Eclipse on film?

ChrisR

ChrisR

I'm a well known grump...
Suspended / Banned
Messages
11,730
Name
Chris
Edit My Images
Yes
So, I've seen some of the threads on the eclipse, all fancy filters and so on. I more or less ignored them because, obviously, it was going to be cloudy. But apparently, it might not be cloudy here in Kenilworth. It turns out that the eclipse will be above and to the side of Kenilworth Castle, if taken from the field behind. Obviously, I haven't bought any fancy filters(*), so how unsafe would it be to point my little CL at the castle and sun (with the lens cap on), just aiming by eyesight rather than the viewfinder, then take the lens cap off and take a shot?

* I do have a 3-stop ND in 49mm, and a new stop-up ring.
 
Im toying with having a go with my tlr, worth a try, i'll hold 2x 10 stop filters in front too.
 
Well I used a bowl of water last time, maybe you could photograph that?
 
I dunno what all this don't look at the sun crap is all about, I mean, how much brighter can the sun be when most of its covered by the bladdy moon..

what we all gonna get...arc eye or something, will we be solar irradiated and swamped with triffids...I dunno

The picture, well...as long as you have a fast enough shutter I don't seen anything other than a straight shot of the castle with the eclipse in the bg, the castle will be silhouette probably, if you want detail in it, use a grad, for an unusual surreal eeeeenormous eclipse/castle shot, shoot telephoto, can't advocate staring at the sun for too long through that though..:D
 
joxby said:
I dunno what all this don't look at the sun crap is all about, I mean, how much brighter can the sun be when most of its covered by the bladdy moon..

what we all gonna get...arc eye or something, will we be solar irradiated and swamped with triffids...I dunno

The picture, well...as long as you have a fast enough shutter I don't seen anything other than a straight shot of the castle with the eclipse in the bg, the castle will be silhouette probably, if you want detail in it, use a grad, for an unusual surreal eeeeenormous eclipse/castle shot, shoot telephoto, can't advocate staring at the sun for too long through that though..:D
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that this is a tongue-in-cheek comment.

I don't really think any of us should be giving casual advice about photographing eclipses unless we are actually well informed in this regard, as there is a serious risk of eye damage if things aren't handled properly.

It is extremely dangerous to look at the sun during a solar eclipse. To my knowledge, it's not that the sun is brighter during an eclipse, but, because it's dark while the moon obscures the sun, our pupils dilate to bring in more light. When the sun starts popping back into view and your pupils are dilated... Well... your retinas will be in trouble. Think of a wide open lens and serious overexposure.

I also think that neutral density filters are pretty worthless as well if you want to view the eclipse yourself through your camera, as they don't block infrared light. At any rate, be careful and do some real research beforehand if you decide to give it a shot.
 
Last edited:
Forecast has gone from being sunny to being sunny intervals. TPE suggests the moon's elevation at the site should be 28%; the angle of view on the M-Rokkor 40mm is 57 degrees, so if the camera's level it's going to pretty much out of shot even in portrait mode. The plan, if I actually get to try it, would be to aim the camera without looking through it; a ND on the lens doesn't work if you're looking through a separate viewfinder!

I suppose maybe I could stick a 28mm lens on the Pentax and try that with a 3-stop and a yellow or orange... Dunno, this is all a bit scary! Odd though, as we often see "straight into the sun" shots on here!
 
Your pupils are dilated to take in more light, because it's dark during an eclipse.....like during the night. Then if you suddenly look at a bright object, your pupils don't have time to contract quickly enough. Yes, your pupils do contract quickly, but it only takes a millisecond for damage. It's like when you turn on a bright light in the middle of the night, but more concentrated.
 
No sign of any shadows at the moment, it's that hazy and cloudy!
 
It was quite clear in Liverpool until about 5 minutes ago. Having one linear and one circular polarising filter produces no darkening effect, no matter how much rotation one is given. Two linear polarisers do darken sufficiently to view the sun. That has rather limited me to my Olympus OM1 with a 50mm lens, as the only two linear filters I have are 49mm thread and the only Olympus lenses I have are 50mm and 28mm.

It doesn't matter now, as the clouds have now covered the sun.
 
Well Northants here and sun has been out for an hour still out but it's got dark ish.. Almost like it wants to chuck it down with a sun
 
Yeah its just got dark up here, feels like its about to be heavy rain though it was nice and clear until 20 minutes ago.
 
The sun did come out for the 20 minutes before, enough to use a pinhole in cardboard to view the projected image, but I decided not to try a rushed job at actually taking an image on a camera. Annoyingly, I couldn't find the pinhole I bought for the Pentax, so had to make some in a piece of card! Quite weird light at maximum, although it had got cloudy again just before.
 
Managed to swing the roll run during the best of it, thick cloud gave a surprisingly good view and when it broke there was a very odd quality to the light. Did you get any where Chris?

Thinking about it, it was probably like a sunset odds are you'd get a better picture turned 180 to the event. The TV and astro folk will get a better picture of the event than I ever will.
 
Last edited:
A large part of the reason I didn't go out was that I couldn't work out how to get a picture of the sun during the eclipse in a landscape context (eg the castle) that made sense. I reckon you'd have needed a 28mm lens (or similar), and the sun would have been too small in the frame to be an interesting object... but no doubt we'll have plenty of pics later on other threads, and I'll happily be proved wrong!

If you got any shots at all, Steven, I'll be very interested!
 
Nah, nothing at all interesting, stuck on a industrial estate and nothing I could think off once I realised there might be an opportunity. The shot I should have taken was the car park full of folk trying their best to be an extra in a Trifids movie.
 
I've been too busy playing with matches and paying tax today to shoot eclipses...:(
 
Yv said:
What eclipse? Here in London it started overcast and miserable, stayed pretty much the same way until about 11am, when the cloud started to clear and by lunchtime was clear blue skies, which stayed all day :banghead:
Click to expand...

Same in Bracknell yesterday. It got slightly more grey around 9am but it's difficult to tell if that was an eclipse or the fact that we were in Bracknell.
 
Strappy said:
Same in Bracknell yesterday. It got slightly more grey around 9am but it's difficult to tell if that was an eclipse or the fact that we were in Bracknell.
Click to expand...

Bracknell does indeed have that effect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top