Solar eclipse picture help

[madgardener]

For those in the US and Canada, we will be treated to a solar eclipse tomorrow. The East Coast will be seeing about 86% coverage according to the reports that I've seen. I want to get some pictures and need some advice. What kind of film should I use? Right now my stock is rather limited, but here is what I have. Black and white: HP5+, Legacy Pro 100 and 400, and I think I have some Arista premium 100 as well. For color (print) I have Kodak Max 400, Fuji Reala 100 (1 roll), some Fuji press 800, Fuji 400, and 2-3 rolls 0f fuji 200. For slide film, I have Provia 100,velvia 50,Kodak Elite Chrome 100 and 400. Generally speaking I buy film when I see a good price and freeze it, and over the last couple years have found myself slowly moving into the positive film camp. because I like the colors and quality of pictures better. None of this film is new, but it has been in my deep freezer, which so far has kept the film pretty well.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AFenvy]

Just to get exposure on the sun, you're going to need your slowest film and at least an ND 5.0 filter, combined with your longest focal length lens which would hopefully stop down to F32. The sun is ridiculously bright, of course. Good luck!

 

[cliveh]

You may get a better answer by posting your question on an astronomer’s forum, but photographing a projection of the eclipse from a filtered telescope may give you a better image.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Do not put your eye on the view finder, especially is you are using a SLR! Project the image on a white piece of paper or cardboard. Also see: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-solar-eclipse-warning-20120518,0,6992810.story

 

[markbarendt]

Depends on what you are after.

From "sunny 16" stopping down more will get you more detail closer to the sun's dsc. A longer lens will get you more detail too.

I would suggest some bracketing, planned exposure plus 2-3 stops in both directions.

Personally, my plan is to go to Chaco Canyon for the shot and there's no point in me making that trip unless the foreground was important. I also, with regard to the eclipse itself, care only about the essence of the event, not the detail, so I'll be setting exposure to get nice foreground detail at the expense of sun detail.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

The East Coast will be seeing about 86% coverage according to the reports that I've seen.

Note that it STARTS at about 5:25PM West Coast time; sunset in Rochester (where I live) is about 8:30 EDT, so the sun will have set before the event starts.

......
Edit:

This: http://hindupad.com/solareclipse-lunareclipse/solar-eclipse-in-usa-on-may-20-2012-usa-surya-grahan/ gives local time information around the US so maybe there will be a very small effect in Rochester

 

[Leigh B]

This is an annular eclipse, meaning that the sun disk is not fully covered by the lunar disk.
Consequently you won't get any corona on your image, and should not attempt to expose for same.

Over the past 40+ years my wife has observed and photographed every total solar eclipse that was visible from anywhere in the world,
so I'm inclined to acknowledge her expertise in this area. Her recommendations are as follows:

"Fred Espenak is THE expert on eclipses. Here is link to an exposure guide on his website

http://www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/image/SE-Exposure1w.GIF

For an annular, use ONLY the partial eclipse settings - the filter must remain on at all times.
Most solar filters are 5.0 ND - safe for visual use as well as photography.
Some are 4.0 ND - OK to use with a camera because you can use a faster shutter speed, but NOT OK for visual

Here is the exposure guide from NASA's web page for this eclipse

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/reference/SEphoto-table.pdf "

- Leigh

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I'm south of San Antonio, TX. From what I've read the sun will be behind the trees before the eclipse begins here just minutes before sunset. It might make for an interesting sunset color in the sky but nothing more spectacular here.

 

[bsdunek]

I have used a arc welding face mask glass in front of the lens. Works quite well. You can buy one at any welding supply. Just get the replacement glass. Using a 300-500mm telephoto on a 35mm camera works well.
Wether you look through the camera or not, don't point it at the sun with out this filtration. My Brother once burned a pretty little hole in Dad's Leica shutter that way. Dad wasn't happy!