shooting the eclipse tonight

[Keebler]

Hi folks,

Any particular settings I need to know to snap a good pic of the eclipse tonight?
I have a Pentax K100D; tripod; remote control.

every time i've tried to shoot the moon, i've blown the opportunity.

The K100 does have a night setting on it.

My goal is to snap a simple photo....nothing with trailing stars etc.. (although that could be neat too).

Cheers,
Keebler

 

[Whorehay]

Don't overexpose. I would use the Sunny 16 rule and base your exposure more or less on that. (At F/16, your shutter speed will be your ISO. So at ISO 100, F/16, you should use 1/100).

 

[juanm]

(Copied from my post in another thread)

- You'll want a 300mm at least for a DX sized sensor. (I don't know about the K100)

- If you have it, use the spot metering, and, eventually try overexposing ~2/3 stop. If not, take a regular sunlight exposure as a base, do a small bracketing, and choose the best one. It'll work until the actual eclipse starts.

- People, this is an eclipse! ECLIPSE=LESS LIGHT! During the eclipse, the exposure gets MUCH longer, so you'll need a tripod as soon as the moon gets red.

- Since it's not regular daylight once the eclipse starts, shoot in RAW if you can, to be able to change the WB later.

- Since you'll need zooming at 100%, keep the ISO low.

- Don't expect marvels. At best, with a sharp lens, you'll get something big enough to fill half a laptop screen when seen at 100%

 

[emw]

I was hoping to get out with my telescope and get some decent shots tonight, but it's going to be pretty cold.

I've managed to get some good shots of the moon before through the 'scope, but this would be something special. The requirements of shooting with a telescope are a little different, and to be honest I'm no expert, but we'll see what happens.

 

[::Lisa::]

Some people swear by this.. Moon exposure calculator

 

[bootedbear]

Some people swear by this.. Moon exposure calculator

Hmmm

Shutter Speed = NaN of a second

A bit of a JavaScript issue there.

 

[law guy]

Hmmm

A bit of a JavaScript issue there.

I got that too odd error to and then I tried moving the moon phase around and it fixed itself when I came back to full moon.

Lisa - very helpful, thanks. I was exposing longer earlier this evening and catching some wonderful moon through the bare oak branch-type frames. For those the Moon had to be brought down a bit in Lightroom. With those exposure times at ISO 200 from the calculator, I won't even need to rely on IS. Now hopefully our more or less clear skies will hold.

 

[Keebler]

thanks for all the suggestions. i've got one 'ok' picture so far.
i'm still learning everything, but trying

 

[Over Achiever]

I'm just taking lots of pictures at exposures that seem right ... I'm sure one (or a couple of them) will turn out fine. Good luck!

 

[Father Jack]

Beware overexposure !!

Overexposure is very common mistake made by inexperienced photographers shooting at night.

 

[iBallz]

I got a well exposed shot, but the clouds made it blurry.

 

[Over Achiever]

I have a decent shot, composed it with Saturn and Regulus in the frame, but unfortunately I have a "point-and-shoot" Fuji S6000fd so it didn't come out very nicely. Had to use ISO400, 1/3s, f/5.6. I'll see if I can upload it, but it's the best I could do, I'm looking through the other 30 I shot.

 

[iBallz]