Photography How To: How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse

Jan 15th 2010 is a special day. That is the day when some parts of the world will see the longest annular solar eclipse in the last 1000 years. The next solar eclipse that will last as long as this will only appear somewhere around the year 3034. In India, the next Total Solar Eclipse is another 25 years away.

However this time, the eclipse will be visible from Dhanushkodi and the maximum coverage will be seen from Rameshwaram in South India. In a lot of other places in India, Sri Lanka, Africa and parts of China, the eclipse will be seen as a partial eclipse. In Bangalore, the eclipse will last roughly between 11:00am and 3:15pm with the peak at around 1:15pm.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to watch this celestial event, either partially or in totality, and who have a camera in hand, this is one opportunity to not be missed. Being able to record this event will preserve the memories of this event for years to come. However, there are certain ground rules that you have to follow to photograph an eclipse.

The first and most important rule of them all is to be safe and keep your eyes protected. Never look at the sun directly, or through supposedly safe objects such as x-ray film, stained glass etc. I understand that the safest way to watch the eclipse is to project the image of the eclipse onto a wall or a cardboard by means of a pinhole camera. If you intend to do any sort of photography, do get yourself a pair of special goggles that are meant to view eclipses. Never stare at the sun too long and take just the occasional glances. Read about eye safety here.

Once you have followed all safety guidelines, here are some tips that will help you take some stunning shots of an eclipse. An eclipse is meant to be captured in different ways and the techniques differ whether you are photographing a total eclipse or a partial eclipse or an annular eclipse. You first need to understand that your camera is not meant to take a photo of the sun by itself. The sun is a very bright object and most cameras cannot capture it correctly. You might be interested to reduce the intensity with which the camera captures the images by putting up a few ND filters in front of the lens. ND filters are used to cut out light and reduce exposures. Read about ND filters here. ND filters would be required when you are taking photos of the partial stage or the annular stage of an eclipse. During totality however, the way you shoot will be completely different and you have to resort to longer exposures to get those coronal streamers.

Any photograph of the eclipse where the sun is in the picture will be extremely bright and an image might not be formed correctly. Where the ND filter helps is to cut out the light and take a photo with a good exposure. If you don't have an ND filter handy, then you can make do with a dark glass. I prefer keeping a sunglass in front of the lens since I don't have an ND filter.

The important parameters to keep in mind when taking the photograph of an eclipse (except during totality) are minimum ISO, minimum Aperture, high Shutter Speed. Set these values on your camera if you have manual mode before you set out to do your photography. If your camera has a histogram function, you can adjust one of the parameters (preferably aperture) till you get a good exposure. If you do not have a camera with manual controls, then you could choose a scene mode like 'Snow photography' and let the camera do the rest. Snow photography involves a lot of light and a lot of reflection, and usually the camera does exactly what I mentioned before - reduce ISO, reduce Aperture size, and aim for the highest Shutter speeds. Remember, unlike fireworks photography, an eclipse will last a couple of minutes, even the totality phase lasts a few minutes, and you have ample time to get your setting right and get an awesome photograph.

In the case of totality the situation becomes different and it works almost like you are doing low light photography. However, in this case, I would recommend that you aim to keep shutter speeds as high as possible while adjusting all the other factors to get a good exposure. If you have Shutter Priority mode, there is nothing like it, keep the shutter at anything between 1sec to 4secs or more so that you can capture the coronal streamers. Depending on the duration for which your shutter is open, you have to reduce the ISO and the Aperture. The best photos of totality can be had when you take photographs using a tripod. While photographing totality, remember to take all the filters off, and do remember to force your flash off if you are shooting in any form of an automatic mode. You can also calibrate your camera in advance to photograph a solar eclipse.

Jan 15 2010 is the next solar eclipse and this post has been made in time for that so that you can keep your equipment ready to capture this awesome event. Happy shooting. Watch this blog for some pictures of the eclipse as long as the clouds in my city don't play truant.

Following are some images of the eclipse taken from Flickr. These images are licensed under Creative Commons and certain or all rights may be reserved.