How to take professional solar eclipse photos with your phone

Millions of people who will see Monday’s solar eclipse will likely want to capture the rare moment when the moon blocks the face of the sun with their smartphones.

Fortunately, capturing a good image of the solar eclipse doesn’t require professional-level equipment, although that would certainly help.

Professional photographers have shared tips on how to take quality photos, including keeping your camera steady with a tripod, filtering light with eclipse glasses, and switching the camera to manual focus mode.

People take selfies while watching and photographing a total solar eclipse in Mazatlan, Mexico, Monday, April 8, 2024. They put a filter on their camera that points at the sky.

Whether you have a good camera or just a phone, you can set it up to take a photo of the solar eclipse, said photographer Stan Honda.

“You can get a good view of the solar eclipse with almost any camera or lens,” he said CNN.

“I would only recommend a reasonably sturdy tripod so that your setup is quite stable, and a remote shutter release as it allows you to take the photos without shaking or moving the camera too much,” Honda added.

Just as your eyes need to be protected from the sun’s harmful rays during the solar eclipse, so should your camera.

“The phone sensor, like any other image sensor, can be damaged if pointed directly at the sun,” NASA officials wrote in a message. message on X. “This is especially true if you use a magnifying lens attachment on the phone.”

That is why a filter is necessary.

As for the eyes, the only glasses you should use to catch a glimpse of the celestial phenomenon are glasses that meet the international standard ISO 12312-2, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA).

And your camera lens must also be protected with a filter that meets the same standard.

You could just hold or tape a good pair of eclipse glasses over it.

‘A safe solar filter is really a necessity for the part phases, and the American Astronomical Society has one whole section on its website about eclipse glasses and filters that they approve as safe to use,” Honda said.

Chris Belkosky shows the setup of his Dobsonian telescope, before the start of a total solar eclipse, in Kingston, Ontario, Monday, April 8, 2024.

Amos Yew (R) uses a lens on an iPhone with protective sunglasses over the lens to record video of the early stages of the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 in Madras, Oregon.

Kayla Ketz, left, uses eclipse glasses to photograph the solar eclipse with a smartphone as colleagues Joe Belovich and Nancy Dyer watch in Boston’s Seaport District on Monday, August 21, 2017.

Because phones can amplify the light, it is still not safe to view the solar eclipse through a phone camera.

And unfiltered photos can damage the camera lens.

Placing a filter over the lens cuts out most of the light, Honda said.

He also recommended putting a camera in manual focus mode.

“The automatic settings just don’t work with the filter on because most of the image will be black, making it look like you’re taking a photo at night,” he said.

‘Manual focusing would also be a big help: you can automatically focus on the sun, but then you have to turn off the autofocus so that your camera doesn’t try to keep focusing through the filter. It’s so dark that he’s fooled by the darkness and can’t focus.”

Women wearing sunglasses watch a partial solar eclipse via a smartphone camera in Ankara, on October 25, 2022.

People use a smartphone to watch a rare ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse in Beijing on December 26, 2019. A filter can be seen covering the phone’s camera lens.

For people on the path of totality, Honda has specific advice.

It’s crucial to remove the filter from the camera lens at this point, otherwise you won’t be able to see the light coming out around the edges of the moon.

“When you take the filter off, you have to increase the exposure quite a bit, because the corona itself is quite dim, about the brightness of a full moon, so compared to the brightness of the sun, that’s a pretty big difference,” Honda said.

“Keep the shutter speed and ISO consistent and just slow down the shutter speed, as that will give you more and more exposure as you increase the shutter speed, and you will see more and more of the corona on each frame.”