{"id":38802,"date":"2024-04-09T06:14:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=38802"},"modified":"2024-04-09T10:36:40","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T14:36:40","slug":"how-i-photographed-yesterdays-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/how-i-photographed-yesterdays-eclipse\/","title":{"rendered":"How I photographed yesterday’s Eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday was a working day for me, so I didn’t have time to drive hours to reach the path of totality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t buy any fancy special equipment. I didn’t use any external filters. I didn’t use a tripod. I didn’t have special glasses. I also didn’t look directly into the sun, and so I didn’t damage my vision. Conditions were partially cloudy, which I found greatly aided my photography and made for more dramatic images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following photos of the solar eclipse were made on our back patio in Lancaster, Pennsylvania using my Nikon Z7-II mirrorless digital camera fitted with a standard f2.8 70-200mm Z-series zoom lens. This is the same equipment that I regularly use to photograph trains and other terrestrial subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Z7-II has a flexible\/adjustable rear diplay screen that allowed me to point the camera skyward while looking away from the sun. I set the focus manually to infinity (confirmed by the digital readout on my lens). Likewise, I manually set the ISO rating to the lowest possible setting (‘Low 1.0’) which effectively provides an ISO rating of 40, and set the exposure (shutter and aperature) manually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By exposing a series of test photos, I determined the optimal aperature\/shutter speed combination to preserve the eclipse digitally. I’ve included this data in the caption below each image. I tried a few exposures at both ISO 64 and then ISO 40 at f22 1\/8000th of a second, and ultimately settled on between f10 and f22 at either 1\/2000th or 1\/4000th of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just for frame of reference; f22 at 1\/4000th of a second at ISO 40 is about 8 and 1\/2 stops down (darker) than my standard daylight exposure for photographing trains in full sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After making several rounds of celestial exposures, I’d download the card to my Apple laptop to inspect the images before making additional images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Adobe Lightroom, I scaled photographs from 51.4MB NEF RAW files to manageable sized JPGs to display via the internet. I made no<\/strong> corrections\/alterations to color, constast, exposure etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A sliver of sun at 3:15pm 1-2000th of second, f10, ISO40, 200mm \u00a9BrianSolomon<\/figcaption>
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