How to expose for eclipse AND subject?

[wtburton]

Hi guys, I shoot film mainly but I will be doing a digital backup just in case too.

I plan on shooting harman phoenix and ektachrome 100 during the solar eclipse to capture a photo of an old building and the eclipse in the same photo. But I want to know, what exposure should I even use? this will be during totality, and I do not have a light meter. I will bracket extremely. I am thinking, maybe doing F3.5 at 1/30 as the baseline exposure, then one F3.5 1/15, then F8, 1/4, I am trying to expose for a building wall but also get the eclipse included.

 

[Steven Lee]

I do not have a light meter.

Two responses from me to that line:

1. Get one. Using a message board as a light meter will not work.
2. You said you will be doing a digital backup just in case. All digital cameras have light meters, in fact a digital camera is the best possible light meter. Far more advanced that any Sekonic. Use that.

 

[wtburton]

Two responses from me to that line:

1. Get one. Using a message board as a light meter will not work.
2. You said you will be doing a digital backup just in case. All digital cameras have light meters, in fact a digital camera is the best possible light meter. Far more advanced that any Sekonic. Use that.

I did some research and they said around 5 lux or civil twilight , or a 360 degree sunset, or not dark enough to not need a flashlight, but dark enough to see the stars. I know ill take a reading asap, but just so I can be prepared, Am I looking at non handheld exposure values, such a multi second exposure? because I will need a tripod in case. What do you think?

 

[koraks]

a multi second exposure?

Seems to me this precludes much bracketing during a total eclipse. How long does totality last anyway? 20 seconds?

 

[xkaes]

It's more like four minutes, but it depends on how far you are off-axis. For those at the edge it will be one second.

 

[koraks]

Yeah, makes sense. Silly me.

 

[xkaes]

Bracketing is your best bet. Why? Because if you use a meter reading, a mid-tone will appear as a mid-tone, not dark -- as it should. A meter (hand-held or in-camera) would give you a place to start, but then you need to start stopping down -- so that your pictures will be darker, and a mid-tone will appear darker.

If you take a picture of a gray card just after sunset, what should the photo look like? How dark? It should not look like a gray card.

 

[BrianShaw]

Fill flash, perhaps?

 

[reddesert]

Keep in mind that the image of the sun on film is going to be very small unless you use a long lens.

Because you are unlikely to get much detail in the sun, eclipsed or not, you should probably expose for the foreground and let the sun fall where it may. In other words, you aren't trying to get a detailed picture of Bailey's Beads, you are possibly getting a tiny sliver of crescent sun that will be overexposed just like the sun is normally overexposed, likely pictorially acceptable.

You can go out the twilight before and take some readings to try to figure out how much of an exposure you'll need in twilight. Yes you're going to need a tripod! It's dark!

Don't set off a fill flash during a total eclipse unless you want to make everyone around you unhappy.

 

[md_photo]

Re: light meter. If you can't get one in time for the eclipse, download a light meter app to your phone

 

[Pieter12]

Fill flash.