Did anyone photograph the recent solar eclipse?

[Larry H-L]

Here in Ohio we were only able to see a "Pacman" bite out of the sun, but the annular eclipse occurred at sunrise which was interesting.

I was blocked by the tree line for most of the time, but I did get a few minutes to shoot.

Olympus Pen F digital, 45-200mm lens, at about 170mm equivalent focal length. That duck was swimming in that spot the entire time.

 

[Pál_K]

Very nice. Serene.

 

[jankap]

An excellent picture. Nice mood.
I completely forgot to try a picture.

 

[KoNickon]

Were you using a filter? I watched the eclipse through the special glasses and didn't bother trying a photo. There were maybe 40 other people watching as well, a few with cameras, but I don't know whether they were using filters at all. Would minimum aperture and very high shutter speed suffice?

 

[narsuitus]

Solar Eclipse 2021 by Narsuitus, on Flickr

Before sunrise, I tried to go to a lakeside park in Illinois to shoot the eclipse. However, the park was closed and the entrance was sealed by a locked gate. I then rushed to a lakeside park in Indiana where I tried to catch the eclipse at sunrise when the sun was near the horizon and the pier was in the foreground but the clouds on the horizon and the strong backlit lighting prevented it.

Instead, I had to shoot the eclipse and the pier separately. The exposure for the eclipse was ISO 100, 1/2000 second shutter speed, f/5.6 aperture. The exposure for the backlit pier was ISO 100, 1/2 second shutter speed, f/5.6 aperture.

The 10-stop difference in exposure between the foreground and background was too much for my Olympus micro 4/3 digital camera with adapted 400mm Nikon lens with 2 1/2 stop neutral density filter. I was forced to shoot the two scenes separately.

 

[Larry H-L]

Thanks for the kind words.

I used a 4-stop neutral density filter and ended up shoot at about f8. The fog and mist near the horizon really helped, minutes later it was much, much brighter and too contrasty to hold any foreground detail. I took along a 10-stop filter but didn’t end up using it.