other tips to help you get the shot of a lifetime.
Get a solar filter
To fully experience a total solar eclipse, you’ll need to be along its path, which is more than 100 miles wide, from Texas to Maine.
You will also need solar glasses to protect your eyes and a solar filter to protect your smartphone camera from damaging the lens due to sunlight and overexposing your photos.
Ready-made solar filters for smartphones include: VisiSolar Smartphone Photo Filter And that Solar Snap Eclipse App Kit, Live Science Report.
According to , you can also make your own solar filter by holding or taping a spare solar glass lens to your smartphone’s camera lens. Dr. Ralph ChowProfessor Emeritus of Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Waterloo.
Everything you need to know about the 2024 solar eclipse
- The solar eclipse will occur on Monday, April 8th, blocking the sun from more than 180 million people in its path.
- The eclipse will spread from the Pacific coast of Mexico across North America, hitting 15 U.S. states and reaching the shores of Newfoundland, Canada.
- New Yorkers will experience a solar eclipse Monday just after 2 p.m.
- Experts say a massive solar explosion known as a coronal mass ejection is expected. Ryan French of the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, explains that this happens when huge particles from the sun are sent flying into space.
- To avoid serious damage to the eyes, during the pre- and post-total partial eclipse stages, the phenomenon must be viewed through appropriate glasses, such as eclipse glasses or hand-held solar observing devices.
- The next total solar eclipse will occur on August 12, 2026, and will be visible to people in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and parts of Portugal.
Set focus and exposure
Once the solar filter is secured, be sure to manually set focus and exposure.
“If you turn on the filter, the auto settings won’t work. Most of the frame will be black, so it’s like taking a photo at night,” Honda told CNN. “Manual focusing can also be a big help. You can autofocus on the sun, but then you need to disable autofocus so the camera doesn’t keep focusing through the filter. It’s too dark and the darkness fools you and you can’t focus.”
To manually set your phone’s focus, tap the moon on the screen.
On iPhone, you’ll see a small sun icon to the right of the focus box. Drag the icon up or down to adjust exposure.
Android users will need to hold their finger on the moon on the screen for a few seconds before moving their finger left or right to adjust the focus.
Photographers can also turn off the flash to take clear photos.
Be careful with zoom
Zooming in often reduces the quality of the photo on some devices, so be careful how close you get.
iPhone 15 Pro features a telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The Washington Post reported Get the best quality and up to 15x digital zoom.
Samsung Galaxy S Ultra smartphones feature 3x to 10x optical zoom. The Space Zoom feature allows you to zoom up to 100x.
However, if you don’t have one of these fancy phones, you can purchase a telephoto lens attachment for $20 to $50 to get a 12x to 18x field of view.
Capture the “Diamond Ring” using burst mode
You should also practice your iPhone’s Burst Mode feature. Take multiple photos at once — before a big show.
The eclipse is expected to last about two and a half hours, but the most spectacular part is known as the “diamond ring” that occurs just before and after the total eclipse.
“It’s a very bright part of the sun, right in that corner. It looks like a ring with a diamond on it, but it only lasts a few seconds, maybe 10 seconds,” Honda said.
Use burst mode to get the best shot of your diamond ring.
