Simple tips to safely photograph the eclipse with your cellphone

Up to date April 8, 2024 at 7:45 AM ET

In the event you plan to take a look at Monday’s complete photo voltaic eclipse and the one digicam you personal is one which doubles as a telephone, with just a little preparation (and precaution) you would possibly nonetheless be capable of get some comparatively good photographs.

“All of it depends upon how a lot effort one desires to place into it,” says Sean Walker, an affiliate editor with Sky & Telescope journal. For starters, you will must put on eclipse glasses or comparable protecting eye gear whereas aiming your digicam and even simply observing the eclipse.

Within the U.S., the trail of totality for one of the best views stretches from southern Texas, crossing by way of the South and Midwest and into the Northeast earlier than hitting Maine. However anybody within the continental U.S. can catch no less than a partial eclipse, climate allowing.

Don’t lookup — look down!

Will probably be doable to seize attention-grabbing photographs even for those who do not stay in, or journey to, that swath the place the moon will seem to almost completely cowl the solar. “In the event you’re inside a number of hundred miles of the trail of totality at most eclipse time,” Walker says, “the areas between leaves on timber and principally something that makes a pinhole will challenge a picture of the crescent solar on the bottom or on a wall … relying on how excessive the solar is on the time.”

That is a photograph that is “all straightforward peasy with a cellphone,” says John Meader, director of Northern Stars Planetarium and Academic Providers in Fairfield, Maine. An alternative choice is to shoot the atmosphere round you as it’s darkened because the eclipse reaches totality. “Perhaps a earlier than and through shot of the identical scene to seize the altering mild ranges,” he suggests.

Feeling extra bold? A tripod is a should

In the event you’re decided to take a direct picture of the eclipse, you will have a bit extra preparation.

The important thing to getting a superb picture is “a easy tripod that may maintain your cellphone secure so you possibly can take photos and never wiggle round throughout the totality,” Walker says.

Even so, hitting the shutter button by hand may trigger undesirable jiggle. To keep away from that, think about a Bluetooth set off. Or set the digicam to “timer mode,” giving it just a few seconds to settle earlier than it snaps the image.

Randall Benton, a contract photographer with a ardour for photo voltaic eclipses, says the opposite choice is to shoot video “simply because the solar goes darkish.” Though the standard of telephone video is not fairly pretty much as good as a nonetheless picture, you possibly can at all times extract a nonetheless from the video later, he says.

For finest outcomes, use your telephone’s guide settings

In the event you’ve by no means fiddled together with your digicam’s settings, now’s a superb time. You may wish to scale back the publicity, no less than throughout the partial eclipse section, and in addition to set focus to “infinity.” (This is entry guide controls for an iPhone or Android.) You probably have a second pair of photo voltaic eclipse glasses, you should utilize them as a filter to cowl the digicam lens in your telephone, Benton says. It can shield your telephone’s digicam from doable harm from lengthy publicity to direct daylight and provide you with a extra dramatic shot.

“You wish to hold these photo voltaic glasses as shut towards the lens as doable, as a result of most of [them] have a mirror floor on either side,” he explains. If any mild leaks in from the edges, “it may well replicate off of the again facet of the filter and create glare or humorous reflections that may spoil the picture.”

In the event you’re within the path of totality, remember to take away the filter when the magic second arrives. “Attempt to zoom in, since you’re not going to harm your eyes taking a look at totality. It is solely when the disk of the solar is seen that you just actually should not be taking a look at it instantly with out filtration,” Meader says.

In fact, you might at all times go away the pictures to the professionals, stay within the second and take within the celestial present.

“Whereas it is nice to take your individual photographs, if that is your first eclipse, actually benefit from the expertise,” Walker says. “When [you] truly expertise totality, your thoughts has a tough time wrapping round that. … It is simply an incredible expertise.”

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