Solar Eclipse Photography

I was thinking about doing a composite, but I only stayed about 1/2 an hour after the total. I figured I would just rotate the earlier images.

 

Now that would be cheating!

 

Vic

I prefer to think of it as creative traffic avoidance. ;)

Dave

I just love your composite! How did you do it, if you don't mind my asking.

I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 images as the moon progressed towards totality and stripped the filter off just as the corona appeared. From those I chose the six that represented the progression and aligned them to a diagonal guide line I drew as seen on the left. I then took the full disc from the start and aligned six copies on the right. I copied the six on the right, merged them, set transparency to 50% and flipped them to the right side to use as a positioning and appearance template. Next I masked the center of the corona image and dragged the mask to each full disc on the right, cutting it to match the template layer. After deleting the template, I used the blur tool to clean the cut edges slightly to match the originals on the left. If you are wondering why I didn't just copy and flip, it's because sunspots were clearly visible and having them reversed on the other side would have bothered me in some (probably minor OCD) way.

Vic: Composite away, This is an "art" form after all! :)

Dave

I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 images as the moon progressed towards totality and stripped the filter off just as the corona appeared. From those I chose the six that represented the progression and aligned them to a diagonal guide line I drew as seen on the left. I then took the full disc from the start and aligned six copies on the right. I copied the six on the right, merged them, set transparency to 50% and flipped them to the right side to use as a positioning and appearance template. Next I masked the center of the corona image and dragged the mask to each full disc on the right, cutting it to match the template layer. After deleting the template, I used the blur tool to clean the cut edges slightly to match the originals on the left. If you are wondering why I didn't just copy and flip, it's because sunspots were clearly visible and having them reversed on the other side would have bothered me in some (probably minor OCD) way.

 

Vic: Composite away, This is an "art" form after all! :)

 

Dave

Thanks for taking the time to explain it.

Love the composite. Sounds a little complicated.

Allan

As an astronomy AND a photography geek, this is my favorite pic found on the internet so far:

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/36670875426_39d028e28a_o.jpg

ISS transit across a partially eclipsed sun. I included the link, because the detail in the space station is remarkable when zoomed in on.

(Not to take away from all the really fantastic photographs you all have taken and shared)

I prefer to think of it as creative traffic avoidance. ;)

 

Dave

It certainly worked for me, I hit one backed up area and found a good way around it. The afternoon traffic looked awful!

I saw one of those NASA pictures of the space station during the eclipse, wow!

Vic

That is a really great shot.

Allan

I finally made my composites.

Sent from Middle Earth.

Looks like our little group fared better than some...

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2017/09/03/melted-sensors-apertures-and-more-lensrentals-shows-off-some-eclipse-damage

WARNING! Graphic damage photos involving expensive camera equipment may be disturbing to some.

Dave

Looks like our little group fared better than some...

 

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2017/09/03/melted-sensors-apertures-and-more-lensrentals-shows-off-some-eclipse-damage

 

WARNING! Graphic damage photos involving expensive camera equipment may be disturbing to some.

 

Dave

My son decided he did not need the solar filter on the end of his lens (Sigma 150-500). Instead, he put it in the small insertable filter toward the mount end. He used that lens for less than a minute and had a dark spot in his vision, when we pulled out the film, it had large holes burned through it. I'll get the picture to post.

Lens is fine, his eye was normal vision the next day.