Solar Eclipse Photography Tips from Nikon | Best Camera Settings | 2024 Solar Eclipse Guide

hey guys I'm Mike mewell II extreme nature and landscape photographer and Nikon Ambassador in this video we're going to discuss the different settings that you should be utilizing to photograph the upcoming total solar eclipse these settings use them more as guidelines so start with the settings that we talk about and adjust from there various factors such as what specific moment of the eclipse is occurring cloud cover solar filter density and available aperture will all play an important role in your settings all right let's break down our settings for the four different parts of the total eclipse these parts are the partial eclipse Bailey's beads the diamond ring effect n totality it's important to mention that approved protective eyewear are solar eclipse glasses and they should be worn while photographing the eclipse the only time it is acceptable to not wear protective eyewear is during totality okay let's talk about settings the first step to getting a correct exposure is to make sure that you have your solar filter on your lens before ever pointing your camera towards the sun once your filter is properly attached and your camera mounted on a sturdy tripod you'll be able to frame up your shot and start adjusting your settings you will also want to make sure that your camera is set to shoot in raw so you have access to the dynamic range within your camera's files for postprocessing I recommend this for people who are familiar with shooting in raw if you've only ever shot in jpeg go Ahad and stick with that for now and if you're choosing to use a remote trigger for your shutter now is a good time to attach it for images that are taken during the partial eclipse your shutter speed is going to be your most important factor I recommend starting at 1/ 1000th of a second but this will vary depending on the density of your filter now no matter what phase of the partial eclipse you're in the brightness of the sun isn't going to change by much so your overall settings will remain relatively the same all the way up until totality now there are other factors such as the movement of the Earth and the moon and even wind that could affect your settings so I recommend using a faster shutter speed rather than a slower one with the sun putting off an abundance of light your ISO can remain quite low somewhere around 200 to 400 ISO now that you have your shutter speed and ISO set you can use spot metering or if your camera has highlight weighted metering use that to meter off the Sun and get your aperture setting considering that the eclipse is taking place millions of miles away you're not going to have to worry too much about depth of field for my aperture I try to be right around f8 I also recommend using manual focus with Focus PE on if your camera has that functionality to make sure your focus is as tack sharp as possible this is something that you can practice weeks before the eclipse to become familiar with manually focusing the lens using focus peaking as totality approaches there are two moments that you do not want to miss these are Bailey's beads and the diamond ring effect and they both happen very quickly you will still need to keep your solar filter on for these moments even though much of the light has diminished for the diamond ring effect which is when the moon is almost completely covering the Sun and creating this flaring effect that resembles a diamond ring I recommend being around 1 160th of a second to really help create that dramatic lighting for Bailey's beads which is the last bleading moments of light as they shine through the creatives of the Moon I recommend having your camera set to 1 1000th of a second and shoot on continuous high this moment happens within just seconds so press that shutter down and rattle off as many frames as you can to ensure you don't miss the Magic Moment now the diamond ring effect will happen right before Bailey's beats these moment happen one right after another and very quickly so I'd recommend focusing on shooting one moment or the other if you only have one camera body now as we move into the most amazing part of the eclipse full totality we will need to be quick to adjust our settings our first step will be to remove our solar filter as it's not needed during the totality phase as day turns toight you'll need to let in more light but please note that there really isn't a perfect setting for this moment it is highly recommended to bracket various shutter speeds throughout total by bracketing you give yourself two options when all is said and done the first is to be able to choose which exposure you like best if you'd just like to use a single shot the second is to be able to create an HDR exposure of the eclipse by combining a set of images your ISO can remain low around 200 and your aperture can float at around f8 to F9 but you will want to try various shutter speeds from 1 1000th of a second all the way down to 1 second to get different creative looks now depending on your choice of focal length you may notice as we get down into slower shutter speeds that there may be a little bit of motion blur with a moon if you notice that bring your shutter speed up faster and compensate with your ISO being brought up a stop at a time as well as totality ends make sure to put your solar filter back onto your lens as you continue shooting the second half of the eclipse as it enters the last partial phase all right remember these settings are more like guidelines so I highly recommend taking some time to practice the days before the eclipse to get familiar with your settings and just comfortable with your camera gear before the Big Moment also if there are any thin clouds in the sky in front of the eclipse you may need to let in a bit more light by using your ISO to compensate all right guys I hope this video helps build confidence in your e clip settings stay tuned for an additional video where we're going to discuss different compositions to get creative with your eclipse photos

Channel: Nikon USA

Views: 38,196

Keywords:

Id: 0HTolln90Ac

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2024