Annular eclipse sequence, Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic NP, CA
Right after the annular solar eclipse on May 20th I went to the Google+ Photographers Conference in San Francisco. This was a really fun event—more about that later. But I mention this because I got involved in the conference, and then had a computer problem, and didn’t have a chance to look at my eclipse photos, much less process them, until now. So here, finally, is a photograph showing an eclipse sequence.
I felt completely unprepared for this eclipse. I’ve never photographed a solar eclipse before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have a solar filter, and I wasn’t sure whether I could even photograph the eclipse without one. I’d read some dire warnings that photographing the eclipse without a solar filter could ruin your camera’s sensor, but this didn’t make sense to me. I’ve included the sun in hundreds of photographs and never had a problem. Exposures are short, and when the shutter is closed the light bounces off the camera’s mirror, up through the prism, and out through the back of the viewfinder. Staring through the viewfinder at the sun is not a good idea, just as it’s not a good idea to stare directly at the sun. But we have a natural defense mechanism for this known as pain: it hurts to look at the sun.
To add to my feeling of unpreparedness I planned to go to a place I’ve never visited before: Lassen National Park. Claudia and I weren’t able to leave until the morning of the eclipse, and didn’t actually arrive in Lassen until 4 p.m., while the eclipse was due to start at 5 p.m., with the peak at 6:30. I’d done some virtual scouting using The Photographer’s Ephemeris, and picked a couple of likely locations. Our friend Glenn Crosby was also able to help describe the terrain, as he had spent considerable time in the park. Based on this information I picked two possible spots: Manzanita Lake, and the Devastated Area.
We looked at Manzanita Lake first. It seemed like a good spot, but I wondered whether it might be better up the road. However a conversation with a ranger ruled that out: parking near the Devastated Area was full, and it sounded like there were a lot of trees blocking the view there anyway. We decided to stay put.
Next I needed to test whether I could actually photograph the non-eclipsed sun. If so, then I could try to capture a sequence of the sun going through the stages of the eclipse. If not, I would only be able to photograph the sun when it was fully eclipsed, or close to it. I put on all the neutral-density filters I owned: a four-stop plus an eight-stop variable. I set my camera’s fastest shutter speed (1/8000th of a second—I don’t think I’ve ever actually used this before!), an aperture of f/22, and made a test image. Perfect—no blinkies, and no flare. A sequence might work.
Then I tried to figure out what path the sun would take. Lacking the internet connection required by The Photographer’s Ephemeris, I used another iPhone app, Astromo, along with a compass app, made my best estimate of the sun’s path, and set up my camera and tripod to include this path and a bit of the lake below.
I set my interval timer, and auto-bracketed nine frames every five minutes. Yes, nine frames—how many eclipses will I get to photograph in my lifetime? I kept checking the exposures too, as the sun dimmed considerably when most of it was blocked by the moon.
My plan was to capture a sequence of the sun, then expose more frames of the overall scene at sunset, and blend all this together in Photoshop. The first part of the plan, the sun sequence, worked perfectly. But when the sun disappeared into the cloud bank I realized that I hadn’t framed the scene correctly to capture the sunset, so I moved the camera slightly. The purist in me would rather keep the camera locked down the whole time, but this photograph is obviously not a literal rendition of one moment in time, and I felt a little artistic license was acceptable. You can see the resulting composite at the top of this post.
In between checking exposures I took time to appreciate the event—and what an amazing event it was! It was eerie watching the light dim slowly well before sunset; it seemed like someone was pulling a curtain over the sun. As the eclipse neared its peak the shadows underneath the trees turned into crescents, and when the moon blocked all but the outer ring of the sun those shadows turned into circles. I didn’t have time to photograph that phenomenon, but Claudia captured some wonderful images of those shadows with her iPhone which you can see at the bottom of this post.
The eclipse gave me a new appreciation for our sun. What an incredibly hot and bright star it is! It’s so bright that we can’t look at it for more than a split second without blinding ourselves. And even though the sun is 93 million miles away—93 million!—we can feel it’s heat directly. How many times have I shivered through a sunrise and then, like a house cat, sought out the nearest patch of warm sunshine?
A total eclipse of the sun will be visible over a wide swath of the continental United States in August of 2017. Fred Espenak of NASA says that if you were to rank visual spectacles on a scale of one to ten a partial eclipse would be a five, an annular eclipse like the one that just occurred a nine, while a total solar eclipse would be a million. You can bet I’m already planning where to go for the 2017 eclipse.
I’ve seen many wonderful images of the annular eclipse already. Here are links to photographs by Jennifer Yu, Lewis Kemper, William Neill, and Eric Leslie. I’d love to see more, so if you captured some eclipse photos please post a link in the comments.
—Michael Frye
Related Posts: Lunar Rainbow Images, and the Upcoming Annular Eclipse; Eclipse
Self-portrait with crescent-shaped tree shadows during the eclipse, by Claudia Welsh
Self-portrait with ring-shaped tree shadows during the eclipse, by Claudia Welsh
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBooks Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, and Exposure for Outdoor Photography. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
Beautiful eclipse shot! And I am endlessly fascinated with the eclipse-shaped shadows the sun throws. I trekked all the way to Arizona, because I wanted to try to capture the eclipse over something ancient–I ended up at the Wukoki Pueblo in Wupatki National Monument north of Flagstaff, and this is how the eclipse looked from there: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinblackphotography/7246735298/in/photostream
Thanks very much Robin, and I love your image from Wupatki. I haven’t been there in at least 20 years, need to go back.
Michael,
Take a look at the SunSeeker app. In 3D view it shows the path of the sun overlayed on the screen showing the view from your phone. I believe this works using the GPS so you do not need to be connected to have it work.
Thanks for the tip Scott!
Nice sequence Michael! My kids had program at church, so I couldn’t photograph it. Somebody had some welding glasses, so we all got to view it though.
Thank you Mike, and I’m glad you got to see it if not photograph it.
I love the sequence Michael, that’s a great way to show the event. I was amazed at how bright the sun really was even when almost completely covered by the moon. I ended up on the western slope of Mt Shasta, trying to catch the eclipse above Black Butte. The clouds helped to reduce the contrast and I ended up with this blend of two exposures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imageskylejones/7241678190/
My close-up of the sun and clouds:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imageskylejones/7241678042/
And Mt. Shasta under the eerie light created by the eclipse:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imageskylejones/7303939042/
Thanks Kyle, and great job with your photos from Shasta. The clouds were a plus. I thought about going up there, even until the last minute, but decided it was too far.
Wonderful. Apparently practice makes you lucky, as Lee Trevino once observed.
😉
My favorite golfer when I was a kid, and you could count on him for a good line. 🙂
Michael, great shots and glad to see your weather luck was with you. I originally planned to go to Lassen myself but the 45% cloud cover forecast drove me and several others to Pyramid Lake, Nevada where there as about 12% cloud cover. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/steventheamusing/7243353356)
Also, I’ll take some of the credit for the “dire warnings” since you referenced my site in a prior article. You are correct in that the camera is relatively safe from harm when used as you did with ample dampening filtering on the front end, and short exposures. I had people asking me “can’t I use a Big Stopper to WATCH the sun that’s 10 stops” and that sort of talk scares me since tests show the Hitech Big Stopper passes a lot of IR. Enough to damage eyes in a relatively short time. There was also a large contingent of people with P&S cameras planning to do things like use binoculars ahead of the camera! I even posted a photo of what binoculars did to eclipse glasses in half a second to illustrate the point.
Anyway, glad you got a good result
Looking forward to what you do with the Transit of Venus, on June 5th.
Well Pyramid Lake was another spot I thought about going to… and another place I haven’t been to before. It worked well for you – very well done. I was a little concerned about forecasts for Lassen, but a detailed reading of the forecasts seemed to indicate that the clouds would be mostly to the north, and I figured some thin clouds would actually be a good thing, helping to dampen the brightness of the sun.
I doubt I’ll be photographing the transit of Venus, as I don’t have a long enough lens for that. Hope you catch it!
BTW, it looks like Rick Whitacre was near you:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricoshanchez/7247066148/in/photostream
Great post, Michael. Sonya and I drove to Nevada City but I didn’t even attempt to photograph the eclipse because I was afraid I’d not fully appreciate the experience. It looks like you were able to do both. August 21, 2017 is already in my calendar.
Gary, isn’t that always the dilemma? When we’re busy behind the camera we often miss the real experience. The intervals between exposures did allow me to appreciate this event more fully than some others, but operating the camera and thinking about how to avoid every potential pitfall did interfere with the experience a bit.
This is one of several I have posted to G+. https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109940597696193991152/albums/posts/5745397536869167618
I drove out to the Wind Farm in Roscoe, Texas. Just seconds after starting to go below the horizon the eclipse reached its peak.
Clark, the wind farm photo is great, well done.
I was going to head down that way for the eclipse (Mt. Shasta actually), but stayed in Southern Oregon instead. Here are some of my results:
http://traveljapanblog.com/ashland/tag/eclipse/
Like you, I didn’t use a filter (and my sensor has looked fine and functioned just fine since). I used 1/8000 for the first time as well.
Nice images Al. I did use 12 stops worth of ND filters, just not the specialized solar filter.
I did see that. I meant to say “a solar filter” but once it posted I couldn’t edit. I didn’t use any ND filters. I was at f/40 instead of f/22 though.
Thanks for the clarification!
Hi Michael,
Love that sequence and Claudia’s shadow shots are quite interesting too. Thanks for sharing the images.
Stewart
Thanks Stewart, and Claudia says thanks too. 🙂
What a wonderful article! You say you were unprepared, but it sounds to me like you had everything under control – I guess that comes with years of experience like you have.
A very interesting article, with lots of technical information (should one want to do something similar), as well as the more human, emotional side to it – a pleasure to read.
Claudia’s photos are absolutely wonderful too, a true Iphone artist! Needless to say, I don’t know where I’ll be in August 2017, but I’ll try to make it to the US to witness that solar eclipse.
Love your blogposts, please keep sharing
Chelin
Thanks very much Chelin – I’m glad you enjoyed this piece. Even though I’d never photographed a solar eclipse, my general photography experience, as well as experience photographing lunar eclipses, certainly helped. And Claudia says thanks too! 🙂
Fantastic image Michael. I’ve captured a partial one from Canyonlands, just have to blend the images. Did you do “traditional” blending for this (layers and masks) or just did a selection followed by copy/paste or something along those lines? I am thinking it will not be an easy blend because the individual images are so dark.
Thanks Alex. It’s easy to blend something like this in Photoshop. No layer masks are required – just change the blending mode for all but the bottom layer to Screen or Lighten.
Hi Michael, I agree with Chelin on this one. I really enjoy all the technical information you so freely hand out. Your aricles are pleasing to read and I’ve recently been listening to a couple of your vids. I must say even though I’ve studied a 3year degree in photography I’m learning tons from you! but that’s photography for you… forever changing! Anyway, Thanks so much for your awesome contribution to this world and grrrreat images! 😀
A.
Thanks very much Amber! I’m glad you’re learning something here. 🙂
Hi,
I really enjoyed taking a sequence of pictures from Bryce Canyon – and since I could just leave the timer on throughout, it was a great time to watch the eclipse too!
Unfortunately my Photoshop skills are lacking (as in it’s only my first time using the program…) which means that my composite still needs a bit of work, but I posted an early version at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pscherp/7305508548/
I did use a solar filter that I then took off after sunset; it actually produced a more orangish color that became yellow when brightened afterwards (I’ll need to fix that), but I like the color change at sunset which is real!
Peter, I’m glad you enjoyed your time at Bryce. As I said to Alex, blending a sequence like this in Photoshop is easy – you just change the blending mode for each layer except the bottom one to Screen or Lighten. I think your image turned out well; the biggest issue, as you point out, is the color of the suns, which can be fixed. Just lightening those layers would get you most of the way there, or you could try desaturating those layers also.
Thanks very much Michael for your encouragement and advice – and all the teaching you do on this blog! I’m trying to decide between keeping the orange color or switching to white for the suns, but otherwise the new version is going well (in the limited time I’ve had).
You’re welcome – good luck!
Hi Michael, Great post with both the technique and appreciation of the awe of the event. Our Annular Eclipse was accented with Old Faithful Geyser erupting just as the moon covered 71% (our peak coverage here) of the sun. I was fortunate to capture both phenomena here in Yellowstone; http://roberthowell.blogspot.com/
Thanks Robert, and I like your photo.
Wow, Michael! You did a wonderful job there on the capture and the composite! Love Claudia’s photographs of the shadows/projections too. Terrific post and I’m so glad you guys could get the whole thing. xxoo
Thanks Jen, and I love your sequence too!
Nice composite Michael and a nice story as well. I had also planned a sequence and actually planned for a time lapse video that all went down the drain, but I ended up with some very unique photos. You can see them here http://www.organiclightphoto.com/blog/index.php/2012/05/disappointment-deals-delight/
Thanks Youssef, and nice images!
Michael,
Love the composite photo and the great instruction. Could you explain how you did a 9 shot bracket every 5 minutes?
Thanks, Dave
Thanks Dave. If you have one of the more expensive Nikon cameras a nine-shot auto-bracket is easy, as that feature is built in. I have a Canon, so it’s a little more difficult. I set the auto-bracket to it’s maximum of three shots, at a three stop interval. After the first sequence I quickly change the shutter speed by one stop and fire off another three frames, then change the shutter speed again by one stop and fire off three more frames. That gives me nine exposures, each a stop apart. If the first sequence is (as in this case) 1/8000, 1/1000, and 1/125, the next will be 1/4000, 1/500, and 1/60, and the last sequence 1/2000, 1/250, and 1/30. So there’s a bit of manual operation involved, but it works.
Thanks Michael! I was also looking into Triggertrap to do bracketing of more than 3 shots on my Canon but it looks like it can only do exposures of at least 1 sec because it uses bulb mode.
Great read and awesome image, Michael! Even better, done without the “essential” solar filter…Your first time to Lassen?! Been there in 1992 – that brings back a lot of memories…
Thanks, Werner
Thanks Werner. I’m looking forward to visiting Lassen again. I only got to see a tiny part of it, but it looks like a great place and I’d like to see more.
Enjoyable read, with some good suggestions for the future, and I love the image…
Thx,
Thanks Robert!
The new 5D Mkiii allows more brackets. Mine is in the mail!
Yes, finally!
Michael,
I guess Lassen will be on your list now.
My husband & I went to Cedar Breaks (much less crowded than Bryce seemed it would be). I used an 8-stop vari-ND and a 4-stop ND Grad on top of that. Looking through eclipse glasses, the sun was orange, so when I saw a red sun/moon through my Live View, I thought that was it. I placed it in the upper left corner, but when I went to take another shot 5 minutes later, it was nowhere to be seen. I found it again, repeated the same thing. Twice. Then I noticed that it was a mirror image of what I saw through the eclipse glasses. Finally, post-totality, I realized (I’m pretty slow sometimes) that the obnoxious glare at the bottom was actually the sun. So I played with the gimbal to try to bring the images closer together. The eclipse pics are at the end of this album: https://picasaweb.google.com/100890052121509617133/EscalanteGrandStaircaseAndAnnularSolarEclipse?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Thanks for sharing your story Monika. I guess we all learned a lot from this experience, things that should help in 2017!
Hi Michael,
I photographed the eclipse from Mariposa so it was only partial. I used a Canon 70-300 DO zoom stopped down to f40 at a 1/4000 sec. Then I cropped a ton and processed in Lightroom 3 to how I thought it should look. The result is not really printable because of the considerable cropping, but is interesting on screen. Here is the image.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkhorner/7257360798/in/set-72157629883057786
Well that turned out pretty well Dan. There’s some flare, but it’s kind of interesting.
Hi Michael,
I scouted the Mt Shasta area for 2 days before finding this spot beneath the Castle Crags spires. My strategy: 5D II, 200mm, no filters, 7 shot auto bracket using Promote remote starting at 1/8000, Photomatix Pro.
http://sonlightphotography.zenfolio.com/p606015202/e217d3fdb
Castle Crags was a good idea – I didn’t think about that one. Nicely done.
Dear Michael,
Thanks for sharing your experience! It has been so much fun to read about everyone’s experiences and see their photos of the eclipse. For someone “unprepared” to shoot an eclipse, you did very well. It is so neat being able to see the progression of the eclipse. The shadows Claudia photographed are super neat too!
Thanks very much Vivienne. It’s been really interesting for me to see all the different “takes” on the eclipse too – lots of great images. And Claudia says she’s happy you like her shadow photographs. 🙂
Can you do this type of blending in photoshop elements also, and if so, are the steps the same?
Jeremy, yes, I believe you can do exactly the same thing in Elements.
I went out the evening of June 4th to experiment with the full moon rising over the horizon. Once I got home I was able to load and layer the images in elements. The process is very much the same as you’ve described for photoshop. The technique is wonderful! Thanks again for your help!
That’s an amazing eclipse shot. Wow.
I found this awesome article on how to photograph the lunar eclipse: http://www.nikonusa.com/Learn-And-Explore/Photography-Techniques/h1sctsrv/1/How-to-Photograph-a-Lunar-Eclipse.html
Thanks Brenda! And I wrote an article about how to photograph lunar eclipses also:
https://www.michaelfrye.com/2010/12/17/monday-night’s-lunar-eclipse/
Nice sequence, Michael. I tried my luck in Redding using the Sundial bridge as a foreground. As I was very close to the bridge, I had to use a wide lens which made the sun a bit too small.
http://blog.leu.org/2012/06/reddings-sundial-bridge-with-annular.html
Daniel, that issue – the size of the sun – is why I opted to use a relatively long lens (70mm) for this image from Manzanita Lake. But I like your sequence with the Sundial Bridge, despite the small size of the sun(s).
Would have loved to step back a bit to be able to use a longer lens. Still, even seeing the elipse happening was a great experience!
Very nice Michael!
That is like a time lapse, but in a pic.
How long an exposure did you use to achieve that “trail effect”?
I was at Sentinel Dome for the eclipse.
A ranger hiked to the summit and gave everyone eclipse glasses, which was a very nice gesture.
Although it was good to view the eclipse from that location, there was no dramatic UMPH for photography , or video, as the eclipse was only 75-80% from Yosemite.
I immediately changed to Plan B, found a vantage point facing east, and shot pics and vid of the changing light on Half Dome during the eclipse.
Always have to have a “Plan B” 🙂
Paolo
Paolo, yes it’s always good to have a plan B! The exposures for the sun were five minutes apart, so you can figure out the total length by multiplying the number of suns by five minutes.
I love the moon sequence photos. It looks like it was just an effect and not a physical phenomenon. Somehow, it looks cute.
Thanks Ashley! It’s actually a sun sequence – glad you like it.
Have you seen what Candidate Horn is doing? We need leadership in the New Hampshire GOP and not a Chicago-style politician. See the truth why we must not have her as a representative for the NHGOP! Anyone but Jennifer Horn!
Michael: Unfortunately your blog is not rejecting fairly obvious comment spam like “when to get a lawyer in a car accident” and “Kiley Papetti” above. You might consider restricting comments.
See my private pain with getting targeted by Chinese Comment Spam robots for one reason to lock your site down a little more. http://starcircleacademy.com/2013/05/chinese-robot-attack