14/08/2026
Yes, I also got a close-up! âșïž
Getting a basic photo of the eclipse is actually not that hard (doing it perfect is another story).
I did get a ton of questions about filters etc. Let my try to answer to the best of my limited knowledge of stellar photography and my experience shooting this one.
1. YES, yeah need a (10 stop) solar filter if you are going to use a telelens!!! Zooming into the sun will burn your sensor to smithereens.
2. Shortly before totality you take the filter off, shoot the diamond and eclipse without and put the filter back right after the second diamond. You need to practice this, as the eclipse goes fast!
3. However, with the sun quite low on the horizon for this one I expected the filter was gonna be way too strong. And I was right about that. It was more like shooting a sunset. I took the filter off earlier as it was impossible for me to shoot handheld at a decent shutter speed with a telelens combo.
4.. That said, shoot on tripod as much as you can. I had one remote setup on tripod (photos still to be edited) but the other camera I wanted to cover multiple angles so tripod out of the question - handheld it was. A little tricky but without the solar filter I had much more room to manoeuvre since I could use higher shutter speeds, even in the low light of the eclipse.
5. Plan ahead with apps like sun tracker if you are going to use anything in the foreground. The August 2nd eclipse next year will be at roughly 10am UTC so still low enough for some crazy images.
6. If youâre an experienced photographer: go with your gut. A lot of technical photo info online I found to be too wide ranging in settings to be very useful. Just realize, before eclipse the sun will be too bright to shoot without filter (unless using wide angle), during the eclipse itâs actually not too hard to get amazing photos. Anything 400mm and up is great.
7. Try to find a moment to simply enjoy. This one was only about 60 seconds and things were hectic. However, next years will be more than 6 minutes. Going from 99,9% to full eclipse is something else. The two donât even compare. Itâs out of this world!
