Simple tips to safely photograph the eclipse with your cellphone

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

In case 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 a little bit preparation (and precaution) you would possibly nonetheless be capable of get some comparatively good photographs.

“All of it is determined by 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 related protecting eye gear whereas aiming your digicam and even simply observing the eclipse.

Within the U.S., the trail of totality for the very best views stretches from southern Texas, crossing via the South and Midwest and into the Northeast earlier than hitting Maine. However anybody within the continental U.S. can catch at the very least a partial eclipse, climate allowing.

Don’t search for — look down!

It will likely be attainable to seize fascinating photographs even in the event you do not stay in, or journey to, that swath the place the moon will seem to almost completely cowl the solar. “In case 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 mainly something that makes a pinhole will undertaking 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 Instructional Companies in Fairfield, Maine. Another choice is to shoot the surroundings round you as it’s darkened because the eclipse reaches totality. “Possibly a earlier than and through shot of the identical scene to seize the altering gentle ranges,” he suggests.

Feeling extra formidable? A tripod is a should

In case you’re decided to take a direct photograph of the eclipse, you have to a bit extra preparation.

The important thing to getting a very good photograph is “a easy tripod that can maintain your cellphone steady so you may take footage and never wiggle round throughout the totality,” Walker says.

Even so, hitting the shutter button by hand might 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 possibility is to shoot video “simply because the solar goes darkish.” Though the standard of telephone video is not fairly nearly as good as a nonetheless picture, you may at all times extract a nonetheless from the video later, he says.

For finest outcomes, use your telephone’s guide settings

In case you’ve by no means fiddled along with your digicam’s settings, now’s a very good time. You may need to scale back the publicity, at the very least throughout the partial eclipse section, and in addition to set focus to “infinity.” (This is methods to entry guide controls for an iPhone or Android.) When you 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 is going to defend your telephone’s digicam from attainable injury from lengthy publicity to direct daylight and offer you a extra dramatic shot.

“You need to preserve these photo voltaic glasses as shut in opposition to the lens as attainable, as a result of most of [them] have a mirror floor on either side,” he explains. If any gentle leaks in from the edges, “it could mirror off of the again facet of the filter and create glare or humorous reflections that may spoil the picture.”

In case 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 straight with out filtration,” Meader says.

After all, you could possibly at all times go away the images to the professionals, stay within the second and take within the celestial present.

“Whereas it is nice to take your personal pictures, 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 a tremendous expertise.”

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